The Life of Emma Goldman - Essay Example

Emma Goldman Order No. 257574 No. of pages: 4 Premium 6530 Howard Zinn, the historian and playwright has dramatized the life of Emma Goldman,a Lithuanian migrant to the U.S in his two-act play titled “Emma”. Emma Goldman was a migrant worker, who was an outspoken supporter for women’s rights as also of workplace reforms. She worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company and was appalled by the working conditions which led her to join the movement for reform in the workplace. The play depicts the life of Emma from the time she left her paternal home to her subsequent exile from the U.S, after being deported and losing her citizenship. Howard Zinn’s portrayal of Emma is typical of his style. Zinn has the ability to depict history with a wit that is full of self-mocking humor. Zinn has invested his heroine Emma with all the fiery radicalism of her feminist, anarchist and free thinking ways. But all this militant posturing is toned down by revealing her honesty, nature, selflessness and courage, which make her heroics more believable. This also moves the play from a moralistic plane to one that educates. According to author Tom H. Hastings, the play shows the period of Goldmans "nonviolence and resistance to militarism", rather than her earlier "attachment to violent revolution". The first Act of the play deals with Emma’s youth, when she breaks away from the rigid conventions of her Orthodox Jewish family and enters New York. This is the city teeming with immigrants from scores of country, who colour the city with their unconventional lifestyle. It is in New York, that she meets Alexander Berkman, who was to remain her lover, as well as her comrade throughout her life. Apart from him, the play is peopled by others who helped Emma throughout her turbulent life. Helena, Emma’s sister, Dr. Ben Reitman, who is a physician with unconventional characteristics, Anna Minkin, a member from Emma’s commune, Fedya, another artist and commune member, Liz Beth, the prison muse and Emma’s sympathizer in the jail, who teaches Emma the art of being a muse and a midwife, and Vito, a worker in the sewers, are some of the other important members of the drama. This play is a document against the evil of sex discrimination and the inequality of wealth which Emma Goldman so vehemently protested throughout her life. Emma says that a “woman should decide for herself" be it marriage or love or when to have a child. Emma is introduced to us as the 22 year old seamstress who lives with her husband Jacob Kushner. As the play develops, we see the changes taking place in Emma, who evolves into a zesty, outspoken woman. Emma’s life was not only spent in advocating the rights of the workers and masses, she also advocated a woman’s right to give birth, and the freedom to choose her life partner. She was also one of the first proponents of “free love”. But one of the most important aspects of Emma’s life and the cause of her deportation was her anti-war stance. In Emma’s words, “war is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle…Zinn”, through Emma, illustrates this further by likening the countries engaged in was, as villages, who outfit their boys in uniforms, hand them a gun and push them to a place, where they fight “like wild beasts”. Emma’s anti-war proclamations make her an opposing citizen in the eyes of the state. Zinn shows Emma, delivering a passionate speech at the Harlem River Casino denouncing the war and protesting the drafts, but she is still defiant even when the federal agent comes there to arrest her. Here, she is accompanied by her friends, Sasha, Anna and Vito, who walk along with the federal agent outside. The agents had come to arrest her as she was not a legally recognized citizen of the United States, since; her former husband had been stripped of his citizenship. She is arrested on charges of being an illegal alien, but the real reason for her arrest is to keep her from speaking against the war. Emma’s speeches had rallied much public opinion against the war, which the government wanted to stop. They could not arrest her for speaking in public because this would have been a denial of her rights according to the First Amendment. Emma had been accused of launching a seditious campaign, but this was a subversion of facts. To Emma, being patriotic was to be true to the people and the land you lived in, and not the government under whom you were living. This is a radically different version of patriotism, compared to the general meaning which during the war is used to feed innocent men and women into the unquenchable fires of fighting. Emma Goldman’s transformation from a woman who believes in revolution even if it means indulging in violence, to one who believes in “non violence and resistance to militarism” (Tom H. Hastings) comes across clearly in the play. When she is accused of plotting to blow up ships, she responds that she does not believe in the creed of the bomb, but if sinking a ship would prevent a war, she would not hesitate to do so. One of the main parts of the second Act deals with Emma’s attempts to free Berkmen from prison by digging a tunnel. Berkman had been jailed for attempting to assassinate the industrialist Henry Clay Frick, who enforced strict labour laws in his factories. This also helps Zinn to build up Emma’s relationship with Berkman. In the beginning of the play, Emma calls Berkman an “insensitive” “provincial” and “insufferable” person, because of his narrow linear thinking. His thoughts are shaped by his single minded devotion to his political ideology. Berkman, in Zinn’s play spends much of his time in prison from where he guides events. We also know that Berkman is incompetent through the speech of Johann, an anarchist leader. The second act of the play slumps and this can be compared to the lives of most radicals, whose first part of life is full of fire and purpose, but the second half of their lives is much disappointing. After Emma was deported, when she was about 48 years old, she went into exile with Sasha, aka, Berkman, to Russia. But here too, Emma could not come to terms with the authoritarian communist regime of Lenin, against which she protested. From there, she went on to live in France until Sash’s death in 1936. After four years, she was invited to speak in the United States by the Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins in Franklin Roosevelt’s Cabinet. But here too, Emma was asked to tone down her rhetoric and confine her talk to the art of drama. A mellow Emma followed the guidelines and spoke about Shas, Ibsen, Chekhov and Strindberg, but with an earlier unseen restraint. The life of Emma Goldman is a saga of triumph over the policies of exploitation. These could range from exploitative labor in the workplace to the exploitation of a citizen’s patriotism, to a woman’s denial of choice. References Tom H. Hastings (2004). Nonviolent Response to Terrorism, McFarland & Company. ISBN 0786418745 The Harvard Crimson: Magazine: Emma Comes Alive http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=91246 Powells Books - Emma by Howard Zinn http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=62-9780896086654-1 Emma by Howard Zinn - Booky Nooky http://www.catsforbrains.net/bookums/2007/01/emma-by-howard-zinn.html Journal for Multi-Media History Review of Who Built America? http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol1no1/wba_review1.html Social Anarchism: Emma: A Play http://www.socialanarchism.org/mod/magazine/display/134/index.php Read More