The Fat of the Land (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Anzia Yezierska
- First Published: 1919
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The early 1900's
- Setting: New York City
- Principal Characters: Hanneh Breineh, Fanny, Mrs. Pelz
- Genres: Social realism, Short fiction
- Subjects: Poverty or poor people, Immigration or emigration, Inner cities or inner-city life, Jews or Jewish life, Women, Survivalism, Loneliness, Wealth
- Locales: New York, NY
The Story
In the first section of the story, the narrator introduces two Jewish women who are neighbors in a tenement. Hanneh Breineh, a self-centered and hyperemotional woman, calls out her window to the kind and somewhat philosophical Mrs. Pelz for help. Hanneh's washer-boiler is broken, and she asks to borrow Mrs. Pelz's.
Hanneh engages Mrs. Pelz in a dreary conversation, but as she is doing so, one of her six children falls from his high chair. The mother characteristically overreacts, rushing hysterically to her son, while the more sedate Mrs. Pelz offers up a...
[The entire page is 1481 words long]
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