Bread Givers

Anzia Yezierska’s novel, Bread Givers, is about a young girl named Sara breaking the traditions about young women that her strict father tries to shape his four daughters into. Sara Smolinsky was the youngest of the four girls and she also had the strongest will. After her father married off her three older sisters to the worst men possible Sara decided that she would not fall prey to his matchmaking skills. She wanted to be a “person among people” and to become that she ran away from home to go to school and become a teacher. She fulfills her dream and eventually marries a man that she met after graduation and fell in love with. She helps take care of her father when he remarries, after her mother’s death, and his new wife only married him for money and kicks him out to the streets when he’s broke. Sara’s life is the embodiment of the American dream, and it also teaches that despite what family is like, you don’t always have to love them and it’s okay to become your own person.

Sara had dreamed ever since she was a little girl of running away as soon as she had the money, on page 22 she says “I was always saying to myself, if I ever had a quarter or a half dollar in my hand, I’d run away from home and never look on our dirty house again.” In my opinion Sara is one of the most motivated and inspiring characters I’ve ever read about. She sets her mind to something and then she follows through with it. She dreams and she achieves it. I admire her because I have always wanted that dedication. Until I got to college I was never able to pick something and stick with it. I have quit every single musical instrument I have tried to play and I’ve quit jobs and almost everything I’ve tried. But when I got to college and decided that I wanted to be a teacher I received that dedication and I’m ready to stick with it, just like Sara when she decided that she was going to make something of her life and go to school. Even when things got hard and she felt like giving up she still stuck with it and graduated and did what she set out to do.

Sara’s family was controlled by their overbearing, stupid father. He sat home and studied the Torah all day. And while that in and of itself is not a bad thing, what made it bad was that he refused to let them live their own lives. He wouldn’t work so he made his four daughters work until they bled in order to keep food on the table so he could eat. And when Bessie, the eldest and most productive worker, wanted to get married to someone she loved he denied her that right because he did not want to lose her wages. Everything the man did was because of a selfish desire. He eventually married two of his daughters off to terrible men in one day just so he could prove a point to his wife. Then, when it came time to give Bessie away before she really turned into an old maid, he chose someone for her that would benefit himself and give him money in order to invest it to make up for losing Bessie’s wages. Sara’s father was a terrible man and even worse father. When he wanted to marry Sara off and she refused he said to her: “Schlang! Toad! Wild animal! Thing of evil! How came you ever to be my child? I disown you, I curse you.” But Sara had the same strong will that he had. She had his determination, and when he meant to kill her spirit by saying these things to her, he just pushed her harder to become who she wanted to become. She overcame her adversity and ended up a strong woman who didn’t need a man to dictate her life. And even though her father was like that, she still returned to help him out once she graduated college and became a teacher .She overcame her adversity and became an even better person than she was before because she returned and helped her father out. No one would have expected her to do that for the way he treated her family, but she knew it was her responsibility and she did it because no matter what he was her father and she was responsible for him.

Sara’s story is truly inspiring to me, not just because I’ve always desired her dedication, but because she shows people how to overcome struggles and trials and to come out on top even when everyone around you thinks it’s impossible. She did so much when people thought she could do nothing. This story is about more than just a woman making her way out of the poverty she grew up in, it’s about a strong woman pushing the boundaries of what was expected of her and paving her own way in the world. It’s about overcoming the trials that are placed in our lives and never giving up despite what people are saying to us. That’s the message that I got out of this book, never give up: no matter what.