Analysis ¨The Day I Got Lost

October 09, 2017

                                 THE WASHWOMAN

                                              by Isaac  Bashevis Singer              

Biography

(July 14, 1904 Radzymin, Polonia - July 24, 1991 Miami, Florida)

Polish-American author, was admired for his recreation of the forgotten world of nineteenth- century Poland and his depiction of a timeless jewish ghetto.

He was born in Poland and his family moved to Warsaw, Poland, when he was four years old. Both of his grandfathers were rabbis, and Singer was also groomed for hasidism, a strict spiritual practice, and attended a seminary.  However, he decided on a writing career. His older brother was a well known Yiddish writer. Singer was impressed by jewish folk tales told by his parents, these tales set the ground work for some of Singer's fictional characters and religious faith.

He worked as a journalist for Yiddish press in various parts of Poland. Moving to the United States in 1935, Singer became a reporter for the Daily Forward in New York City.

In 1925 he made his debut with the story "In old age", which he published in Warsaw under a pseudonym. His first novel, Satan in Goray, was published in Installments in Poland shortly before he immigrated to the United States in 1935.

As a Journalist he signed his articles with the pseudonym Varshavski or D. Segal. He also translated many books into Yiddish  from Hebrew, Polish and particularly, German. Among them works by Thoman Mann and Erich Maria Remarque . In 1943 he became a U.S. citizen.

                       

                                                                 

 Historical Background  

 Although Singer's works became most widely known in their English versions, he continued to write almost exclusively in Yiddish, personally supervising the translations. Some of his novels and short stories were published in Yiddish in the Forverts, for which he wrote until his death.

Singer evokes in his writings the vanished world of Polish Jewry and it existed before the Holocaust. His most ambitious novels -The FamilyMoskat, has large casts of characters and extend over several generations. These books chronicle the changes and eventual breakup of large jewish families during the late 19th. and early 20th centuries. Several films have been adapted from Singer's works, including The Magician of Lublin (1979)

Expectation/Prediction about the text

Is the story of a woman who wash clothes of other people to earn some money to survive. She goes through many problems to live because she doesn't have family but someone else help her to have a better life.

  

Summary  

She was an old woman, sickly and weak who wash the clothes for other people.

She worked hard, had to carry the bundle of laundry on her shoulders. For her was not easy that work because she hadn't running water and she was old but she worked because she didn't want to be a burden to her son who was rich and hge was ashamed of her and never came to see her. He didn't support her even.

One day the woman no longer arrived, pass some weeks and she didn't bring back the clothes, the family was sad and thought that she had passed away. They didn't know where she lived.

  

More than two months later, the woman back, she was thinner and pale. She was ill but when she got well, began to wash clothes again. That dayt sghe promissed to get back in a few weeks but she never back. 

 

Analysis or conection between literary work and historical background.

She was poor and had to work under very difficult conditions to support herself. She suffers fatigue and illness, but she always remains positive and determined to do her duty.

She proved that people can endure and find satisfaction in their work.

Country       

A city in Poland.

Literary Movement          

Realism

Genre:

Short Story

Did I confirm my predictions?

I confirm my predictions by the way that she was a woman who wash clothes for other people, but I didn't imagine all the work that she had to do to her job, how hard was for her and all that she suffered during her life, and no matter what she always complied to her clients.

I was wrong by the way I thought she hadn't family, but she had a son who was rich but never helped her.

References

Isaac Bashevis Singer Biography

World biography, EU

Recovered from  www.notablebiographies.com

Isaac Bashevis Singer/American Author/Britanica.com/Chicago, IL (2017)

Recovered from https//www.Britanica.com/biography/Isaac-Bashevis-Singer