Analysis Of The Book ' The Givers '

    Anzia Yezierska’s most-taught novel, Bread Givers, "is an extensive observation of relationships in an immigrant family of early 20th century America" (Sample 1). Noticeably, one of the most fascinating qualities of Yezierska’s work is that, though most readers probably come from significantly different backgrounds than that of her characters, she writes in a manner that allows her stories to be discussed in contemporary terms, (Drucker 1) while simultaneously illustrating the immigrant experience. Particularly, this phenomenon can be seen in her portrayal of certain generational conflicts. In Bread Givers, Yezierska depicts the struggle of finding one’s self in life, a

In Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska Sara is growing up as a Jewish immigrant migrated from Russia. From a young age she has only wanted to support herself and her family. As she grows older she begins to aspire to be “something”. What that something is seems unclear even to Sara. Sara is so unsure of what she hungers for that multiple points can be argued. Some may say she hungers for money because of the way her family has always had to scrape for pennies just to survive. Some may argue she quests for freedom because she runs away from her family. These are decent analysis but they do not dive as deep as they should. Sara’s aspirations are so much more than just money to buy more clothes or just freedom from her family. Sara is an

In Anzia Yezierska's Bread Givers, Sara and her father have different opinions of what the daughters' role should be. Sara believed that she should be able to choose what her life will be, because it is her life. She was assimilated to the new world in this sense. She felt that since she lived in America she should have the right to be free to chose her lifestyle and make it what she wanted. She believed that she should be able to keep

Bread Givers tells the story of Sara Smolinsky, whose life is almost the same as Anzia Yezierska, who is the author. Through Sara we see the collapse of a family because of religion and old world ways. Sara tries so hard to get away from her past but in the end it shows that your family will always be there, for good or bad.

Sara faces a number of serious hindrances on her way to making a life of her own. One of them is her father, who she looks up to and starts to resent later on in life. Her father, Red Smolinsky wants his all daughters to fulfill their gender roles: maintain the household, take care of children, cook, etc. Women, in his opinion, do not exist without men and their own function is to serve men in all senses – sexual, psychological and spiritual. Red Smolinsky represents the Old World with its conservative view on the womanhood. She also starts to hate her father when she understands the ways he has denied his daughters, her older sisters, lives of their own. Sara tries to resist this “new” world and her

“I know I’m a fool. But I cannot help it. I haven’t the courage to live for myself. My own life is knocked out of me. No wonder Father called me the burden bearer.” This was regarding Bessie, this shows how Bessie’s life was shaped through the influence of religious teachings, forcing herself to stay loyal to the societal expectation and giving up her personal pursuits. She calls herself the “burden bearer” because it was the religion and/or societal teaching for females in Judaism should dedicate their lives to men’s. This was, in fact, the case in which every female figure of the Smolinsky family has suffered throughout the book. Sarah, too, was suffering from such conflict until she realized this is not what she sees herself into if she is to make herself break out the poverty and the so called “religious obedience”.

When Sara is out selling herring to earn money for dinner, she says, “Nothing was before me but the hunger in our house, and no bread for the next meal if I didn’t sell the herring.” This shows just how desperate Sara and her family are for money to put food on the table. Many immigrant families struggled to make ends meet even with all the members of their families working. They had to live in tenements and endure poor living conditions because they used the little income that they received to pay for food. In the book, the family’s kitchen at dinner time is described by saying, “The stove was cold. No food was on the table.” The Smolinsky family struggles to put food on the table every night, so they could not think about sending one of their daughters to school when they desperately need money themselves. Women were simply not given the opportunity to educate themselves and therefore it was hard for them to pursue any sort of career in America.

The Bread Givers, written by Anzia Yezierska, revolves around a starving lower east side family whose daughter rebels against her fathers’ strict conception of the role of a Jewish woman. The major theme of this novel is doomed relationships. There are several of these that are thoroughly analyzed in the novel. These include the relationship between Rabbi Smolinksy and the females in his family as well as those in his society, between him and his son-in-laws, between the Smolinsky daughters and their husbands, between the Smolinsky daughters and their heritage, between Rabbi Smolinksy and his heritage, and lastly, between the old and the new. The following will concentrate on three of latter

Anzia Yezierska’s 1925 novel Bread Givers ends with Sara Smolinsky’s realization that her father’s tyrannical behavior is the product of generations of tradition from which he is unable to escape. Despite her desire to embrace the New World she has just won her place in, she attempts to reconcile with her father and her Jewish heritage. The novel is about the tension inherent in trying to fit Old and New worlds together: Reb tries to make his Old World fit into the new, while Sara tries to make her New World fit into the Old. Sara does not want to end up bitter and miserable like her sisters, but she does not want to throw her family away all together. Her struggle is one of trying to convince her patriarchal family to accept her as an

     In Anzia Yezierska’s novel entitled Bread Givers, there is an apparent conflict between Reb Smolinsky, a devout Orthodox rabbi of the Old World, and his daughter Sara who yearns to associate and belong to the New World. Throughout the story, one learns about the hardships of living in poverty, the unjust treatment of women, and the growth of a very strong willed and determined young woman—Sara Smolinsky.

In Anzia Yezierska’s Bread Givers, Sara proves to herself that she is her own hero by defying dated expectations of filial piety and lifting herself out of the life of poverty that she was born into. She builds herself up to be an independent member of society via her own achievements and lives her dream by overcoming the hardships of her parents’ Old World, and becoming a successful American. In the end, she strikes balance between still contributing to her family, and caring for herself. For Sara’s family, life in America was drastically less glamorous than they had anticipated when emigrating from Russia. The reality of America was an immediate let down and Sara’s family was hurled headlong into a life of poverty and hardship. Throughout

The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis, gives us an insight on what the life of an Afghani girl goes through.The author’s portrayal in The Breadwinner shows us how Parvana/Kassem shows perseverance all throughout the book.

Most people follow the footsteps of their parents because those are a person's role models. It is very difficult to break out of an economical class and make a better life for themselves than what they were raised up into. In The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara, Silvia is a young girl growing up a poor section of New York City. Miss Moore is a educated lady that moves to Silvia’s neighborhood in order to help educate the youth on some important life lessons. Silvia is reluctant to listen to anything Miss Moore has to say until one day when they go to a nicer part of the city seeing how the other half of society lives.

Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska is a story primarily about a young girl Sara Smolinsky who comes from poverty, rejection, and countless amount of failures faced as a child. Throughout the novel Sara Smolinsky unluckily never actually gets to thrive as a grown-up due to the continuous amount of obstacles that she is confronted by in the world and time that she lives in. Sara Smolinsky, who is the protagonist throughout the novel, happens to be one of four girls in her family. Out of her 3 other sisters, she’s the one who strives with the most determination for her independence away from her family, as well as wanting to be able to take care of herself. In order to attain this objective Sara knows she needs to isolate herself from the hold her family has on her and journey elsewhere. This restriction and limitation in which her family has amongst her, doesn’t just affect her but her sisters as well, interfering with what they really desire in life.

In Anzia Yezierska's Bread Givers of 1952, a family of immigrant parents living in poverty in the ghetto of New York City struggles to survive. Yezierska’s use of simile and hyperbole emphasize the fact that women's role in life is deteriorated by men. For so long, women have gotten the stereotype that they are only worthy of cooking and cleaning and are treated poorly by men. Unfortunately, Sarah begins to feel as if she is the only one who wants to be treated equally and stand up for themselves because both her sisters and mothers are coward. Father’s hyperbolic response to mother's opposition to his irrational declarations of being a banker emphasizes his resentment and insolence towards her. Father says, “Woman-- A nag, a noodnik that