Adrienne Rich, Split at the Root

A detailed Summary of Adrienne Rich, Split at the Root

Adrienne Rich, in her essay "Split at the Root: An Essay on Jewish Identity", writes about her experiences growing up in a predominately gentile society as a half-Jewish, half-Gentile being. She illuminates the ideas that there are certain assemblages of people in the world that are forced to veil their true identity in order to be accepted in the social order. She engages in enlightening the reader about the different methods that some undergo to suppress who they really are, through faith, race, and social attributes, and also about the harms and persecutions these people endure. In this piece though it is portrayed that perhaps her most predominate theme is that a person becomes an element of his/her society and that people, no matter what their faith, race, or social standing, should begin applying new standards toward acceptance.

Rich writes, "'Common' white people might speak of 'niggers' - we said 'Negroes'" (Rich pg. 310). In this statement she refers to, from a sout

I Rich's college years, at Radcliffe University, she experienced even more of this disguising of one's true identity to assimilate with societies norms. Radcliffe which resides in Cambridge Massachusetts was thought, by Rich, to be set in the more intellectually based North, but still she explains that some of the girls that were her classmates would actually go to the extreme of changing their physical image to disguise themselves as normal. These so-called "fixed" girls would have their hair straightened, change their names, and/or even get their noses fixed, all so they wouldn't possess what was considered to be a "Jewish look". Though, after all of these changes these wholly Jewish women still held in reserve their Jewish ideals and culture. These friends of Rich were considered to be a "dangerous crowd" by Rich's mother, who felt that while being a fascinating group of people, her friends would be effectively dragging her into societies unruly classification for Jews.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Jewish Identity, Massachusetts Rich, Jews Throughout, Merchant Venice, Radcliffe University, social standing, Adrienne Rich, faith race social, class social standing, class social, race social, rich pg, faith race, true identity,

Approximate Word count = 660
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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Adrienne Rich, Split at the Root

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