Lost in Translation and Rainy Mountain: Identity and Exile

Overview of Lost in Translation

Eva Hoffman's Lost in Translation is a typical immigrant success tale — rich in ambiguity — whose first section, titled "Paradise," revolves around Hoffman's childhood and adolescence in Cracow. The most prominent image in Hoffman's mind during her family's immigration to Canada was the crowd gathered at the shore to see the ship off. She was thirteen years old when she left Gdynia, Poland, together with her father, mother, and younger sister. To her, the crowd at the shore waving as the ship drifted away was symbolic: it meant the end of everything she had known. Deep inside, she felt sorrow and pain; she never wanted to leave Poland.

As they journey on, her memory is filled with the losses she has suffered. Cracow was a place she loved as one would love a person. Her mind wanders to the sun-baked villages and piano lessons of her youth. Unlike her nine-year-old sister, who seems oblivious to what is happening, Hoffman is devastated by the events. She does, however, recognize the circumstances that motivated her parents' decision to leave. This is clearly brought out as she reflects on the body search her parents underwent while boarding the Batory — they were Jews, and it is apparent that Jews were not welcome and were subjected to ill-treatment in Poland at that time. She further explains that her parents, too, loved Poland and left unwillingly.

According to Hoffman, this journey marked the beginning of exile. She had no idea where they were going. She remembers a book her father had carried during the war — a book that hinted at Canada as a wilderness where animals roamed freely, a symbolic scenario in their quest for freedom. To her, however, this was a sign of deprivation: the loss of her youth and her best years.

Hoffman's essay also presents "The New World," which outlines the differences between the two countries. She recounts how, years later, she met a woman who had experienced an enchanted childhood — precisely the stage of life Hoffman most regretted leaving behind, what she refers to as "paradise" (Hoffman 178). Yet she quickly rejoins that what matters is what one makes paradise out of. This returns her to her own childhood, and she reminisces about the time the whole family slept in the same room yet she felt as though she had a world to herself. She recounts this period when she was only four and happy in Cracow — ironically, a country still recovering from the wounds of war. She remembers the hum of the tramway a few blocks away, sounds that filled her with contentment and with the assurance of her presence in Cracow, a place that was both home and the universe.

The author's aim in the essay is to express the experience of being caught between two worlds. Hoffman brings out the fact that childhood is lived only once yet leaves a lasting effect. She seeks to understand how identity is shaped by living between two worlds, and she outlines the importance of culture and language in navigating issues of personal development. Emerging in a new country, she struggles to acquire a new language in pursuit of a stable identity. In sum, the story is about the search for one's identity, and it offers insight into the complex connections among identity, language, and culture.

The Author's Meaning Behind the Essay

In the story, Hoffman paints a vivid picture of Cracow as seen through the nostalgia of her childhood and adolescent mind. This memory rests on the perception of a child who is oblivious to the realities of the situation and who assumes a state of plenitude. She remembers her conversation with a woman in New York many years later, during which she learns of the woman's enchanted childhood. Here, her own memories fall prey to the woman's story as she regrets a past cut short by her family's migration.

Insufficiency in Hoffman's Narrative

It is notable that Hoffman speaks of the importance of what paradise can be made out of — as a defense of her fond memories of Cracow — yet fails to apply the same principle to the assimilation process in Canada. She remains unsympathetic toward Canada and describes it as a blank, gray, and monolithic space. This tension between what she advocates and how she actually responds to her new home is one of the essay's central contradictions.

Examining The Way to Rainy Mountain gives one a different perspective and ultimately lends Hoffman credit for her writing. Despite being a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and critic, N. Scott Momaday fails to convey his feelings in detail — particularly for a piece of nostalgic writing. Where Hoffman might be criticized for relying on a child's memory as the basis of her story, Momaday opens with a captivating description of Rainy Mountain that befits a gifted writer: "Great green and yellow grasshoppers are everywhere in the tall grass, popping up like corn to sting the flesh" (Momaday). However, he never describes his grandmother from a child's perspective. He sounds more like a teacher than a child describing a beloved elder, stating that "the Kiowas were living the last great moment of their history."

Conclusion