Article temporaire (ou pas.) pour Charlotte ou les perdus qui auraient b'soin du cours d'anglais. Trachoma was a problem for the immigrants because this desease can make people blind. Blind, an immigrant (and everyone) can't work and is not useful for society. That's why people who immigrate in the U.S.A. had to be checked by medicine doctors. Those people who had a trachoma were rejected, as they would become a charge for the U.S., so they were sent back to their native country. If the narrator had a trachoma, he would be sent back to his country ; but, as he didn't have a trachoma, he went to another room, where the physical exam continued. Here, they were probably looking for a contagious disease, such as tuberculosis, because they made him cough and breathe.
Then, he went to the next room where he had to take off his clothes and turn around several times, probably to check the body (injuries, missing parts Oô, ...). He had to bend over ; they wanted to make sure that our immigrant could sing the national anthem « Stars and Stripes » (as the U.S. flag). The outcome was a success, he passed on to the next room, where he met a pretty woman with cold eyes. He underwent the second type of exam, the legal part. The woman wanted to know whether he could read and write, whether he was illiterate. But he is far from being illiterate ! He is quite a learned man, and when she realized that she was dealing with a scholar, she looked down on him. She thought that he was mad, because she acted as with a madcap. At the end of the exchange, he's being sarcastic with her. Eventually he passed the second exam, because she was writing a letter on his back. A « A » or a « P » ? For « Accepted » or « Passed » ?
Then, he's going to take the ferry to go to Manhattan. He may be allowed ( or permitted ) as an immigrant. He imagines himself being rich. He whishes he was wealthy enough not to work. He also wishes he married the Norwegian woman, who he must have met on the boat coming from Europe to the U.S. . They were probably passengers in the same classe, for example the steerage class (the cheapest).
He compares Manhattan with a fairy tale ( a fairy tale for example => « The Beauty and The Beast » ). It represents (or symbolizes or stands for ) his (vision of the) American Dream.
The American Dream... Everyone is free in America, everyone can become rich. Everything is possible in America. We have the myth of the self-made man.
Is the narrator likely to succeed ? Why not, he is a scholar and he is young. But, the American Dream can turn into a nightmare...
~~The end (même si un « To Be Continued » ça l'aurait trop fait là...)~~
