Green RiverCommunity College

ESOL 015 – Level 5

John Avery, Instructor

Studying Miss Rose White

This is the description of the movie from movie company:

“Rayzel Weiss fled Poland with her father before Hitler’s invasion…her mother and older sister weren’t as lucky. Fifteen years later Rayzel Weiss is Rose White… a career girl with her own apartment and a promising future at the largest department store in Manhattan. Beautiful, successful and happy, she keeps her family’s tragic past in a scrapbook hidden in her closet… until news comes that her long-lost sister somehow survived the ravages of World War II and is on her way to America. But when Lusia arrives, the reunion is haunted by memories of her struggle to survive… and an unspoken, unforgivable secret she shares with her father. As Rose struggles to balance her obligation to her sister with her dreams for the future. She is forced to confront the truth about her life and her family… and the past that she’s managed to forget.”

Hallmark Hall of Fame

Background information about the world of Miss Rose White

The film is set in New York City in the years after World War II. That war was from 1939 to 1945 and the time after it is known as the post-war period. It’s very important to know that Rose White belongs to the Jewish religion because during WW II, Germany tried to kill all the Jews in Europe. Over 6 million Jews were killed in concentration camps and many others had to escape to other countries. Rose White’s family was split. Some of them did escape to America, but her mother and sister were caught by the Nazi’s and Rose and her father were able to get to America. They believe that the mother and the sister were killed by the Nazi’s. This movie is about what happens when they find out the sister survived and is on her way to America to join them.

Rose White was young when she came to America. Now she is a young and independent American who does not know what it was like to live in Poland or to have gone through WWII. She has mixed feelings about having her sister come to America. One of her feelings is guilt, the feeling that you should be doing something more or that you are not living up to your responsibilities. Her feelings are similar to what many immigrants feel about leaving behind their family members and coming to a new world. Mixed with these feelings is the struggle to do well and to make a new life in America.

In the post-war period, New York City was the largest city in America. It is still one of the largest and one of the most diverse cities in the country. Many immigrants come from all over the world to New York. It is known as a city with communities where these immigrants live. The largest ethnic group by far is the Jewish community. This group expanded a great deal during and after WW II. Jews in America experienced discrimination, like many ethnic groups. They were often excluded from the mainstream culture, but they were also very hard-working and very successful. New York has five main sections or boroughs. One of them is Brooklyn, which is where her family lives.

Review of the Background Information

Part I: Based on the background information, answer these questions yes or no.

  1. World War II happened between 1939 – 45.YESNO
  2. In WW II, Germany was against the United States.YESNO
  3. Rose White was born in America.YESNO
  4. Rose White is a Christian.YESNO
  5. The Germans were called Nazis during WW II.YESNO
  6. Rose and her whole family were able to escape to the US.YESNO
  7. Rose’s and her father learn her sister is coming to America.YESNO
  8. Rose is totally happy that her sister will be joining them.YESNO
  9. New York is a city with a lot of immigrants.YESNO
  10. Rose and her family live in one part of New York called Brooklyn.YESNO

Part II: Fill in these sentences with the right word from the Background Information

  1. Rose White belongs to the ______Religion.
  2. More than ______Jews were killed by the Nazis.
  3. Rose and her father came to the US, but her ______and sister did not.
  4. Rose has grown up in ______.
  5. Rose is feeling ______about her sister.
  6. At the time of the movie, New York was America’s ______city.
  7. ______were the largest group of immigrants in New York.
  8. Jews in America after WW II were able to ______with difficulty.
  9. New York has five boroughs or five ______.
  10. Rose White and her family lived in the ______part of New York.

Part III: Write down your questions about the Background Information below.

  1. ______
  2. ______
  3. ______
  4. ______
  5. ______

Getting Started

The movie starts with street scenes from New York as jazz music plays in the background. One young woman is very well dressed with white gloves and a large hat. She is on her way to work. When she gets there, she “punches in” which means she records on a time card when she starts work. When she leaves, she’ll punch out so her employer will know how much time she has worked.

She starts work in the dressing room where she has an informal conversation with a co-worker who invites her to join her on a date with her boyfriend. Rose declines, but doesn’t say what she’ll be doing. The friend asks her what she does every Friday night, but Rose doesn’t say. This is a clue for the listeners because Friday night is the beginning of the Sabbath, the holy day for Jews. Rose doesn’t explain this because she doesn’t want to be known as being Jewish or being different from anyone else. She is trying to ‘fit in’ to the culture and social structure of the store and its employees.

In the next scene, Rose is talking with her supervisor. The conversation goes well because she learns that she has been chosen for a promotion from sales girl to second assistant buyer. Rose is very happy about this development.

As that conversation finishes, a new person enters. He is Mr. McKay. He and Rose seem to have a friendship. She goes to tell him about her promotion. They have a conversation with a couple of clothing dummies who Mr. McKay calls ‘Walter’ and ‘Mazy.’ A dummy is a word that has a couple of meanings. The meaning used here is a statue used in stores to display clothes and other things for sale (merchandise). Dummy is a common or slang term for a mannequin. The other meaning of dummy is for a stupid person, one who doesn’t think or talk. This is a slang term and mildly insulting to use.

The conversation between Rose and Mr. McKay turns when he shows her two tickets to a Broadway show called Carousel. He invites her to go on a date with him to see this show. Broadway is a very famous street in NY where there are many theaters. These theaters have plays in them with live actors and some of these are musicals. Usually these shows are very popular. People still pay a lot of money to go to Broadway shows today. The tickets are for a show that evening, but again, Rose has to decline an offer. She tells Mr. McKay she can’t go on the date, but like with her other friend, she doesn’t say why. As she leaves, we find out that they will see each other on Saturday night.

The scene changes to later in the day. Rose is walking down a residential street (a street with residences or homes). Rose enters her apartment as the same music is playing and Rose hums and sings along. She also is removing her make-up on puts on a black dress. Later she is walking with flowers through a market area. She looks very different from the fashionable sales woman at the store. This difference in appearance and in the neighborhood is very important to other differences that we see later in the film. Rose lives in both worlds and she makes a transition between them.

As Rose enters a tailor shop, she says, “Good Shabbats” to a woman (her aunt) and gives her a kiss. The term can be translated from Hebrew (the language of the Jews) as good Sabbath. It is a common greeting giving at the beginning of the Sabbath day. The Sabbath tradition goes back to the story in the Bible (the holy book for Jews and Christians) of the creation. The Bible story is that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. That seventh day is called the Sabbath and Jews are commanded by God to rest on the Sabbath. That means they are told not to work and to remember through some traditions we will see, their history and their relationship to God and others.

Rose and her aunt talk. We learn Rose’s father and her Uncle Shimon will soon be home from service (a religious meeting) and she has made some special foods. She asks Rose about her life and they exchange some small talk. One interesting detail is that Rose looks into every mirror she passes to check on her appearance. We get the understanding that she is aware of her good looks and wants to be sure how others see her.

Rose helps to set the table. Her aunt tells her to light the candles and that she waits for Rose to light them. Rose says they should be lit by sundown, which is the beginning of the Sabbath. The aunt puts a veil on head and after Rose lights the candles, she recites (says certain written words) in Hebrew that seem to be a prayer.

After Rose is finished, she tells her aunt of her new position, to which her aunt, ‘mazel-tov’ or congratulations. Rose also says that she’s signed up for evening classes at a college for retailing. We learn that it was 17 years ago that Rose stepped off the boat and came to New York. Her aunt is very proud and calls her Miss Rose White. Rose says, “Shhh, not so loud. Papa might come in.” The woman says, “So let him. He should be proud of you. You are the first one in the family who is a true American… educated… no accent… a refined job… so why shouldn’t you be Rose White?” She then adds, “Oh Rayzel, I look at you and you know what I see? I tell you what I see. I see the future.”

At this point, Uncle Shimon enters. He is happy about the services. The aunt wants to know where Mordecai (Rose’s father) is. Neither the uncle or aunt knows. The aunt wants to know why and Uncle Shimon says, “It must have been the phone call.” We learn that the father had a call while the uncle was working with some customers and that the father hung up and left right away. Soon the father calls out and comes upstairs very happy with good news. The father asks everyone to sit and that he has special news from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). He tells them that “Thanks to God, I found your sister.”

Everyone is shocked and happy because of the news that Rose’s sister Lusia is alive and that she went from a concentration camp in Poland to a hospital in Sweden.He adds that she is coming by boat in about 3 weeks.Mordecai tells Rose that when Lusia comes, she will stay with Rose. Rose is surprised and says that she doesn’t know her and that Lusia might feel awkward. The father won’t hear of anything else and tells Rose what will happen. This conversation tells us a lot about the traditional relationship between Rose and her father as well as Rose’s mixed feelings about a reunion with her sister.