The Struggle For Independence In A New

World Essay, Research Paper

The Struggle for Independence in a New World

In Anzia Yezierska’s novel Bread Givers, we learn about a struggle between Sara Smolinsky and her father. Her father, an Orthodox rabbi, is stuck in the traditions of the old world and will not tolerate Sara’s longing for independence. This novel takes place in New York’s Lower East Side, where the population mainly consists of Jewish immigrants who have come to America in hopes of living a better life than they lived in the shtetls. In America, for the family’s who still lived by the traditions of the old world, life for the women was no different that life in the shtetls.

Sara and her family had immigrated to America from a village in Poland. According to their Jewish traditions, the only role a woman had in her life was to take care of the family, and make life easier for their husbands. This idea becomes very clear right at the start of the novel. We learn that two of Sara’s sisters, Bessie and Masha, are coming home after being out looking for work so they could earn wages for the family . The daughters of Reb Smolinsky were expected to be the wage earners. Women in Reb Smolinsky’s household are expected to do all of the work required for keeping the family alive. Reb does nothing to earn money or make life better for his family. He is a religious scholar who has devoted his whole life to the study of the Torah, and his family’s job was to make him comfortable. All of the burdens were placed on Reb’s family; he carried none of them. Reb was a “dictator” in the household. When Sara’s sister Bessie brought home a man for the family to meet, Reb kicked him out of the house. He said that this man was not good enough for his burden bearer. He appears to be very reluctant to give up Bessie, since she brings all of her wages home to him, and is a faithful servant. At this point we can see the pain Sara is in. She had no freedom and no choice in her life. Her only choice was to serve her father until she was married, and then continue her life serving her husband. But she wanted more. This was America, where women were allowed to choose how they wanted to live, and were allowed to marry for love, not just marry who their father told them they must marry.

Sara’s inner struggle continued in trying to understand why her father was so harsh on her sisters. Sara’s father successfully married off all of her sisters, but not to men whom they loved. All of the men her sisters brought home who they were in love with were quickly turned away by their father. Reb wanted a wealthy husband for his daughters, so that his daughters would continue to support him and bring wages to the family. Sara did not like the way her sister’s lives were dictated and controlled. She thought that they should be able to choose whom they wanted to marry, and not be forced to marry whom their father chose for them. Sara was disappointed to see her sisters give in to their father’s harshness, but they were stuck in believing what their father preached to them, that “It says in the Torah, only through a man can a woman enter Heaven.”