Bread Givers Dichotomy

Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska tells the story of Sara Smolinsky, a ten year old Polish immigrant living in the ghettos of New York with her family. The main conflict of the book is centered around Sara’s relationship with her father, Reb Smolinsky. Sara carries more progressive, American ideals, while Reb is stuck mentally in the Old World. Reb is extremely religious and believes in traditional values and gender roles, which creates a struggle for Sara when she attempts to leave home and become her own person. Sara’s assimilation into American society is very different compared to Reb’s. Sara Smolinsky assimilated very well into American culture. A big part of the American Dream is that anyone can thrive if they put in the effort. In this way, Sara is a quintessential American. At the end of “Book I” Sara rejects the Old World values of her family and embraces being an American. By her own efforts alone she is able to rise from being an ironer at a factory to getting her degree and teaching at a school. Sara exemplifies the American work ethic and the idea that you can get anywhere in life if you just try hard enough.

Yezierska obviously admires American culture and the American Dream. Sara’s outlook on Americanism is proof enough that this is the case. Reb is in many ways an extreme stereotype of a religious father. He is selfish, only cares about his studies, and has never worked a day in his life. Yezierska wrote Bread Givers in order to make the reader feel the experience of growing up with a strict, religious, Old World-centric father figure while being someone who believes wholeheartedly in self-reliance. She wanted to portray what she went through, but in a way that the common American reader could understand. That is why she wrote Reb as an extreme and that is why she made so many obvious differences between Sara’s and Reb’s