Reading Log:My view of Americanization

As the title of this article is ‘The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen’, I think about the word ‘Americanization’ from beginning to end. What's the meaning of ‘Americanization’? How will it influence Shadrach Cohen?

After reading the first two pages, I thought Shadrach would become a modern old man in the end of the story. He would speak English, have his long beard cut and give up the pray after meals. However, the author gainsays my viewpoint in the passage. It really came to me that I had thought too simple. At that time, I learned from the book that the so-called Americanization is his being broader-minded and flexible in his tenets.

But this is not ending. I begin to have another audacious imagine. What is the author, as an American, want to tell us in this passage? I guess he wants to tell us another recondite idea by the crash change of Shadrach. I had ignored it for a long time that the biggest change is his attitude towards his sons. Before the transformation, we could see that he responded almost cheerfully to all their requests for money. While after that, he began to teach them that life is earnest. Also before his change, his sons only regarded their father as an adamancy and fusty geezer. While after that, they show great respect to him. These kinds of characters, such as letting children be independent and building great image in children's mind, I think, are what the Americans cry up and be proud of. Maybe this is the true meaning of Americanization.