In Yezierska's short story "The Lost Beautifulness," the
climax occurs when Hanneh destroys the beauty she has created in the
kitchen.
The story revolves around the kitchen she has
painted for her son's return home. Hanneh has saved her pennies over the years by doing
laundry for Mrs. Preston. Mrs. Preston has a beautiful home of great beauty, and it is
from her employer's home that Hanneh gets the idea to paint the
kitchen.
Her husband complains about the waste of money,
but Hanneh is overwhelmed by what she has created. Even her friends and neighbors praise
the wonderful work she has done. And every time she looks at it, she is reminded again
of the gift she has received in being able to create such a thing of
beauty.
When the landlord sees what she has done, he raises
her rent twice. Ultimately, he takes her to court, where Hanneh is told that if she
cannot pay the new rent, she must leave her
apartment.
Returning home, Hanneh is devastated. She shares
her despair with the butcher. His advice is that if she must leave, she should not leave
the beautiful kitchen for the landlord to use to make more money. If it happened to him,
he swears he would destroy it.
That evening, in a moment of
pure rage, this is exactly what Hanneh does: she takes an axe to the walls and burns the
gas high enough to scorch the ceiling black. This is the climax of the
story.
However, after she has done this, she is amazed at
what wildness must have possessed her to do such a thing; she has indeed destroyed the
kitchen, but in doing so, she has destroyed the beauty she created, and she feels as if
she has destroyed her very soul.
It is in this condition
her son finds her, evicted from her apartment, and sitting on the curb, with her worldly
goods on the ground around her.
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