Building Cultural Bridges Across Generational Chasms: Comparing Chicano And Jewish American Literature

Abstract

This study compares Arturo Islas's novel, The Rain God: A Desert Tale with Cynthia Ozick's novella, "Envy; or Yiddish in America." Specifically, I argue that during the 1970s, these authors fictionalized the discourse concerning trans-generational cultural inheritance anxiety. Islas and Ozick shared an anxiety about the future of their individual ethnic culture in America because the children born in America were moving away from the ethnic culture they inherited from their parents. Ozick and Islas's fictions question whether accepting a new American identity, as many ofthe youth in their stories do, may severely impact the continuation of their ethnic culture. Islas and Ozick voice their anxiety over these trans-generational changes quite differently, yet both recognize that bridges must be built across the generations to ensure the continuation of theirethnic culture in America.