Bread Givers is a novel written by Anzia Yezierska in 1925 that talks about the life of a young immigrant Jewish girl living with her family in Lower East New York in the early twentieth century. One of the themes depicted in the novel is about the various challenges a women face in their traditional families. Sara Smolinsky, our ten-year-old girl character from Russia who came to America, in search of a better life. Her family includes her three sisters along with her parents, who are in search of jobs at the beginning of the novel in America. By reading the novel, one can see the similarities between the life of Sara and the author herself and her self-struggle to escape the slums of America.
Sara’s father is a devoted Jew whose entire life …show more content…
Being born into a family or community where women are considered to be the main source of income, she was accustomed to working hard in order to feed her family. This is also the reason why Sara’s father refuses to let any of his daughter marry. At the age of ten, Sara was busy earning for her family and didn’t have any time for herself. Because she was born in a community where women were expected to earn, she worked non-stop giving her father the time to do his reading and teaching the holy Jewish text instead of earning.
Yezierska’s writing style not only depicts the hardship she had to undergo in order to learn English from a janitor’s daughter, but instead her unique writing style transport readers into her world without any pretense or self-withdraw. Sara had an intense passion towards education. In order to pay for school and get good grades, she must ignore her duty towards her family. Sara desires to fit in to the American culture, talk and dress like her peers. She leaves college with a teaching degree and one thousand dollars which she won through an essay contest.
Yezierska did a splendid job in expressing the beauty of Jewish culture and its incapability with early twentieth century urban life. He illustrates the inherent hypocrisy of having one foot in the old world and the other in the
Sara’s father is a devoted Jew whose entire life …show more content…
Being born into a family or community where women are considered to be the main source of income, she was accustomed to working hard in order to feed her family. This is also the reason why Sara’s father refuses to let any of his daughter marry. At the age of ten, Sara was busy earning for her family and didn’t have any time for herself. Because she was born in a community where women were expected to earn, she worked non-stop giving her father the time to do his reading and teaching the holy Jewish text instead of earning.
Yezierska’s writing style not only depicts the hardship she had to undergo in order to learn English from a janitor’s daughter, but instead her unique writing style transport readers into her world without any pretense or self-withdraw. Sara had an intense passion towards education. In order to pay for school and get good grades, she must ignore her duty towards her family. Sara desires to fit in to the American culture, talk and dress like her peers. She leaves college with a teaching degree and one thousand dollars which she won through an essay contest.
Yezierska did a splendid job in expressing the beauty of Jewish culture and its incapability with early twentieth century urban life. He illustrates the inherent hypocrisy of having one foot in the old world and the other in the