Bread Givers is a novel written based on the author’s, Anzia Yezierska, life. The novel is about “a struggle between a father of the Old World and a daughter of the New,” which is stated on the book cover. Throughout the novel, we read about a young girl name Sara Smolinsky who struggles to succeed in life while trying to be happy. The author’s message from writing this novel is that we can do anything if we set our minds into it and work hard for it. The book gives hope to the readers who have lost hope and are struggling through their life. In the beginning of the novel, the Smolinsky family has been working hard to earn money to pay for the rent and for their food. Reb Smolinsky, Sara’s father, stays home and studies the Torah since “women had no brains for the study of God’s Torah, but they could be the servants of men who studied the Torah” (Yezierska, 9-10). For that,
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Every time one of her sisters falls in love, their father decides to go out and control their love life by finding a man who looks wealthy to be married to. When Bessie, Sara’s oldest sister, likes a guy name Berel Bernstein and he came to their home, Reb questioned him about how long he has been in America, if he’s still religious and how much his wages are (Yezierska, 43). Reb didn’t want to marry Bessie off because she carries the burden of the family and also earns the largest wages out of her siblings that work and he doesn’t think Berel is worthy enough to marry Bessie. Reb did the same thing to all the men that loved one of his daughters and introduced other men to his daughters. After seeing how miserable her sisters were, she decided that when she “she get a lover [she] don’t want Father questioning out his wages, or calling him a meshumid because he played the piano on the Sabbath” (Yezierska, 66). She want “an American-born man who was his own boss” and also “let [her] be [her] own boss” (Yezierska,
Every time one of her sisters falls in love, their father decides to go out and control their love life by finding a man who looks wealthy to be married to. When Bessie, Sara’s oldest sister, likes a guy name Berel Bernstein and he came to their home, Reb questioned him about how long he has been in America, if he’s still religious and how much his wages are (Yezierska, 43). Reb didn’t want to marry Bessie off because she carries the burden of the family and also earns the largest wages out of her siblings that work and he doesn’t think Berel is worthy enough to marry Bessie. Reb did the same thing to all the men that loved one of his daughters and introduced other men to his daughters. After seeing how miserable her sisters were, she decided that when she “she get a lover [she] don’t want Father questioning out his wages, or calling him a meshumid because he played the piano on the Sabbath” (Yezierska, 66). She want “an American-born man who was his own boss” and also “let [her] be [her] own boss” (Yezierska,