Analysis Of Leona Tamarkin s Dear Lizzie Memoir Of A...

Leona Tamarkin’s Dear Lizzie: Memoir of a Jewish Immigrant Woman showcases the experiences of Leona when she was a young girl and woman, growing up in World War I and the later on the Great Depression. Leona wrote this piece for her family, as a testament of the story that was so hard for her to describe verbally without being visibly shaken, as well as the young girl that she once was, and had to grow up too fast. This can be said for any child or young person at that time, but Leona’s experience is unique in respect to her being female. Her experience will be vastly different than that of a young man in Eastern Europe, who is more than likely fighting on the front lines. Or that of a young boy or older man, trying to hold their homes together while the soldiers are away. Before war time there was an obvious distinction between women’s and men’s work. Often times, women didn’t work at all, or if they did it was from the home, supported by their husbands, and their earnings went directly into the household, not for their own enjoyment. Leona’s father, worked outside the home, and was only able to come home on the weekends. She goes on to explain what precisely her father’s job was: â€Å"My father was a railroad contractor. He had a crew of men that did repairing on his amount of millage† (Leona 24). As railroad contractor, her father watched over and instructed men, on what was to be done that day. Men were the main source of labor before World War I, and that did not change