Bread Givers

Success is achieved by hard work and dedication. In Anzia Yezierska’s book “Bread Givers” Sara Smolinsky shows how that applied to her life. The author can relate to the story because she was an immigrant from a small Polish village and had to overcome many obstacles to become successful. She rebelled against her parents’ wishes of following the traditional path of a women immigrant and left home at the age of seventeen to live at the Clara de Hirsch home for working girls. The American dream for most female immigrants was the expectation of marriage and motherhood, a factory job, or if they were lucky a salesgirl. As for Sara and Anzia, that was not enough for either of them. The goal of Yezierska in her books were to recreate the feelings of the immigrant girl she had once been, and how she tried to break away from oppressive strictures of her religion to make a name for herself. “Bread Givers” was a one of her best works by reliving her struggles and obstacles of being an immigrant and trying to become successful through Sara’s life. Life as a Jewish immigrant was very difficult and took a lot of self-motivation to stay positive. The Smolinsky family was on the verge of starvation. The older daughters, Bessie, Mashah, and Fania, could not find work. Their father, Reb Smolinsky, doesn’t work at all, he would spend his days reading holy books and take his daughters’ wages. When the youngest daughter Sara sees Mrs. Smolinsky grieving over the situation, she goes outside to sell herring and makes the family some money. Her strong work ethic developed at a young age and stuck with her for the rest of her life. She overcame many burdens throughout her life as an immigrant. Sara was very independent and wanted to create a life of her own. Even though she admired her father’s dedication to improve the family’s financial situation, she also deeply resented how he denied all of his daughters true love and made them marry men that they were unhappy with for money.