Abstract This paper is based on Anzia Yezierska's novel, "Bread Givers", which is based on a story of Jewish family who migrates from Russia to New York. The paper covers the trials and tribulations of this family and the difficulties they face as new immigrants in New York.
From the Paper "It is only Sara who truly stands out in this family. She is the one who during hours of extreme poverty for the family, takes on the courage to go out and earn. She goes out and sells herring. She is the only one who understands the value of standing on her own two feet, to save herself and her family from reaching a state of misery where no choice is left except to beg. Only she understood and realized that she could not just sit around like her father while all of them starved to death."
Abstract A comparative essay of two novels published one year apart in the 1920's, Anzia Yezierska's "Bread Givers" and Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises". The writer compares the different descriptions by the authors of what it was like to be American after World War I.
From the Paper "A comparison of two novels published one year apart in the 1920's provides an interesting study in similarities and differences. Bread Givers, 1925, by little known writer Anzia Yezierska and The Sun Also Rises, 1926, written by world famous Ernest Hemingway, present very different pictures of what it was like to be an American in the period immediately after World War I."
Abstract This paper looks at the role of the patriarch with two specific examples. It focuses on Anzia Yezierska, a writer and Langston Hughes a poet. Both were from poor minority families. The writer gives a background to the authors? families and their work. The paper explores how the experiences of their youth and patriarchs shaped their futures. It examines the four elements of patriarchal influence. Through the two examples, the paper argues that a persons self assurance and confidence begins in family. In conclusion, the writer argues that fathers play a crucial role in the upbringing of their children.
From the Paper "Langston Hughes and Anzia Yezierska were as different from one another as the cultures which they called their own. Although each started their life as a member of poor minority families, Anzia lived in the ghettos of early 20th century Manhattan, and Langston sought refuge amidst in the conflict between slave owners, bigoted whites, and abolitionists of the Midwest. Anzia's father lived in her home, and her family had a strong heritage as Russian Jews who had immigrated to the US."
Abstract While Anzia Yezierska's "Bread Givers" is a work of fiction, the story of the Smolinsky family is quite typical of the reality faced by many Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Yezierska writes, not only of economic and monetary struggles tackled by countless immigrants, but of a familial dynamic emblematic of Eastern European Jewish culture. This paper explains how, through her account of Sara Smolinsky and family, Yezierska tells a history that recounts past struggles in the Jewish shtetl of Russian Poland, continuing all the way through the Americanization of the second-generation Jewish immigrant. It shows that this powerful tale of Sara Smolinsky helps create a context to further study the rich history of the Eastern European Jews in America.
From the Paper "The story of Sara Smolinsky begins well before the first chapter of Bread Givers. One cannot fully understand the direction Sara's life takes in America without first understanding the heritage and culture from which she came. While Bread Givers is centered around Sara and her family's experiences in America, the life of Sara's parents before immigrating to the United States is an integral part of Sara's story."
Abstract This paper explains that "Bread Givers" is a source of cultural and social history because, even though it is fictionalized, it gives rich details of life in the early 20th century and illustrates many social conditions. The author points out that the book is not a primary history source, but rather a secondary source, full of facts that would be of use to just about any researcher who is interested in the period. The paper relates that this book is the story of a young girl's fight to make something of herself, just as the author came to America as a young girl in 1890 with her family, who emigrated from Poland, graduated from college, and wrote six books between 1920 and 1932.
From the Paper "Sara's story, and the story of her sisters is not unusual for the time, and provides the historian and interested reader with rich details of how these Jewish immigrants lived and worked in the ghettos of New York. Sara recognized her father's dominance over the family, and struggled to make a life for herself, which her sisters did not have the strength to do. She said plaintively, "I don't want to sell herring for the rest of my days. I want to learn something. I want to do something" (Yezierska 66). She broke away from the family and suffered incredible hardships to educate herself, and in addition, these experiences give great insight into the personal history of the people, and of the time."
This paper introduces, discusses, and analyzes the book, "Bread Givers" by Anzia Yezierska, which is about the life of a young Jewish woman in Lower Eastside New York at the beginning of the 1900s.
Abstract This paper reviews this novel and explains that, although it is a work of fiction, "Bread Givers" is, in truth, based on the real life of the writer, Anzia Yezierska. It compares her life to that of Sarah in the book, who left home to acquire an education, something fairly unheard of for young Jewish women of her time. It discusses how Sara's father, Reb, is a cruel and demanding man who stands in the way of everything his daughter hopes for and how his actions are based on Old World customs rather than New World sensibilities.
From the Paper "The author, Anzia Yezierska, came to America in 1890 when she was a young girl. Her family emigrated from Poland, and settled in New York City in the Jewish section of the Lower East Side. Her story is in many ways a mirror image of the young Sara in "Bread Givers," as Anzia left home when she was seventeen to continue her education, and she created a great rift between herself and her father. Anzia began to write around 1915, and published several short stories and books. In fact, her first book was made into a Hollywood movie. She gained fame and acceptance, but in the 50s, her writing feel out of style, and she never regained her popularity. She died in 1970. Her book "Bread Givers" was rediscovered by a professor at Columbia University, and reprinted in 1999 as a classic text of life in the Jewish ghetto in New York."
Abstract This paper discusses Anzia Yezierska's book, "The Bread Givers", depicting the chronicles of the Smolinsky family, Jewish immigrants to the United States in the 1930s. The paper examines how the themes of the novel underline that the American nation as a whole must give up conventional notions of America as a land of boundless opportunity and recognize the sacrifices of culture, life and limb that immigrants make to become a part of the American fabric.
From the Paper "The profound cultural shift the Smolinsky family endures is shown early on in the book, whereby the narrator bridles at the control wielded by her father over the family. The Smolinsky women struggle to keep the family economically afloat and to support the scholarly activities of the father. However, this older, European model of the torah-reading scholar supported by the labor of others is really not sustainable in America. In America, money matters more than learning, and there is no wealthy Jewish community or patrons or network of financial support and stability to keep the man in the style that would be customary in Europe. Although the Smolinsky patriarch may wish to keep alive the study habits, support of charities, and manner of life that would be practical, once, in a European Jewish community, in his perhaps equally idealized version of old Europe, he cannot in America. His determination to do so makes life hard for his daughters, and causes Sara to turn away from him first in her heart, and then to seek a new life."
Abstract This paper explores the relationship between Sara Smolinsky and her father in Anzia Yezierska's novel "Bread Givers". The paper relates the traditional views of the family structure in the Jewish home and illustrates how in this book, the actions of the father are themed after an intense culture clash of tradition against progress. The paper discusses how Sara's father would have been best represented as a sympathetic character if the history of his upbringing had been focused upon with more detail. The paper contends that the book is biased in its writing style and point of view by being exclusive to anything but Sara's struggle and her fight for independence and identity. The paper points out, however, that if the father figure were more caring, less degrading and controlling then Sara would not have been the dynamic character Yezierska had intended.
From the Paper "Sara's father in the novel is the epitome of the over-bearing father. He insists on marrying her three sisters off, not to men whom have shown keen interest in them, but to suitors that he alone has chosen. In this fashion he controls his family, his family's affairs, and through this action makes it clear that he is the alpha male. The patriarchy presented in the novel is of great consequence to the actions of Sara. She wants to be rid of the old way of life and become Americanized, but the father, despite Sara coming back after finishing school and earning a degree only complains, "She's only good to the world, not to her father. Will she hand me her wages from school as a dutiful daughter should?" Thus, there is no reconciliation found in the novel between daughter and father, and this is the theme throughout the entire novel."
Abstract This paper examines the double standard that has been applied within the literary world. It takes the lives of three women authors: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Mary Rowlandson, and Anzia Yezierska, and examines the commonality of their struggle to find and secure the women's identity.
From the Paper "Women's literature has long been characterized by the struggle to establish the feminine experience in accordance with accepted standards within the context of the world at the time of writing. Women have long been repressed to a very small section of the literary world and as such, they have had to struggle with preconceived notions, cultural standards, and intellectual bigotry against them, which is reflected in their writing. Women authors have perceived themselves, particularly those from previous two centuries, as having to nearly shout to be heard."
Abstract The paper focuses on the history of the arrival of the immigrants in the United States and the reasons for immigration. The paper also compares the effects of immigration on the traditional structures of the Orthodox Jewish and Korean families. The paper examines the factors that have helped or hindered the process of acculturation for both groups.
From the Paper "Several factors affected the acculturation process undergone by both the Jewish immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century and the Korean immigrants since 1965. One of the factors is religion. Jews were traditionally, a marginalized group in Europe, a status that carried over to the United States. This marginalization also encouraged them to stay more closely-knit as a group."
Abstract This paper will examine the role of the Jewish European immigrant when coming to America. By examining Yezierska's book "Bread Givers", we can see how the main character Sarah struggles between old world traditions and new world world America.
Abstract "Bread Givers" is a novel about a Jewish Immigrant family that moves to America and attempts to make a living in New York. This paper is about how the author uses the title of the book to describe the new role of women in American society, the struggles they faced both in the working world and from fathers unwilling to separate themselves from the old ways of life, and the new complications created by their new-found freedom.
From the Paper "The plot of Bread Givers revolves around Sara and her family. Sara being the narrator, taking in everything that happens around her so that the reader practically sees her world in one's mind's eye. A big chunk of the story is the relationship Sara has with her sisters and the horrible pain and suffering they go through at the hands of their father, Reb Smolinsky. From the very first few paragraphs, the reader can tell that Sara and her sisters, especially Bessie, are the workers of the household; as quoted here ?One look at her (Sara regarding Bessie), and I knew she had not yet found work. I went on peeling the potatoes, but no more knew what my hands were doing. I felt on the hurt of her weary eyes.? (1). Due to their fathers refusal to get a job as a result of his rigorous religious studies, Sara and her sisters (even her mother) are forced to go out and find jobs or go hungry."
Abstract This paper tells that "Bread Givers" is the moving story of one young woman's struggle to make something of herself in a new country. She struggles against the old world ideals of her family, especially her father, who hangs on to his native customs even though he has come to America to better his family's lives. The paper examines the concepts of nativism and nation in the book.
From the Paper "Bread Givers," as with most of Yezierska's works, is semi-autobiographical. Like her heroine Sara, Yezierska came to America when she was young, lived on the Lower East Side in the Jewish Ghetto of New York, and constantly pushed herself to work hard, write, and rise above her beginnings. One critic writes, "Yezierska's works chronicle the lives of Jewish immigrants in America, in particular the struggles of Jewish women to escape drudgery and realize their dreams. She was critical of the patriarchal religious culture of Orthodox Judaism that transported old-world oppression to America" (Bloom 160). In addition, the introduction to this new printing of her novel states, "Her constant themes are the dirt and congestion of the tenement, the struggle against poverty, family, and tradition to break out of the ghetto, and then the searing recognition that her roots would always lie in the old world" (Kessler-Harris xvi)."
