Bread Givers By Anzia Yezierska Sparknotes

Bread Givers is a book written by Anzia Yezierska focusing on the struggles that an immigrant had to face during the early 1900s. She expresses her struggles in this novel. The story begins showing the struggles that Smolinsky family had to face when the daughters of Reb Smolinsky were having a hard time finding a job. Reb Smolinsky himself is jobless as he is busy with his holy books. Later, the girls find jobs, improving their situation. Bessie, the oldest daughter falls for a quite wealthy man named Berel Berenstein is willing to marry her without any dowry, but her father wants him to bear the cost for the wedding as well as to set him up a business. Berel refuses that condition and Bessie couldn’t go against her father. Mashah falls in love with Jacob Novak, a rich boy with an interest in piano. As soon as Reb Smolinsky found out that he played piano in Sabbath, he disagrees to give her daughter to Jacob and Mashah couldn’t go against her father as well. Fania is the next daughter to fall in love with a poor poet, Morris Lipkin, which of course gets a disapproval from her father. Then Reb Smolinsky

However, she has a great willingness and graduates from a college. She becomes a teacher at a school in New York. She improves her living conditions. She goes to see her mother and finds out that she was on the verge of her death. However, Reb Smolinsky gets rid of the emptiness of his wife’s death quickly and marries a widow, Mrs. Feinstein who was onto the lodge money. All four daughters decide to stay out of their father after this event. Mrs. Feinstein sends a criticizing letter to the school in order to ruin Sara’s teaching career. However, Hugo Seelig, the principal of that school and Sara actually falls for each other through this letter. In the end, Sara reaches out to her old father, realizing that it was her mother’s death wish. The novel ends with a note that Reb Smolinsky moves in with Sara and Hugo