The Struggle In Bread Givers By Sara Smolinsky

953 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Gender roles in the 1920s

In Bread Givers, Sara Smolinsky faces the hardships in life involving poverty, oppression towards women during her period of time, and the need for independence. Being the youngest of three sisters, she is able to observe how her father has interjected his way into the lives of her three older sister’s. In contrast to her sisters, Sara has a mind of her own and initiates a desire to improve and become more than her father wants her to stand for. It is evident that in her journey to success, Sara is unable to express herself in a distinct way from how her family has raised her. They ridicule her and make her to believe she is the cold hearted daughter. In reality, she is the only one that has foreseen how the future, and how living in America …show more content…

It is told from the beginning, how since a young age Sara has felt the stress of of not being able to pay the rent for their home and being thrown out into the streets (Yezierska 1). Bessie, her oldest sister, is known as the “burden bearer” and gives all of her wages to her father, Reb, in order to support the family. They are in a perpetual state of not having enough to live by and soon comprehend that it is the father’s wrongdoing that is causing the family to the loss of their wealth. Instead of the Reb feeding his family he is feeding himself knowledge about religion while neglecting them. “If I were only a widow, people would pity themselves on me. But with you around, they think I got a bread giver when what I have is a stone giver” (Yezierska 127). Sara’s mother is aggravated by her husband at this point of the book. His unemployment does not harm him, but causes a great burden as he takes the money that they need try to …show more content…

They are able to witness her success of finally becoming a teacher and pulling herself out of poverty. But there is conflict arising because of her mother who is severely ill and is not able to live much longer. Sara tries her best to be there for her mother in her last moments on earth. Though, when her mother passes away, Sara is still harassed by her father as being known as the “hard heart” of the family even though he is worried more about who will take care of him and his needs. She sees the her father will not change his ways. He also tries to complicate her life more as times progresses, but she does not let this cease her new life. This novel has extraordinarily displayed the story of a girl seeking her own independence and overcoming her predicaments while having multiple barriers continuing to overthrow her from her intentions. She experienced a life filled with anxiety and hopelessness in regards to how no one was able to contradict her father’s beliefs and not knowing how to live life on her own. Despite all the dilemma in her life, Sara is able to overcome it all and became the women she yearned to

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Sister Souljah's The Coldest Winter Ever

    1094 Words  | 3 Pages

    While she might think that her plans are working, they only lead her down a path of destruction. She lands in a boarding house, when child services find her, she goes to jail, becomes pregnant by a man who she believed was rich. Also she becomes sentenced to 15 years in prison, over a street fight with a former friend she double crossed. In the end, she is still serving time and was freed by the warden to go to her mother’s funeral. To only discover that her two sisters were adopted by the man she once loved, her sister is with the man who impregnated her, and the younger sister has become just like her. She wants to warn her sister, but she realizes if she is just like her there is no use in giving her advice. She just decides that her sister must figure it out by

    Read More

  • Barbara Engel Not By Bread Alone Summary

    295 Words  | 1 Pages

    One of the first and most vital sources utilized was Not By Bread Alone by Barbara Engel. This article comes from Barbara Alpern Engel who is a historian who has wrote several books on Russian women and specifically Russian women during the early 1900s. The book appears in the larger journal The Journal of Modern History. The purpose of this article is to expound on the subsistence riots in WWI era Russia and the ones that lead to the Russian Revolution. A value of this source is her specialization, it seems, in Russian history from 1700 onwards. She has wrote several other books on Russian history and thus she has a greater knowledge than most on the subject. A limitation of this article maybe since she

    Read More

  • Bread Givers Book 3 Essay

    818 Words  | 2 Pages

    She feels guilty for not supporting him and giving him money in his time of need. To see him working to get money for his greedy wife made her feel terrible. In the end, Reb can’t stand being in the same house as his wife and decides he wants to leave. He doesn’t know where to, so Sara decides to take him in and let him live with her. Many cultures, such as Sara’s, are like that.

    Read More

  • Anzia Yezierska’s Novel, Bread Givers

    1051 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... while she still has time (257). She fails at first, thinking her father is “bereft of his senses” in his second marriage (258). She believes this despite the Torah saying, “a man must have a wife to keep him pure, otherwise his eyes are tempted by evil” (259). Gradually, Sara begins to understand her father: the only thing he has in life is his fanatical adherence to traditions; “In a world where all is changed, he alone remained unchanged” (296). Reb has a deep and true fear of God, to expect him to change beliefs that he believes have been handed down by God, beliefs that have persisted for thousands of years, is illogical. It is impossible to reconcile fully the New World with the Old, and it is the responsibility of the New to be the more flexible, unfair as it may be.

    Read More

  • Sarah's Key Social Injustice Quotes

    1692 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sarah and her mother are sought out by the French Police after an order goes out to arrest all French Jews. When Sarah’s little brother starts to feel the pressures of social injustice, he turns to his sister for guidance. Michel did not want to go with the French Police, so he asks Sarah to help him hide in their secret cupboard. Sarah does this because she loves Michel and does not want him to be discriminated against. Sarah, her mother, and her father get arrested for being Jewish and are taken to a concentration camp just outside their hometown. Sarah thinks Michel, her beloved brother, will be safe. She says, “Yes, he’d be safe there. She was sure of it. The girl murmured his name and laid her palm flat on the wooden panel. I’ll come back for you later. I promise” (Rosnay 9). During this time of inequality, where the French were removing Sarah and her mother just because they were Jewish, Sarah’s brother asked her for help. Sarah promised her brother she would be back for him and helped him escape his impending arrest. Sarah’s brother believed her because he looks up to her and loves her. As the story continues, when Sarah falls ill and is in pain, she also turns to her father for comfort, “at one point she had been sick, bringing up bile, moaning in pain. She had felt her father’s hand upon her, comforting her” (Rosnay 55).

    Read More

  • Bread Givers And Family Limitation

    1522 Words  | 4 Pages

    Early in the book we first learn about the oldest Smolinsky sister Bessie, who is also known as the, "burden bearer" of the family. The Smolinsky's rely on Bessie to contribute her wages to the family's well being, and is seems that if she fails to make good enough money, the family will undoubtedly fall 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 for the whole world." (Pg 1) Perhaps it is Bessie who has suffered the most from her family duty. It seems that Bessie has not even had time to develop a personality due to the weight her family has put on her shoulders throughout her years as a young child and through her adolescence. She needs to work in order to feed her family and she unlike Sara, has no freedom and no chance of escaping her family duties without the separation of her family due to poverty. This truly holds Bessie back from what she wants. Her duty to her father keeps her from marrying Berel and going off to live with him. However she wants, like Sara, to run away and be independent but she feels that without her family she will be left alone in the cold world with no where to go. This frightens Bessie and she feels that she would rather stay with what she has at home, than risk getting something she truly wants by running away from her family.

    Read More

  • Relationships in James Agee's A Death in the Family

    1211 Words  | 3 Pages

    All through the times of the intense expectation, overwhelming sadness, and inspiring hope in this novel comes a feeling of relief in knowing that this family will make it through the wearisome times with triumph in their faces. The relationships that the mother shares with her children and parents are what save her from despair and ruin, and these relationships are the key to any and all families emerging from the depths of darkness into the fresh air of hope and happiness.

    Read More

  • Anzia Yezierska's Bread Givers

    1254 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sara. traditional Jewish upbringing exposed her to a life dominated by patriarchal control. When she arrived in New York to seek out the American Dream, she. found that once again her gender would stand in the way of such desires. In Despite these cultural barriers, her mother understood Sara's burning quest.

    Read More

  • Bulimia Nervosa Case Study

    1517 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sara is a thirty three year old lesbian black female. She reports that she was 5’9” in eighth grade and has always been larger than everyone. She also reports that her grandmother was present in her life and would control her diet with slim fast starting around eighth grade, and her brother lived with her as well. Sara has stated that growing up, she did not feel safe, and that there has been trauma causing her life struggles. Her close friend, Julie, reports that she is aware of Sara’s condition but only because she has brought it up when something apparent relates, but declines to discuss in any further detail. Julie states that it is hard to believe Sara is struggling with such a condition and for so long because

    Read More

  • Ellen Foster

    748 Words  | 2 Pages

    basis of the plot and themes of this novel. The fond memories she possessed of her mother and the harsh ones of her father are reflected in the thoughts and

    Read More

  • The American Dream In Bread Givers By Anzia Yezierska

    1716 Words  | 4 Pages

    The constant hum of street vendors yelling, car horns blaring, and poor people complaining acts as the soundtrack to the family drama within the small apartment on Hector Street. There was never a quiet moment, and between the four sisters, an overworked mother, and an entitled father, the place was bustling and busy enough to burst. But to a young Sara Smolinsky, this chaotic ensemble was home. In the novel Bread Givers, immigrant author Anzia Yezierska writes about the realization of the American Dream for the ambitious and determined Sara Smolinsky, but the price of success is high. Sara starts her journey in the impoverished ghetto of Hester Street, and she escapes its dirtiness and shame, going on to achieve the American Dream. The apartment

    Read More

  • Rayona’s Growth in A Yellow Raft In Blue Water

    1070 Words  | 3 Pages

    As a teen, Rayona is in a confusing period of life. The gradual breakdown of her family life places an addition burden on her conscience. Without others for support, Rayona must find a way to handle her hardships. At first, she attempts to avoid these obstacles in her life, by lying, and by not voicing her opinions. Though when confronting them, she learns to feel better about herself and to understand others.

    Read More

  • The Struggle in Bread Givers

    1384 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sara's father also feels that he should get to pick the man that his daughters will marry. This is so old world, and Sara is not going to have it. She has watched her sisters who are so unhappy with the husbands that the father picked for them. Her father believes, "No girl can live without a father or a husband to look out for her," "It says in th...

    Read More

  • Comparing the Women of House on Mango Street and Bread Givers

    1701 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, written in 1984, and Anzia Yezierska’s Bread Givers, published in 1925, are both aimed at adolescent and adult audiences that deal with deep disturbing themes about serious social conditions and their effects on children as adults. Both books are told in the first person; both narrators are young girls living in destitute neighborhoods; and both young girls witness the harsh realities of life for those who are poor, abused, and hopeless. Although the narrators face these overwhelming obstacles, they manage to survive their tough environments with their wits and strength remaining intact.

    Read More

  • Female Empowerment In The Color Purple By Alice Walker

    1840 Words  | 4 Pages

    The novel follows the protagonist, Celie, as she experiences such hardships as racism and abuse, all the while attempting to discover her own sense of self-worth. Celie expresses herself through a series of private letters that are initially addressed to God, then later to her sister Nettie. As Celie develops from an adolescent into an adult, her letters possess m... ... middle of paper ... ... bservations of her situation and form an analysis of her own feelings.

    Read More

More about The Struggle In Bread Givers By Sara Smolinsky

Open Document