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Bread Givers Themes

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Bread Givers Themes
In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-Reliance, he writes, “To believe your own thought, to believe what is true for you in your private heart […] that is genius.” This explains one of his major themes, which applies to both Sara Smolinksy and Huck Finn. Throughout Bread Givers, Sara struggles to stay true to herself in spite of her father’s beliefs. When Sara refuses to marry Max Goldstein, her father tells her, “It says in the Torah: What’s a woman without a man? Less than nothing—a blotted out existence” [Yezierska 205]. Reb Smolinksy believes that his daughter, Sara, should marry Max. Abandoning her father’s traditional principles, Sara flees home to become a teacher. Sara fulfilled Emerson’s maxim, showing her true genius in overcoming the opposition
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