America got the best of Europe

THE TOWERS OF PARADISE
INTRODUCTION
This text is extracted from ( an excerpt from) "Americans", a book published in 1978 by Desmond Wilcox. The author is head of BBC Television's General Features Department from which came the television series TEN WHO DARED and "AMERICANS", his new personal documentary series. Wilcox's purpose was to answer a intimidating question : what is an American? Both the TV series and book were made with a view to shedding light on a most enigmatic character, the American citizen.
To reach his purpose, D. Wilcox interviewed dozens of American citizens from all walks of life, such as trade-union leaders, businessmen, ( Voir "THE COMPANY PRESIDENT P 33), ordinary citizens......
In "The Towers of Paradise", the interviewee is Leon Stein, a 66-year-old New Yorker whose parents emigrated to America at the turn of the century. (Leon Stein's parents must have been Polish or German Jews.)
The scene is set on ELLIS ISLAND, a small island in New York Bay, next to Liberty Island) on which a vast Immigration Center was built in 1895. This Center (The GREAT HALL in the text) was a huge immigration control center through which millions of new immigrants had to go before setting foot on the American soil.
Therefore, Leon Stein's interview obviously focuses on the issue of immigration as forty per cent of all Americans can look back to an ancestor who passed through Ellis island's doors. Most Americans are descended from uprooted people who came to America to start from scratch. As John Kennedy once stated, the USA is " A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS", a country whose whole history and ideology were - and still are - shaped by immigrants.
My commentary will fall into three parts: the first part will be devoted to Leon Stein ( his life and career, his personal history, his experience and feelings). In the second part , I shall try to find out the reasons why America was - and to a certain extent, still is - a magnet for millions of hopeful immigrants. Last but not least, I shall attempt to relate what happened in the Great Hall, on Ellis Island, before immigrants were ushered into the New World, after the long perilous journey which had taken them to the shores of the Promised Land, the shores of Paradise.
* * * * *
I- Leon Stein
He is a fully-fledged American citizen, born and bred in New York. He is aged 66 and must have lived in N.Y all his life . Leon Stein could be depicted as a self-made man as, although his origins were very humble, he has achieved material and social success. In other words, as his parents were extremely poor, he had - and managed to - work his way up the social ladder. He eventually made it to the top as he now is a trade union leader, a newspaper editor and a writer.
Leon Stein, to a certain extent, embodies the AMERICAN DREAM. ( His - and his parents' dreams- have come true in America, the land of opportunity and wealth)
Although ( Because) Leon Stein is fully integrated into the American society - "an all-American family man" - he can't help but look back upon his - his parents', his country's - PAST. We may go as far as to say that Leon Stein is obsessed with his past, and his country's past history- epitomized, in his view, by ELLIS ISLAND. For more than 40 years, Ellis Island has been Stein's favorite topic for discussion. It is the reason why Stein -and Wilcox- deliberately picked Ellis Island as the place- the backdrop - for the interview.
Leon Stein finds it very difficult to distance himself from his past as New York is still teeming with immigrants from over 100 different nationalities, races or creeds. One might go as far as to say that New York looks like a Tower of Babel whose inhabitants speak various languages, share different sets of values. The paradox is that they all consider themselves as American citizens, and are frequently proud of their recently acquired American citizenship.
To put it in a nutshell, it should always be borne in mind that the American psyche has been - and still is - shaped by immigration.
II- AMERICA, "A LAND OF MILK AND HONEY", " A PARADISE", "A MAGNET"
From 1892 to 1922, sixteen million immigrants made the journey to America and passed through the doors of Ellis Island. This text enables to better understand the reasons which impelled "the tired, and the poor" to leave their native countries and risk their lives to start anew in America, "THE PROMISED LAND"
To begin with, most immigrants arrived knowing little about America. At most, perhaps they had read about the New World in a letter from a friend or a brother who had preceded them. But they made the journey anyway because they knew too much about the old world: too much hunger, too much tyranny. Most immigrants sought a new beginning in America, or as Leon Stein puts it, they left their native countries for a new homeland "to be born again". Most


newcomers dreamed of starting a new life in the New World which they regarded as "the Promised land", "a land of milk and honey". When they reached New York and saw skyscrapers on the horizon, they believed they were catching sight of "THE TOWERS OF PARADISE" (ironically unaware that they were actually looking at the East Side Ghetto, one of the slum districts of New York.)
Thus, millions of immigrants sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to start a new life in America, because their living conditions in The Old World were appalling: most fled poverty and hunger ( The IRISH, for example). Leon Stein illustrates his point by telling the amusing "HERRING" anecdote: his father "fell in love with a herring" on the boat bound for New York
When he was given a whole herring the day before he reached New York.
Leon Stein's father could eat his fill for the first time ever in his life. This "extraordinary" event was a harbinger of a bright future in America. Ever since that memorable day, Leon's father knew he had reached the land of wealth and prosperity he had dreamed of for so long. Leon's father, like millions of immigrants- was convinced he could "make it", "strike it rich" in America - provided ,of course, he worked hard to succeed.
Dismal economic conditions do not suffice to account for such massive migrations. Immigrants also fled tyranny, political or religious persecution and most of them "yearned to breathe free". When they caught sight of the Statue of Liberty - "their first real sight of the New World"- they knew that their dream had come true as they were about to enter the Land of Freedom and Wealth.
THE STATUE OF LIBERTY, which was given by the French and erected in 1886 on Liberty Island, in New York Bay, has come to symbolize the world over the irrepressible human yearning for freedom. It is probably one of the most potent symbols all over the world ( A few years ago, Chinese students and demonstrators built a replica of the Statue of Liberty to symbolize - and protest against- their struggle against the oppressive Communist regime)
When they saw the Statue, "the lady of Hope", one can easily imagine how relieved and happy immigrants were as their dangerous journey had come to a successful conclusion. But most were torn between happiness and anxiety as, first new immigrants had to face ELLIS ISLAND. Their expectations were so high that most immigrants came to America, dreading being deported back to the Old World.
III- ELLIS ISLAND ( You are expected to tell the examiner what immigrants had to go through in Ellis Island)
* * * * *
In conclusion, Leon’s journey to Ellis Island reminds the reader of the key part Ellis island played in American history. This vast immigration center came to symbolize for millions of Americans their past history, their dreams, which unfortunately did not always come true. Today, Ellis Island has been converted into a museum that is visited by millions of tourists every year.