Summer's Reading - Bridging

Bernard Malamud was an American writer who wrote about ordinary people, often immigrants, trying to attain the American middle-class dream. His characters are often awkward and isolated from society.

You can see in the information above the connections between the writer's writing style and the characters in his story "A Summer's Reading". In the story, George is an immigrant, who sets goals to get a good job by picking up his education, since he has dropped out of high school. At that time (the beginning of the 20^th century) , the immigrants' point of view was if you had a good education you could get a good job and be a successful man. George's goals and dreams are typical of an immigrant. Immigrants want to succeed in a place which is not their homeland, and have many difficulties on the way they have to overcome to achieve that dream.

Another characterization of Malamud's writing is the isolation of his characters. George is very lonely and has no friends. He wanders at night to the park, dreaming of having a girlfriend and money to afford her. He doesn't have a connection with his father or with anyone in the neighborhood, except for Mr. Cattanzara and his sister Sophie. They are the only ones who care about him and try to motivate him to read books and pick up his education. 

The information adds to my understanding of the story by revealing the writer's writing style and his characters qualities. Also, according to his name, the writer is probably an immigrant himself and when he writes about the characters searching for hope and meaning within poor and lonely life, he actually shares his own feelings and experiences as an immigrant.

Now it's excellent! I enjoyed reading that.
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Daphna