Education of Ivan

Ivan was ten years old when his family moved to a large city in the U.S. At first he liked the U.S. because of the nice technology and good weather, but his view was changed by the things that happened soon after he arrived.

 His father had been a surgeon in Russia, but was unhappy in his hospital, and was hoping to get a better life for his family in the U.S. Unfortunately, he couldn't get a job as a surgeon in the U.S., so he worked for a construction company that was improving a sidewalk in the downtown area. He was running the jackhammer, a backbreaking job, and making a lot of noise as well as stirring up unpleasant dust. A storeowner came out, protested that the noise was disrupting her business, and asked Ivan passionately to stop the jackhammering until business hours were over. Ivan's father's English was poor, but he understood the request; still, he couldn't find his boss, had to do his job, and found no alternative besides refusing. The store owner continued insisting, speaking loudly, perhaps assuming he was deaf from the jackhammering.

Finally Ivan's father made a gesture; he ran his finger along the front of his neck, which, in Russia, would mean, "I've had enough." In the U.S. it is more likely to mean "cut" or "you're finished;" of course Ivan's father didn't know this. The woman took it as a threat, called the police, and had Ivan's father arrested.

 Ivan visited his father in jail where things were getting worse for him. The construction company provided a lawyer, but he wasn't a good one, and he seemed to assume that Ivan's father was guilty, since he was upset when they talked about the incident, and seemed to be disrespectful to the woman. Although the lawyer assured Ivan's father that he would be released immediately, he wasn't. To make matters worse, there was an incident in the jail involving another prisoner starting a fight with Ivan's father, and it looked like the father was being accused of starting that fight also. Authorities held Ivan's father in jail because they assumed he was dangerous.

Ivan's mother considered going back to Russia, but she didn't want to abandon her husband. Ivan became unhappy in school and got into a fight himself, because a neighbor boy found out that his father was in jail and teased him in front of the other schoolchildren. His mother started a new job to support the family, but that meant that Ivan was left alone in the afternoons when he came home from school. He became isolated, depressed and angry.

Eventually, the father was released from jail and came back home. He had, after all, been innocent of everything, although it took a while for everyone to figure that out. He apologized to the store owner and got his job back. However, Ivan became an angry teenager, mad at his father, and unable to fit in successfully at school for many years.
~1997