women characters often disappear behind the narrative of the man’s ultimate success” (177).

Since
marriage is a way to shut out women of the American Dream, Friedman “predicts a narrative trend
[…] in which the drive to Americanize comes at the cost of romantic happiness” (177). It is a
marriage to an American that should Americanize the immigrant woman and thus give her the
American Dream but instead she either disappears behind her successful husband or she becomes
invisible as the husband decides for her. These both scenarios have one thing in common: the
immigrant woman stays out of sight. Friedman provides an alternative to marriage: work that,
according to her, “might be a far more important social 34 ritual” than marriage and as such an
“option for the immigrant woman’s survival in America” (Friedman, 176). In other words, the
immigrant woman’s means to attain visibility

ultures that cling to traditional social and sexual hierarchies” (177). Friedman continues that “[i]n
women’s immigrant fiction, then, female characters sometimes become invisible because of the
belief that a man is the head of the house-hold. Conversely, in most masculine immigrant fictions
women characters often disappear behind the narrative of the man’s ultimate success” (177). Since
marriage is a way to shut out women of the American Dream, Friedman “predicts a narrative trend
[…] in which the drive to Americanize comes at the cost of romantic happiness” (177). It is a
marriage to an American that should Americanize the immigrant woman and thus give her the
American Dream but instead she either disappears behind her successful husband or she becomes
invisible as the husband decides for her. These both scenarios have one thing in common: the
immigrant woman stays out of sight. Friedman provides an alternative to marriage: work that,
according to her, “might be a far more important social 34 ritual” than marriage and as such an
“option for the immigrant woman’s survival in America” (Friedman, 176). In other words, the
immigrant woman’s means to attain visibility is to work and thus be involved in the public sphere. is
to work and thus be involved in the public sphere.