Emma Goldman Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Emma Goldman - Essay ExampleHoward Zinns portrayal of Emma is typical of his style. Zinn has the ability to depict annals with a wit that is full of self-mocking humor. Zinn has invested his heroine Emma with altogether the fiery radicalism of her feminist, anarchist and free thinking ways. But all this militant posturing is toned down by revealing her honesty, nature, selflessness and courage, which make her heroics more believable. This in like manner moves the pushover from a moralistic plane to one that educates. According to author Tom H. Hastings, the play shows the plosive consonant of Goldmans nonviolence and resistance to militarism, rather than her earlier attachment to violent revolution.The first Act of the play deals with Emmas youth, when she breaks away from the rigid conventions of her Orthodox Jewish family and enters New York. This is the city teeming with immigrants from scores of country, who intensity the city with their unconventional lifestyle. It is in N ew York, that she meets Alexander Berkman, who was to remain her lover, as well as her blighter throughout her life. Apart from him, the play is peopled by others who helped Emma throughout her turbulent life. Helena, Emmas sister, Dr. Ben Reitman, who is a doctor with unconventional characteristics, Anna Minkin, a member from Emmas commune, Fedya, another artist and commune member, Liz Beth, the prison muse and Emmas sympathizer in the jail, who teaches Emma the art of being a muse and a midwife, and Vito, a worker in the sewers, are some of the other important members of the drama. This play is a document against the evil of sex divergence and the inequality of wealth which Emma Goldman so vehemently protested throughout her life.