The Struggle in Bread Givers Essay

With the world being populated by so many people and families, there are several types of people with diverse ethnic backgrounds, culture, and manner of living that are the causes of distinct values within a family. Families that are rich and poor have virtuous family values, however what one may consider as a mediocre family value may seem poor to someone else and vice versa. The purpose of this essay is to address the societal issues amongst our family values and the working class.

The diversity of the families in today’s modern society doesn’t always hold to the past values that are represented in “The Walton’s”. The television show portrays wholesome, healing, spiritual, and uplifting values of the family that are rarely seen in modern families. Religion was a major part of living in the early 1900’s; love, morality, and a deep respect for others were learned in infancy. Today, religion still plays a large role in families, but not to the same extent. Morals and values have become less and less a part of our busy world, or perhaps they have just changed to adapt to modern beliefs. Priorities have changed from those that were upheld in the days that families lived through the Great Depression. In the show, the family made loving, difficult, sacrifices for each other, encouraged education,

Sara Smolinsky is the youngest of four sisters; the eldest is Bessie, whom everyone calls the “Burden-bearer” because the whole family lives on her pay check. “I knew the landlord came that morning hollering for rent. And the whole family were hanging on Bessie’s neck for her wages. Unless she got work soon, we’d be thrown in the street to shame and to laughter for the whole world.”(1) The second eldest

This essay, The Myth of the Model American Family, is a discussion of the concept of an ideal family in the different perspective specifically social, cultural and economic. This is also an attempt to identify the structural changes in relation to the global development and the international economic crisis that immensely created impact on their lives. However, the discussion will limit itself on the different identifiable and observable transformations as manifested in the lifestyles, interrelationships and views of family members and will not seek to provide an assessment of their psycho-social and individual perceptions.

Over the course of the last sixty years, family values have consistently continued to change. With a heavier influx of women entering the work force and the social emphasis of individualism, the traditional family image has changed, and with

There are numerous ethnographic surrealist films that have an intriguing relationship to aesthetics and politics. A film that exemplifies this relationship is “Las Hurdes: Tierra Sin Pan” (Land Without Bread). This film is only 27-minutes and is directed by the infamous Luis Bunuel in 1933. Bunuel was a Spanish filmmaker of the 1920’s to the 1970’s. He is often attributed to being one of the major contributors to the surrealist movement of the 1920’s. “Ethnographic surrealism is a utopian construct, a statement at once about past and future possibilities for cultural analysis.”(Clifford, 119) ‘Land Without Bread’ has a clear connection between politics and aesthetics. It uses many techniques, specifically

In the early twentieth century, Fania, Bessie, and Masha, the older children of the Smolinski family are unable to find work to support their hungry, weak family.The youngest daughter in the Smolinski family is named Sara and will go outside and make some money by selling herring when Mrs. Molinski loses hope for the family 's financial situation:"I was about ten years old then. But from always it was heavy on my heart the worries for the house as if I was mother. I knew that the landlord came that morning hollering for the rent," (P.1). Reb Smolinsky is the girls’ father. Reb is also out of work and as a poor Jewish man, spends his days reading holy books and living off of what little money his own children make. Eventually the older daughters will find work. Mrs. Smolinski is then able to rent a second room. The family is very excited when Bessie announces that she and a man named Berel Berenstein had fallen in love. Bessie invites him to dinner at her home. Reb finds out about his daughter’s relationship with Berel and even that Berel was willing to marry her. Despite the joy and enthusiasm expressed by the rest of the family, doesn’t decide to congratulate her, but rather that because of the family’s financial situation, Berel must also pay the full cost of the wedding. Reb also demands that Berel set him up a business. After that, Berel becomes infuriated and leaves. After reading this I couldn’t help but wonder, one

“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”.

In her book Marriage a History Stephanie Coontz explains the male breadwinner family model and its dominance in family life during the 40’s, 50’s, and early 60’s. An illustration of the male breadwinner model is composed of a father, mother, and two children; typically a boy and girl close in age. Funded by their father’s well paying middle class salary, the wife and children live a comfortable life in suburbia and participate regularly in consumer trends. Perceived as the head of the household, the father was the sole financial provider. On the other hand the mother was the head of domestic life and was responsible for the children. The popular 1950’s TV show The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet exemplified this family model. With regard to the male breadwinner family model, imagine having eight other brothers and sisters. Imagine growing up without a mother, and with a father who worked constantly. Then consider living this life alongside your peers who come from the “normal” male breadwinner families Coontz describes… How would your family differ from your peers? What would be your thoughts and feelings towards family life? More importantly, how would these unique circumstances change your perception of the nuclear family?

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 outlooks on life between Sara, who was of the New World and Reb, who was of the Old World, clashed throughout the story. Reb is too engulfed in his Torah to realize the pain the women in his life were going through while he completely focused all of his time and energy into his religion while basking in his belief that men are superior to women. No one was allowed to enter Reb’s room full of holy books, and the sisters knew “that if God had given Mother a son, Father would have permitted a man child to share with him his best room in the house” (9). In Reb’s eyes, everything magnificent and great seems to only belong to

One person that is truly affected by her family limitations is Sara’s oldest sister Bessie. Bessie is known as the “burden bearer” of the family. The Smolinsky’s sincerely depend on Bessie to contribute her wages to the family’s well being, and it is apparent that if she seems to live up to her fathers standards to make good enough money, the family will certainly plummet into pieces. “And the whole family were hanging on Bessie’s neck for her wages. Unless she got work soon, we’d be thrown in the street to shame and to laughter

The families in America are steadily changing. While they remain our most valued and consistent source of strength and comfort, some families are becoming increasingly unstructured. In the past, the typical family consists of a working father, a stay at home mother and, of course, well-rounded children. Today, less than 20 percent of American families fit nicely into this cookie cutter image. American households have never been more diverse. Natalie Angier takes stock of the changing definition of family in an article for the New York Times.

n the upcoming page’s I will answer the following questions. Why is family the most important agent of socialization? What caused the dramatic changes to the American family? What are the changes? I will discuss the differences in marriage and family, I will discuss how they are linked to class, race, gender, and personal choices. The purpose of this study is to explore the many different family functions and the paths that people are now choosing. I will give my opinion on whether these changes have had a positive or negative affect. I will finally discuss the trend of the modern family, back to pre-World War II family structure, how would that effect the strides that have been made in the progression of women rights.

This paper will discuss the differences between families from the 1960’s and the families of today. There are many differences between the different times. I have focused on the parentage portion of the families. I explained what the ideal family is and how it is different today. I’ve also included ways that will help these families of today become stronger as a family.