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;
The passage I chose to explicate is from Anzia Yezierska’s, The Lost Beautifulness. The passage is located on pg. 1254 of the Norton Anthology of American Literature 1912-1945. I believe this passage represents the main character’s and author’s view of the Depression-era individual vs. society. It reads as follows: “I'm sick of living like a pig with my nose to the earth, all the time only pinching and scraping for bread and rent. So long my Aby is with America, I want to make myself for an American
Anzia Yezierska's Bread Givers and Soap and Water In Anzia Yezierska's works Bread Givers and "Soap and Water", she uses similar aspects of the characters that portray her own life. Both of the stories resemble similarities of Yezierska's life and appear to be autobiographical to her personal experiences. The author portrays, in both the stories, a belief that the majority culture is "clean" while the minority culture is dirty. Sarah in Bread Givers and the narrator in "Soap and Water"
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
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
scale, evaluated and mediated." This assertion implies that the immigrant family-household is the vehicle of assimilation. I will take this assertion a step further and examine more specifically the powerful role of the patriarchal father within Anzia Yezierska's book Bread Givers and Barry Levinson's film Avalon. Yezierska's theme vividly depicts the constraint of a patriarchal world, while Levinson illustrates the process of assimilation and the immigrant, now American, family and its decline
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
of a 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
Immigration is not always a perfect journey. There are many reasons why families immigrate and there are perception differences about immigration and the New World that create difficulties and often separate generations in the immigrating family. Anzia Yezierska creates an immigration story based on a Jewish family that is less than ideal. Yezierska’s text is a powerful example of the turmoil that is created in the family as a result of the conflict between the Old World and the New World. The
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
In “A Tree 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
Anzia Yezierska’s 1925 novel Bread Givers ends with Sara Smolinsky’s realization that her father’s tyrannical behavior is the product of generations of tradition from which he is unable to escape. Despite her desire to embrace the New World she has just won her place in, she attempts to reconcile with her father and her Jewish heritage. The novel is about the tension inherent in trying to fit Old and New worlds together: Reb tries to make his Old World fit into the new, while Sara tries to make
one to men that they did not really like. For the most part, these men turned out to be complete morons and self-cente... ... middle of paper ... ... her goal. Just like most first generation immigrants, the family went through dreadful poverty. Anzia Yezierska did an excellent job in describing what life was like for Sarah’s family, which was a sample of what life was like for immigrants. As an illustration, when Mashah, who was worked went out and bought herself a toothbrush and a small towel
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
access 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
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
reality of the American Dream is not like the promise. Many people believe that the American Dream is when people come to America to get rich and that may be true, but it is 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