In Bread Givers, freedom for Sara is attached to the idea of independence and self-sufficiency. Also, defining freedom as being able to reach a state in which financial constraints do not represent a barrier for one’s desire for self-improvement. In order to achieve that desired state, education is viewed as a means to freedom; knowledge that would lead to the bettering of one’s condition. However, there are factors that prevent Sara from experiencing freedom. Along with the financial constraints that Sara and her family experience, there is also the male driven societal views that not only create a dependency on men, but also lower the status of the women. Ultimately, not only is Sara fighting against her poverty, she is also fighting against the masculine society that does not believe in the advancement of women. The ideals of self-sufficiency and independence are strong in Sara’s view of freedom because throughout Bread Givers we see the perils of dependence upon other people. The characters that put their trust in others to help them realize their goals are ultimately disappoint...
Despite the toll the job takes on her, Sara always sees the good things in life. This is due to two very loving parents, Sara claims. Sara refers to both of her parents as her main support system. They are also the people who have made the greatest influence on her life. “They have helped me through all of the hard times,” She told me proudly, “but they have shown me how to be a
In the novel The Bread Givers, there was a Jewish family, the Smolinsky family, that had immigrated from Russia to America. The family consisted of four daughters, a father, and a mother. The family lived in a poverty-stricken ghetto. The youngest of the daughters was Sara Smolinsky, nicknamed ?Iron Head? for her stubbornness. She was the only daughter that was brave enough to leave home and go out on her own and pursue something she wanted without the permission of her father. The Smolinsky family was very poor, they were to the point of which they could not afford to throw away potato peelings, and to the point of which they had to dig through other people?s thrown out ash in order to gather the coal they needed. They could not afford to buy themselves new clothes or new furniture.
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 her New World fit into the Old. Sara does not want to end up bitter and miserable like her sisters, but she does not want to throw her family away all together. Her struggle is one of trying to convince her patriarchal family to accept her as an independent woman, while assimilating into America without not losing too much of her past.
Book three of the novel “Bread Givers,” written by Anzia Yezierska is set in New York. The story revolves around Sara Smolinsky, her family and the struggles they face in their daily lives. The main conflict in book three is Sara’s guilt for leaving her family and pursuing her career without seeing them for six years. For example, when she comes back to see her family, she realizes she is too late. Her mother is dying. Sara feels horrible that she didn’t come to see her mother and spend more time with her. She knows that she should’ve come to see her mother instead of investing so much time with school. Then, her mother dies a couple days later. She decides to stay and visit her father, Reb Smolinsky, often but doesn’t visit him after he gets married again only thirty days after her mother died. A couple months later, she sees Reb again but he’s working. 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
In the begging of this novel Sara Smolinsky, her Parents, and sisters Mashah, Bessie, and Fania, all live together in a small cluttered apartment. Her father, a Hassidic Jew, does not work to provide for his family, but instead preaches his family with strict spiritual guidance by studying the Torah as he pleases. Her father justifies his life style as his belief in ...
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...
Her attendance at the picnic with Tea Cake was an act of faith, taking the relationship into the public arena. Social condemnation was fast in coming, especially because she discarded her mourning colors. She was free of Jody, so she also took steps to defy the restrictions that social convention placed on her behavior. Gaining personal freedom was a two-fold process. First, she had to be free in her private life, but she also had to free herself from restricting social attitudes. Only then could she begin to heal the rift between her outside self and her inside self.
Our first introduction to these competing sets of values begins when we meet Sylvia. She is a young girl from a crowded manufacturing town who has recently come to stay with her grandmother on a farm. We see Sylvia's move from the industrial world to a rural one as a beneficial change for the girl, especially from the passage, "Everybody said that it was a good change for a little maid who had tried to grow for eight years in a crowded manufacturing town, but, as for Sylvia herself, it seemed as if she never had been alive at the all before she came to live at the farm"(133). The new values that are central to Sylvia's feelings of life are her opportunities to plays games with the cow. Most visibly, Sylvia becomes so alive in the rural world that she begins to think compassionately about her neighbor's geraniums (133). We begin to see that Sylvia values are strikingly different from the industrial and materialistic notions of controlling nature. Additionally, Sylvia is alive in nature because she learns to respect the natural forces of this l...
The lives of men and women are portrayed definitively in this novel. The setting of the story is in southern Georgia in the 1960’s, a time when women were expected to fit a certain role in society. When she was younger she would rather be playing ...
Women’s Escape into Misery Women’s need for male support and their husband’s constant degradation of them was a recurring theme in the book House on Mango Street. Many of Esperanza’s stories were about women’s dreams of marrying, the perfect husband and having the perfect family and home. Sally, Rafaela, and Minerva are women who gave me the impression of [damsel’s in distress].CLICHÉ, it’s ok though. It’s relevant They wished for a man to sweep them of their feet and rescue them from their present misery. These characters are inspiring and strong but they are unable to escape the repression of the surrounding environment. *Cisneros presents a rigid world in which they lived in, and left them no other hope but to get married. Esperanza, however, is a very tough girl who knows what she wants. She will keep dreaming and striving until she gets it. She says, "I am too strong for her [Mango Street] to keep me here" (110). Esperanza learned from all of these women that she was not going to be tied down. She said, "I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain" (88). **Especially after seeing that Sally was suffering so much. Sally’s father is making her want to leave home by beating her. Sally "said her mother rubs lard on the places were it hurts" (93). There is not enough lard in the world to be able to cure the pain within Sally’s heart. Sally, "met a marshmallow salesman at a school bazaar" (101). Pretty soon " sally got married, she has her house now, her pillowcases and her plates" (101). Her marriage seems to free her from her father, but in reality she has now stepped into a world of misery. This was supposed to help her heal; " she says she is in love, but I think she did it to escape." (101). Unlike the other women Sally has no escape, no poetry, not even papaya coconut juice, not to mention, " he does not let her look out the window" (102). That is why "she sits at home because she is afraid to go outside without his permission."(102). Rafaela’s situation also involves imprisonment in her own home. Cisneros introduced us to Rafaela, a young beautiful girl whose expectations from marriage were to obtain a sweet home to live in. Instead...
Women have been given by society certain set of duties, which although change through time, tend to stay relatively along the same lines of stereotypical women activities. In “A Doll House” and “Simply Maria” we see the perpetuation of these forms of behavior as an initial way of life for the two protagonists. Nonetheless; we see a progression towards liberation and self discovery towards the development as a human being by breaking the rules of society. Such attitudes soon find opposing forces. those forces will put to the test the tenacity of these women; and yield freedom and ownership for their lives which are owned by others at the start of their stories.
Rosario Castellanos was born during the takeoff of feminism. She was determined to go through life differently than her mother and grandmother did. Castellanos was greatly influenced by exploring past generations, but she was also influenced by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. Sor Juana’s work shows how self-education convinces women to feel accepted and important regardless of what society says. Rosario Castellanos was greatly influenced by Sor Juana de la Cruz, and thus Castellanos’ works reflect her support for women in education, but in a more humorous sense. One of Castellanos’ short stories, “Culinary Lesson”, illustrates Rosario Castellanos’ firm belief that women should be educated and do things outside of the home; her influences came from her early life and from her studies of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. Castellanos’, Culinary Lesson, is a continuation of Sor Juana’s, “The Self, the World”, except with an added twist of humor and sarcasm.
Her lessons in independence, which begin early in life, are fostered by circumstances and the accompanying experiences. Her tenacity not to let people and circumstances preside over her life is fortified in many ways by Eva Winkler, her best friend and neighbor. Eva, a person of subservient dispo...
The Freewoman is going against norms and is expressing femininity by what they believe motherhood is about and how it is portrayed by themselves and others. The Freewoman’s perspective is that they are not inferior to others since they gave birth. They believe that giving birth doesn’t make one more special then another. It is not that the Freewoman doesn’t believe that birth and motherhood is a beautiful thing, they do they just believe that it isn’t the only factor that could make them inferior. They believe that a woman married or unmarried has the same chance of the ability to experience motherhood. They believe that a woman’s status does not matter. A main point that the Freewoman makes is the domestic view point that they completely go against. They believe that it is ridiculous to think that every mother should want to only be a nursemaid for their children. They believe that it is important to show their children that there is more to life and that they should raise their children with opportunity and mixing with interesting people that they can learn and grow
Amanda, somehow, finds a way to be both selfish and selfless when it comes to Laura. Amanda wants Laura to be happy and successful, but does not understand that Laura is too shy and unmotivated to be either. When Amanda discovers that Laura has stopped going to typing class she is beyond disappointing. When discovered Amanda yells at her daughter saying, “Fifty dollars’ tuition, all our plans- my hopes and ambitions for you- just gone up the spout, just gone up the spout like that.” Laura quit something as simple as learning how to type; this realization struck Amanda because if she cannot do that there is no way Laura could provide for herself without a husband. Mrs. Wingfield’s worst nightmare is is for her children to become dependent on relatives and not being able to take care of themselves. After Laura drops out of typing school Amanda says, “What is there left but dependency all our lives? I know so well what becomes of unmarried women who aren’t prepared to occupy a position. I’ve seen such pitiful cases in the South—barely tolerated spinsters living upon the grudging patronage of sister’s husband or brother’s wife!—stuck away in some little mousetrap of a room—encouraged by one in-law to visit another—little birdlike women without any nest—eating the crust of humility all their life!. Amanda had always wanted for Laura to find a nice husband, but then the situation became desperate when the younger women