‘Bread Givers’ is an acclaimed story written by Anzia Yezierska. The story gives readers a glimpse about a Jewish American family that struggles with financial problems. Anzia Yezeierska is known for depicting problems related to migrated Jews women and other immigrants who migrated into America. This paper intends to discuss the story, ‘Bread Givers’ along with discussing the challenges that Sara Smolinsky faces as a woman in her traditional family.
The story revolves around a Jewish family having Sara Smolinsky, a young girl in the centre. Beginning chapters of the story indicates that Sara’s family is migrated into America for a better life but the reality is that every member of this family is struggling and family faces financial problems. Sara lives with her father, mother and three sisters in an apartment house. Sara is the main character of the story that is not happy with her father, Reb who is an ardent Jew. He is fanatical for his religious obligations but does nothing much in order to improve financial conditions of the family members (Yezierska).
Sara is worried about financial conditions of her family and thinks to do something about how to improve this situation. Sara witnesses how all her three sisters were married by her father to people who were not so well off. Her father forced them to marry men of his choice to gain some monetary benefits but eventually his plans did not work as per his imaginations. Sara’s sisters were not happy in their houses and they always blamed their father for their conditions that they faced in their houses.
Reb failed to understand the business practices of America and suffered losses in business. The financial condition of family further worsens and the family was compelled to leave New York and to move into a new city. Sara was not happy with her father’s decision to leave New York but having no option, she moved with her family where she was forced to work in her father’s store. Since she was not happy with her father and there were differences in opinions of father and the daughter, Sara decided to move into New York again. Sara wanted to be a teacher and starts preparing to achieve her goal (Yezierska).
The story is well written and author gives due importance to every character. Every chapter of the story is written in consortium and presents a true picture of Jewish and migrant communities before the readers. Story also presents a realistic portrayal of a young and ambitious girl who was compelled to suppress her dreams because she was not given financial help from her father (Yezierska). This young girl also lacked the love and affection as there was nobody to understand her feelings and ambitions.
Sara faces a number of problems while living with her father. She was sad to see condition of her sisters and always blamed his father for their condition. Her sisters were married with poor men just because they greased hands of Reb. Sara was not happy with her father because he was busy in own religious affairs instead of doing something for his family. Sara never wanted to move out of New York but she was forced to move into a new town and to work into his store.
Sara always witnessed her family in poor condition and it caused her pain and sufferings. Sara was an ambitious girl and she wanted to achieve something in her life but she was given no facility and she never got the love and affection from her father that she deserved. She was so annoyed that she left her father and moved back into New York alone because she knew that she will not be able to achieve anything if she continued to live with her father (Yezierska).
The story portrays problems of a migrated Jewish family and a young girl. Sara was an ambitious girl who wanted to achieve but financial conditions of her family did not allow her to spread her wings. She was feeling suffocated in her house as her father was not doing much in order to support the family. Sara was annoyed with religious obsessions and greedy behavior of her father. Her father forced her sisters to marry the men of his choice just because he was getting some money for this.
After having observed the above mentioned succinct overview of the story, Bread Givers, it can be concluded that the story reflects the pain and sufferings of a young girl Sara who was ambitious but was compelled to suppress her ambitions and plans. The author has portrayed the character, Sara in a realistic manner and describes incidents of the story in an impressive manner. Since author herself was a migrated into America, she is well aware of the problems that migrants face and she has successfully depicted every event and her portrayal of every character is impressive.
Work Cited
Yezierska, Anzia. Bread Givers: A Novel. USA: Persea Books, Incorporated, 2003.
