However, the film falls back to silent as Jackie's father rushes into the house and disrupts Jackie's performance. This scene presents a dichotomy of the incompatibility between the old Jewish traditions and modern American culture, which incorporates entertainments elements of popular culture instead of conservative and rigorous religious values. .
After Jackie left home and abandoned his religious beliefs, he begins to incorporate himself into American society and tries to change his racial and ethnical identity. .
As the film scene changes to a Cafe' with flashing lights, Jackie eats hams and eggs and introduces himself as Jack Robin. In this scene, flashing lights, hams and eggs stand for contemporary American culture. And Jackie's change of his name represents his rejection of his Jewish faith and acceptance of the American mainstream. Jackie's race and identity also changes when Jackie painted his face black and performances minstrelsy show. Because it was a tradition for white performers to appear in black face on stage, the blackface provides a way for Jackie to enter the white American mainstream since he adopts blackface for his stage role on Broadway and endeavors to disguise his Jewish ethnicity behind the mask of blackface minstrelsy. Now he appears to be like any other white American pretending to be black. By imitating African Americans and speaking the voice of the other race, Jackie, as a Jewish, successfully draws his distinctions between himself and blacks and gains racial acceptance as a popular entertainer, thus asserting a white racial identity within the context of American racial hierarchies. However, when his father falls sick and is unable to sing at Yom Kippur services, Jackie is forced to choose between singing at services as a cantor and the opportunity for reconciliation with his father and opening night on Broadway. Actually, he needs to make a decision between old world values and new world ambitions.
THE EVOLUTION OF BLACK FILM 4 1.1. Blackfacing and Film Shorts 4 1.1.1. ... The Reportorial Film 12 1.2. ... This research will provide an overview of the black images in American film culture from 1895 to 1927. ... THE EVOLUTION OF BLACK FILM Whether or not the image and presenting of blacks in American films changed superficially or contextually over the passing years is at issue. ...