The Lost Beautifulness

The Lost Beautifulness is a story I read for my Humanities class.  You can click on the link and read the story.  What follows is my review of it:

I really enjoyed Anzio Yezierska’s story. “The Lost Beautifulness” was a poignant story about Hannah Hayyeh’s quest to add a little beauty and happiness to her hard life. I had a great deal of sympathy for her. Painting her kitchen gave her so much happiness and it was great how her neighbors enjoyed this joy with her. I love the language they used to describe how impressed they were with her attempt. Their exclamations of wonder and joy were priceless. I also loved her relationship with Mrs. Preston and how much pride she took in doing her laundry. Mrs. Preston’s opinion meant so much to her and for her to call Hannah a laundry artist is just precious.  I love Mrs. Preston’s definition of an artist and how she tells Hannah that she expresses her love of the beautiful as a laundress the way a painter expresses it with paint. They relationship is so rich because of Mrs. Preston’s appreciation of her passion for beauty.  I felt sympathy for Mrs. Preston when she tried to help Hannah in the only way she knew how and Hannah could not understand or accept her gesture.  I disliked her husband because he could not appreciate or understand Hannah’s quest for beauty.  I especially dislike the landlord and her greed and for the pain that he caused her gentle soul.  I can’t believe that this story was written in 1920.  It is timeless and has universal appeal. The writer appeals to emotions that I think we all have felt at one time or another.  I know I have felt the despair of not knowing where I was going to come up with the money that I had to pay and did not have.  With the recession more and more people will be feeling it also. The end of the story touched my heart as her son came home after fighting so hard for his country and found his mother in such a desperate situation.  It was such a contrast to what he was expecting.