A Summer's Reading - Bridging Text and Context - FIXED

Bridging Text and Context - P. 49 

The information given in addition to the story helped me understand it better by notifying me about the author of the story. It says that Bernard Malamud used to write about how ordinary people, often immigrants, tried to fulfill the American middle class dream in their poor life circumstances. Moreover, almost all of his characters were isolated and had to face their problems by themselves with almost no moral support from their environment.  

The story "A Summer's Reading" is one of the author's collections of short stories, which include characters who search for hope in their miserable lives. In our story, nineteen-year-old George Stoyonvich is a son of an immigrant family, who lives in New York in the twenties, during the heavy depression in the United States. George dropped out of school at the age of sixteen and has a hard time getting a job due to the depression and his lack of education. He dreams of having a permanent job, living in a nice house, having a loving wife and family and be respected by others. However, George knows that he will never achieve his goals unless he picks up his education, but tends to find excuses for not doing so.
 

All of a sudden, George meets Mr. Cattanzara, "the change maker" whom he respects and appreciates. George, who wanted to win Mr. Cattanzara's respect as well, lies to him by telling him that he plans on reading a hundred books during the summer. This lie grows along the story and leads George to feel ashamed about himself more than ever, but not enough to make him change his situation. We can learn that George is one of Malamud's typical characters. He has a hard time facing his problems by himself in order to achieve his goals in life. George knows that proper education is the most important thing that can help him move forward in his life, although he doesn't have the motivation to pick up his education.

In conclusion, George had to overcome some major obstacles in his life, like his environment, his lack of moral support and his personality in order to start acting to pick up his education and, eventually, achieve his goals. We can learn that getting a good education is necessary if you want to succeed in your life, especially if you are an immigrant, who wants to live the American dream which you left your country for - like lots of Malamud's characters, including George.  

This is better, although it is still too long.  However, well done.

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Daphna