The Exodus

The Exodus is the central turning point of Mary Antin's memoir, the chapter in which the Antin family leaves Polotzk, Russia, and journeys to America, an event the narrator explicitly frames as a modern counterpart to the biblical story of deliverance. It is the moment when the abstract dream of "America" — first planted in Mary's mind by her father's pre-sailing letter — becomes a physical reality, and when the family's identity shifts from that of a people in exile to that of immigrants on the threshold of a new life. The chapter's title, shared with the book's eighth chapter, signals its significance: this is not merely a change of residence but a reenactment of a sacred narrative, with the Atlantic standing in for the Red Sea and Boston for the Promised Land.