Ellis Island Mark Helprin

Unit 1 : Immigration to America Reference text : « On the Threshold of a New World » To begin with, we are _____ here with a narrative whose focaliser is undefined: ____ it’s an autobiography and in that case, Mark Helprin is narrating his own story, __ it’s a piece of fiction in which the narrator’s name remains unknown to us. All we know about him is that he ___ speak several languages; the fact that he ___ speak Hebrew and Yiddish may suggest he is __ Jew = he is __ Jewish =

On the Threshold of a new world Commentary Introduction Extract from a book by Mark Helprin called Ellis Island and other stories. The passage deals with the arrival of an immigrant in the Usa at Ellis Island. 1st person narrative : “I” The passage can be divided into 3 parts: * Lines 1 to 15 : Physical tests * Lines 16 to 31 : Intellectual tests * Line 32 to the end : The American dream First I’m going to talk about the narrator’s situation, then I’ll show why immigrants

whom I was chasing as best as I could. We would be on the same ferrt, I thought. The ferry would bust through the fog, and there, in front of us, would be a magnificientisland of fjords, meadows, and castles… Extract from “ Ellis Island and other stories” by Mark Helprin (1976).