Bread Givers Conflict

From the late 1890’s to the early 1920’s Anzia Yezierska’s novel Bread Givers illustrating the immigrant experience with generational conflict. During the 1890’s to the 1920’s a massive influx of new immigrants, primarily from Southern and Eastern Europe resulted in the Americanization movement. These restrictions on immigration came from the western frontier closing, fast paced industrialization, city and rural emigration, economic distress and labor conflicts. Within cities immigrants were grouped into specific neighborhoods; the Jewish Religion was placed on the Lower East Side of New York City. The primary source of conflict between emigrants and their children at the turn of the twentieth century was Americanization. Many emigrants came to America with the expectation that everything was free, the streets would be paved with gold, that once they made it there

The children of emigrants have had little to no opportunities or exposure to learning their native heritage. Even with this input, they live in a different world Sara identifies this conflict stating, “I’m not from the old country. I’m American!” (Yezierska, 137) Imagine placing your child from your homeland and removing the food, language, values, behaviors, everything that makes it what it truly is and trying to teach your values surrounded by new ones. Mr. Smolinsky openly rejects the integration of his daughters “I don’t want another Americanerin in my house” (Yezierska, 144). In the Smolinsky family, as with other immigrant parents, there was no degree of flexibility toward changing their ways of thinking to adapt to raise their children in America. Take the Americanization of Indian children who were kidnapped from their families as a part of an attempt to “civilize” Indians. Americans in a humanitarian effort dressed and taught these children how to act white and trained them in low-class