THE CITIZEN
1. During the war, President Wilson delivered an address at Philadelphia to an audience of men who had just been made citizens. The quoted passages in this story are taken from this speech. Read these passages, and select the one which probably gave the author the idea for this story.
2. Starting with the idea, that he would write a story about someone who followed a dream to America, why should the author choose Russia as the country of departure?
3. Having chosen Russia, why does he make Ivan a resident of a village far in the interior? Why not at Libau?
4. Two incidents are told as occurring on the journey: the charge of the police at Bobrinsk, and the coming on board of the apple woman at Queenstown. Why was each of these introduced? What is the purpose of telling the incident on Fifth Avenue?
5. What have you learned about the manner in which this story was written? Compare it with the account given by Dorothy Canfield as to how she wrote her story.
6. What is the main idea in this story? Why do you think it was written? Edward Everett Hale wrote a story called "A Man without a Country." Suggest another title for "The Citizen."
7. Has this story in any way changed your opinion of immigrants? Is Big Ivan likely to meet any treatment in America that will change his opinion of the country?
8. The part of this story that deals with Russia affords a good example of the use of local color. This is given partly through the descriptions, partly through the names of the villagers—Poborino, Yanansk, Dankov; partly through the Russian words, such as verst (about three quarters of a mile), ruble (a coin worth fifty cents), kopeck (a half cent), muzhik (a peasant). How is local color given in the conversations?
9. For a treatment of the theme of this story in poetry, read "Scum o' the Earth," by Robert Haven Schauffler, in Rittenhouse's Little Book of Modern Verse. This is the closing stanza:
"Newcomers all from the eastern seas,
Help us incarnate dreams like these.
Forget, and forgive, that we did you wrong.
Help us to father a nation, strong
In the comradeship of an equal birth,
In the wealth of the richest bloods of earth."