TER 6 PLAN PLAY THAT THING AGAIN

Roddy Doyle is amuch appraised Irish writer.three of his most famous books have been made into very successful films thus making him quite well-known of an international public.But these films are not our object of study today.but rather the second volume of the series of the adventure of Henry Smart.This novel is entitled Play That Thing and was published in 2004.
Trying to escape from his former buddies from the IRA,Henry smart embarks on the vessel The Reliance headede for America on March 1924.
In NY, he will become involved in advertising and bootlegging.But he will soon step on the toes of the Mob and thus has to flee to Chicago.There he will become the manager and the partner in crime of Louis Amstrong, an association which highlights the title of the book.
But in the extract that we intend to peruse today we are still at the dawn of this journey, as henry Smart is still on board the ship, just in sight of Ellis Island.
Indeed one of the appeals of the text is to allow us to have a first-hand account of what the immigrants going through Ellis Island had to undergo.
Thus I will devote my first part to a description of this historical process.
But this ordeeal is approached in two different ways by the passengers of the ship.
While most of the newcomers are frantic with fear,Henry Smart on the other hand is the epitomy of the enthusiastic immigrant eager to be given a second chance in life.
Hence my next two parts which will illustrate this opposition by scrutinizing first the fears of the passengers and then the dreams that are driving the main character.
I do believe that after such an extensive study I will then be better armed to decide if would be willing to migrate to this new land myself.
So my first part:

ELLIS ISLAND : SOME HISTORICAL DATA
a) the island cf line 20 + line 9/10/11/12
quote the historical facts that we learnt in class + what you know about the statue of liberty mentioned line 12.
b) the great hall: its function line 25
c) the medical process from line 29 to 44 :

quote what you know of the process and illustrate with quotes from the text.
d)the immigration officer : the type of questions they were asked/ the purpose of the questioning = rooting out the political leaders which might explain why he lied at that stage.

d) the literacy test line 80 : when was it introduced and its purpose.
e) F) the oath of allegiance line 85

Still all the information he readily gave the immigration officers were cleverly forged to secure his admission into the land of freedom.
So what is this information?

HENRY SMART
a) the name : surprising because from the start we understand that he has been disguising his real name.Why? afraid of being looked for by the police as he already has a police record as a terrorist in his own country.he engaged into terrorist acts such as murders back home for the IRA.
b) His fake identity:
-name
-single
-coming from London.

c) the truth
- his name
- married with one daughter that he has abandoned
- coming from Dublin.

The immigration officer is not taken in as we understand from line 94 .And still he does not bar his entry because he is a countryman and familiar no doubt with the hectic history of his own country.

But the new identity that he has created for himself symbolises the new life that America stands for. He has been given a second chance and thus he needs a new name This new birth is highlighted as well by the great care he takes in giving us the precise date on which he first stepped foot on the American soil: the 16th of March 1924 as if he was recording the date of his birth.
This image is hinted at as well line 96 when he mentions his “ first American sun” as if he was a new-born discovering the sun for the first time.
Leaving a world of misery and despair, he is given a second chance and is eager to make the most of it. Therefore he might be regarded as the embodiment of the American dream.Thus we understand why millions like him try to do the same and why they experienced such a fear at the prospect of missing that opportunity.

A FRIGHTENING ORDEAL
a) the American dream : a definition cf cours
b) That’s why for millions the USA represented their last chance and thus why they were so frightened of letting it pass by. Cf line 37
Line 13 :
What could happen to them : being sent back home line 28
Why? Looking for signs of diseases and political activism
c) thus the name of the island cf line 24
but although we are not given the account of what happened to them afterwards, i do believe that what was frightening to them was also what might happen afterwards.
Ellis island was just the first step and they were not certain they i quote line 14 “ were looking at its front or back”
This sentence clearly stresses the hazardous nature of the American dream.For the thousands who would make it and thus would be able to go through the front door, millions others would have to fight their way into this new life and thus would never know anything but the back doors.
Success and wealth would pass them by and they would remain poor and down-trodden and not better off then in the country they had left behind.
Thus we might wonder if such a voyage is really worth it.

MY OPINION
a) on the text
b) Would you be ready to go and live in the USA?

CONCLUCION :
In my view, this text is thus fascinating on several accounts. First because it gives us somehow a first hand account of what the immigrants had to go through on Ellis Island.But also it allows us to have a full vista of the kind of people who embarked on such an ordeal: those who were driven by fear of the unknown and those who were indeed fascinated by this very anonymity.
Still the author is clever enough to indicate that only a single man with no family bonds could do that .Indeed having a family would make things far more difficult but also would give us the opportunity to test the saying”Absence makes the heart grows fonder;”