Letters from Rifka

Letters from Rifka is a first-person description of immigration to America, informed by Hesse’s memories of her own great-aunt. The novel positions America as a land of hope and opportunity, with the intention of realistically representing what motivated waves of immigrants to come to the US in the early 20th century. For Rifka, whose family flees from Russia due to the persecution of Jews, coming to America seems almost miraculous. In her first letter to Tovah, she writes, “I can hardly believe that I too will soon live in such a place as America” (15).

Rifka sees America as a place of possibility. She writes, “I will do everything there,” in contrast to the confinement she and her family faced in their hometown of Berdichev (38). The United States, for her, is more than an escape; it is a place of rebirth: America, she writes, “is not simply a place you go when you run away. America is a place to begin anew. In America, I think, life is as good as a clever girl can make it” (91). Rifka looks forward to relying on her own wits and building an independent life for herself in America, vowing to “work in America and find a way to do everything,” including even writing poetry (74).