Crossing Delancey by Susan Sandler - Essay Example

Essay, English Topic: Crossing Delancey by Susan Sandler Introduction and thesis: “Crossing Delancey” describes and defends the old-world charm. It first opens in New York City in April 1985. Going by the standards and speed with which America is journeying on the tracks by adopting the modern materialistic civilization, it is supposed to be the most back-ward looking decade. It is a period of social upheavals, in which the old and new societal values confront each other. Some such values are-- old ways and practices are the best ways, baby boomers are foolish to try to live lives of their own choice different from their parents and women in particular are misguided to think that self-satisfaction is more important than marriage and family. The societal values are beating the retreat but that viewpoint is liable to be challenged. The characters of the play move on the path that has been prescribed for them, and speak on the dotted lines. The factual message that remains embedded in this absorbing and romantic comedy is an emphatically old-fashioned idea. The real need of a nice-Jewish girl is to be happy with a nice-boy from the old neighborhood! The viewer, for the duration of the play, thinks that he is being transported from the modern age to the middle age! That journey, however, is not the unpleasant one, and the recollection of the old world values is thoroughly enjoyable. Izzy—Isabelle Grossman Isabelle Grossman, who lives alone, thinks that she is in love with an egoistic WASP novelist, believing in some fanciful ideas about life which she herself is not sure. She eventually finds true happiness with her Bubbie and marriage broker fixes her up with a traditional and nice Jewish boy from the old neighborhood. He is a humble guy, deeply religious and tradition-loving and visits shul every day and happy to make his living selling pickles at the company he inherits from his father. Izzy is not carrier-crazed yuppie, but her imaginings are strong and heady and she daydreams a lot for her own good and has her definitions about the concept of wellness. She is a perfect granddaughter. She is not ultra-modern in her attitudes and does not like to be called an old-fashioned individual. Her career has something to do with her intellectual maturity. She works in a New York bookshop and she gets acquainted with many intellectuals there of both the sexes and such encounters keep her inspired. In her effort to escape from the net in the form of Sam carefully woven for her by her grandmother, she fixes Sam up with her best friend Ricky. This stop-gap arrangement does not succeed and she gradually is impacted by the qualities of head and heart of Sam and begins to spend more time with him. She is initially irritated with the surprise appointment with a matchmaker and tells him in a tone or rebuking, “Excuse me, but I do not know what you think you’re doing.” Izzy visits her grandmother every weekend, for a practical view of the first generation Jewish lifestyles of her grandmother and is deeply impacted by it. Bubbie, The response of Izzy’s grandmother, to Izzy’s galaxy of intellectual friends is not enthusiastic, and she is a bit worried, whether she will be trapped into making the wrong choice of her life-partner. She is deeply committed to Jewish traditions and would like to find a suitable match for from her own community. She seeks the services of a Jewish matchmaker for the purpose in view and succeeds in her endeavors. Enter Sam, in the life of Izzy, only to be cold-shouldered initially. His pickle-making profession does not certainly inspire her. (She will be known as the wife of the pickle-maker and a modern girl does not like that to happen!) Things shape well later, though Izzy is irritated initially and resists the move. When Izzy dislikes the presence of the matchmaker, Bubbie advises her calmly but in a commanding tone, “First you’ll listen and then you’ll talk.” She is the archetypal Jewish grandma and mothers her granddaughter with a fierce love. She does not like at all her granddaughter living alone and compares her life to living in a prison behind the bars. She advises Izzy that to be alone is sick! But Izzy does not like to attain glory in life as the wife of a pickle specialist! She is compelled to appreciate her grandmother for her values, against her own modern compulsions. She likes her spiritual discipline and the abundant stock of her noble advice. If she has one vote, she will cast it for her grandmother, and not for her own self. It is but natural for the eighty year old grandmother to see her granddaughter get married and she worries that she won’t live to see great-grandchildren. Sam Posner He is the traditional pickle man, but his spicy profession has nothing to do with his tender heart. He is a poet and has studied literature before the death of his father. When Izzy is introduced to him at her grandmother’s apartment for the first time, she does not show much interest in him, and declines his offer to take her out. Sam knows the ingredients of the pickle, so also the ingredients to create a perfect situation for his love to mature. He is polite and persistent and has great commonsense. He woos his way into her heart and succeeds in taking her mind out of Anton Maes, who is her colleague in the book shop and a writer and also does book-readings. When the matchmaker intervenes, the generational and cultural clash erupts! The play gives an important lesson before the spectators that humor, affection and wisdom are powerful assets to find resolution to any type of conflicts. None of the character…. None of the character is the victim in the play and their disposition is true to their nature. Izzy’s initial reluctance to develop relations with Sam is understandable, as she has developed liking for an intellectual and writer. She is a modern girl living alone with her individual aspirations about her life. But as she interacts more with her grandmother on issues relating to life, her perspectives about married life change, the first flush of enthusiasm subsides, and she comes to terms with the realities of life and her love for Judaism blossoms. The grandmother has great love for her granddaughter, is seriously concerned about her settling in life, her rebukes to granddaughter for not taking the issue of marriage seriously has the undercurrent of her deep affection for her. Sam Posner is the lucky individual and will not let the chance to get married to a decent, educated girl go haywire. Being a successful businessman, he is worldly wise and practical and therefore, emerges successful in getting the love of Izzy, against a tough, intellectual competitor. Conclusion: The story is about tradition versus modernity. A perfect grandmother and granddaughter relationship in a Jewish family is depicted. One can say that it is a romantic comedy, but behind the comedy, profound issues related to Judaism have been underscored. The grandmother is seriously worried about her granddaughter making the choice of the life-partner outside the Jewish community, and therefore she takes the services of the professional match-maker who knows the art of creating alliances and the grandmother trusts his expertise. Through the tussle of the grandmother and granddaughter, Sam gets the bonus of his life in the form of Izzy. But one important point incidentally—when love intervenes strongly, everything melts in its powerful oven, all difference like old world, new world, and uptown, downtown disappear and pure sovereign sparkles! Read More