Anzia Yezierska was a Jewish-American author born in the late 1800’s to Bernard and Pearl Yezeirska in Poland. To be specific, Anzia was born 1885 in Maly Plock, Poland. Around the time that Anzia was five years old her family had moved to the lower east side of Manhattan to begin life anew and pursue the American dream. Growing up, Yezierska’s parents had encouraged the children to obtain a higher education and continue learning. During her lifetime Anzia had married only twice; one of the mentioned
history text books, but a better way to understand the feelings and thoughts of the struggling emigrants is to learn a story from an insider, who herself lived there and experienced first hand all the challenges and hardships of the emigrants' life. Anzia Yezierska's novel "Bread Givers" is a story that lets the reader to learn about the life of Jewish Emigrants in the early Twentieth Century on Manhattan's lower East Side through the eyes of a poor young Jewish woman who came from Poland and struggled
a variety of the type of adjustments being made by the new Americans. The story of Anzia Yezierska is a good example of how different the mannerisms in America are in comparison to Poland in this case. Immigrating with
In Anzia Yezierska’s novel entitled Bread Givers, there is an apparent conflict between Reb Smolinsky, a devout Orthodox rabbi of the Old World, and his daughter Sara who yearns to associate and belong to the New World. Throughout the story, one learns about the hardships of living in poverty, the unjust treatment of women, and the growth of a very strong willed and determined young woman—Sara Smolinsky. After leaving Poland to venture out into the New World of America, the Smolinsky family endured
Grows in Brooklyn,” Mary Rommely, an immigrant, holds the belief that, once she came to America, “it’s been much harder” (Smith 82). However, in Anzia Yezierska’s short story “America and I,” Yezierska writes that “[g]reat chances have come to me” (107). How can Rommely and Yezierska both immigrate and yet have two different views of America? Yezierska picked up various skills and education over her years in America, explaining in “America and I” that “[g]radually, I became a trained worker” and
This idea of struggling to assimilate in America can first be seen in Bread Givers, by Anzia Yezierska. Anzia uses the narrator Sarah, to tell the story of family who newly moved to America and is living in New York City. From Sarah’s narration, we can see the idea that some first-generation immigrants had a resistance to assimilating to American
Odalis Diaz English 3 honors Ms. L 04/24/18 America and I In the short story “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska, the author talks about a girl who came to America looking for the “American dream” and also trying to escape from Russia, which she calls prison. This nameless girl feels “beaten out of [her heart],” suffocated in Russia, like she couldn’t get out of her impoverished lifestyle there. She tried to adjust to living in America because she’s from a different culture and environment and
Freedom is Not Free in Bread Givers Anzia Yezierska in Bread Givers and "Children of Loneliness" explores the theme of reconciling assimilation to American culture and retaining her cultural heritage. "Richard F. Shepard asserted in the New York Times that Yezierska’s people…did not want to find themselves. They wanted to lose themselves and find America" (Gale Database 8). Rachel and Sara, the main characters, move ahead by employing the America motto of hard work will pay off. The problem
have occurred since the 1920s in traditional family values and the family life. Research revealed several different findings among family values, the way things were done and are now done, and the different kinds of old and new world struggles. In Anzia Yezierska's Bread Givers, Sara and her father have different opinions of what the daughters' role should be. Sara believed that she should be able to choose what her life will be, because it is her life. She was assimilated to the new world in this
Anzia Yezierska’s Bread Givers is a novel that describes the difficult life of a young Jewish girl who goes through many difficulties in her life in order to strive for success in America, only to find herself back at the same place where she was in at the beginning. The protagonist, Sara Smolinsky, is daughter of Jewish immigrants and belongs to a family of six. Under the dull household and extremely strict rules of her father, Reb Smolinsky, Sara struggles to become a person in society. The novel
not true for everyone. An example would be the short story, “America and I,” by Anzia Yezierska, where the tone progresses as she recounts her story of coming to America as an immigrant from false hope to a bittersweet reality. To begin with, Yezierska started the narrative with a very positive, hopeful tone. She began the story by comparing what America was going to be like compared to her home country, Russia. Yezierska explains, “Choked for ages in
to the American Dream? In my opinion, i do not think America can still provide access to the American Dream. People like Anzia Yezierska came to America believing these rumors. In her short story “America and I” she says, “ Who am I? What am I? What do I want with my life? Where is America? Is there an America? What is this wilderness in which I am lost?” Anzia Yezierska is talking about how when she got here, she didn't see what everyone was talking about. When she got here she got a low paying
Anzia Yezierska is one of many immigrants that traveled to America in order to create a new living. Throughout her short story “America and I”, she immerses the reader with descriptive imagery and thoughtful detail as she tells of the challenges she personally faced. Perpetually conflicted and confused, Yezierska’s ever-evolving understanding of America changes the structure of narrative to fit her journey. Throughout the trials presented and an internal battle against an imagined and romanticized
a happy life, Americans made it almost seem easy. The story 'America and I' written by Anzia Yezierska, gives the audience a greater look at what it must be like to start a new life in the great America. "As one of the dumb, voiceless ones I speak. One of the millions of immigrants beating, beating out their hearts at your gates for a breath of understanding." This opening line helps the readers feel what Anzia (and many other immigrants) were feeling just before migrating to the United States. Full
“I saw that success failure, poverty, riches, were price tags, money values of the market place which had mesmerized and sidetracked me for years.” (Yezierska). She was distracted and enchanted by the thoughts of wanting to be rich. She wanted to be rich so she could have the same opportunities that other people did and live a normal life. "Pay me out, little by littler! The cheek of those dirty immigrants
Anzia Yezierska's Bread Givers Anzia Yezierska's Bread Givers attacks several social norms of both her traditional Polish homeland and the American life her protagonist has come to know. Clearly autobiographical, Bread Givers boldly questions why certain social and religious traditions continue throughout the centuries without the slightest consideration for an individual's interests or desires. Sara's traditional Jewish upbringing exposed her to a life dominated by patriarchal control;
Salesman, Ellis Island, and America and I The American dream is as varied as the people who populate America. The play The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the poem "Ellis Island" by Joseph Bruchac, and the poem "America and I" by Anzia Yezierska illustrate different perspectives of the American dream. All three authors show some lines of thought on what the freedom inherent in the American dream means. The authors clarify distinct ideas on the means to achieving the American dream
A View of Perspective: “Free Vacation House” by Anzia Yezierska How someone experiences a city is determined by many factors such as sex, race, religion, time period, ethnic group and whether they come from a working class background or a wealthy background. These things shape the way they view and experience the city. In Anzia Yezierska’s story “Free Vacation House” the main character whose name is not given is a wife and mother of polish decent living in tenement housing in the early 1900’s
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
This proposal will identify the social construction of gender roles for women as the “other” in the primary source writings of Simone De Beauvoir’s The Second Sex and Arrogant Beggar by Anzia Yezierska. Beauvoir’s Second Sex provides a primary source evaluation of the historical distortion of women’s role in society as the “other” through patriarchal traditions that have no basis in genetics or science. Yezierska’s experiences as a Jewish woman in New York “workhouses” define the subjective gender