300 Reconstructing, Reimagining: 1865–1900Dooley pieces appeared between 1893 and 1900 in Chicago newspapers. In these,
Dooley came across to the reader as a man of shrewd native wit, and the place where
he lived became a solidly realized social fabric. Dooley himself rarely, if ever,
descends into the caricature of a stage Irishman: his fatalism, his dark side that
views the world as irredeemably fallen (something he shared with his creator), as
well as the sheer energy of his speech, prevent that. And Bridgeport itself never
becomes mere background or local color. It is rich with life and a sense of urban
neighborliness, a genuinely working-class, ethnic community. The range of subject
and tone in the Chicago pieces is impressive. Dooley talks eloquently and elegiacally
of his passage to America (“The Wanderers” (1895)); he offers comic accounts of
the clash between the old and the new in Irish-American culture (“The Piano in the
Parlor” (1895)). He also comments, with wry humor, on public events. And it was
his satirical observations on the Spanish–American War – a “splendid little war,” he
ironically called it – that brought him to national attention. Following this, in 1900,
Dunne moved to New York, where Dooley quickly became the most popular figure
in American journalism. The satirical bent became stronger, as Dooley’s inherently
skeptical mind addressed the notable events of the day. In response to proposals to
restrict immigration, for example, Dooley declared that, “as a pilgrim father that
missed th’ first boats,” he had to raise his “claryon voice against th’ invasion iv this
fair land be th’ paupers an’ annychists iv effete Europe.” “You bet I must –,” he added,
“because I’m here first.” American foreign policy Dooley defined as “Hands acrost
th’sea an’ into somewan else’s pocket.” The majority of the law he described in these
terms: “America follows th’flag, but th’ Supreme Court follows th’illiction returns.”
The Dooley pieces were published as a series: Mr. Dooley in Peace and War (1898)
was the first, Mr. Dooley on Making a Will (1919) the last. Together, they represent
not just a major contribution to realism and the vernacular in literature, but the
voice of yet another America.
The dilemma that the newer immigrant communities faced, over whether to
assimilate or resist assimilation to the norms of the dominant American culture, lies
at the heart of the writings of Abraham Cahan (1860–1951). Having emigrated to
the United States from Russia, Cahan founded the Jewish Daily Forward, which
became a mass circulation market leader in the Yiddish press. His first novel, Yekl,
a Tale of the New York Ghetto (1896), won him national prominence and the support
of William Dean Howells. It tells the story of an immigrant who transforms himself
from “Yekl” to “Jake,” compromising his religion and traditions, his dress and behav-
ior, so as to become an “American.” Three years after his arrival in the New World,
his wife Gitl follows him. On first seeing her at the Immigration Bureau of Ellis
Island, Jake feels himself ashamed of her “uncouth and un-American appearance.”
A “bonnetless, wigged, dowdyish little greenhorn,” she looks like “a squaw,” he thinks,
and dresses “like an Italian woman.” Such allusions to other “un-American” cultures
slyly spreads the frame of reference here. “Jake the Yankee,” as our hero describes
himself, is now part of the mainstream; he does not wish to be associated with any
kind of marginalized culture. Eventually, Jake leaves Gitl for an Americanized Jewish
woman called Mamie. The novel ends with Jake, now divorced, setting off to remarry.GGray_c03.indd 300ray_c 03 .indd 300 8 8/1/2011 7:54:25 AM/ 1 / 2011 7 : 54 : 25 AM