Task
Tasks: On the Way to the Melting Pot
Here is a set of comprehension questions to the excerpt from W. Ager's "On the Way to the Melting Pot".
- Why did Mrs Omley need her daughter’s assistance?
- What is Mrs Omley cooking?
- What are they celebrating?
- Which language does Sophy speak when she is angry? What does her mother think of this?
- Contrast the characters of Mrs Omley and Sophy. What can be said about their relationship?
- "On the Way to the Melting Pot" is called a satirical novel. Ager ridicules Norwegian Americans because they try so hard to become Americans and in doing so they discard the best qualities of their old cultural heritage. How is Ager’s view revealed in this excerpt?
Related content
Subject material
On the Way to the Melting Pot by Waldemar AgerThe metaphor of the melting pot became the image of an assimilated American – a person who had discarded his ethnic identity to become American.