Axel Anderson
Dr. Andrew Gordon
September 30, 2005
AML 4685
Sara Smolinsky’s Place Amongst Her People
A traditional story told within American immigrant literature concerns the methods in
which the immigrant chooses to adapt his or her self to the environment and society of the New
World. Sara Smolinsky, a young immigrant girl, must choose her own path toward acceptance in
American society in spite of the objections and hardships placed upon her by her Old World
father and mother. Sara—despite her feelings of otherness from her family and her rejection of
their, and in particular her father’s, values—still carries a deep sense of responsibility toward
them and many times sacrifices her own well-being for their benefit. In Anzia Yezierska’s
Bread Givers Sara Smolinsky attempts to make herself an American by forcing herself apart
from her family and creating her own unique identity, but as she works to distance herself from
them she comes to realize that she cannot deny but must confront and reconcile herself with her
heritage.
From the start of the novel, when Sara is only a young girl, she questions her family’s,
and in particular her father’s, traditions. The majority of the clashes that occur in the novel
involve Sara’s arguments with her father concerning his Orthodox Jewish beliefs about women,
family, and tradition and his tyrannical rule over the household. Sara rejects the Orthodox belief
her father holds that a woman is worth “’less than nothing’” without a man (205). Under this
type of thinking Sara would have to give up on all her personal ambitions and goals in order to
provide for her father and then be married off to cook and clean for a husband who would not
treat her with equal respect. She cannot accept this as her fate in America where opportunities
for a woman actually exist. However, her father remains of the Old World attitude of a woman’s
Anderson
submission to a man’s authority.
2
During one of their frequent scenes of dissension Sara
exclaims, “’Thank God, I’m living in America! . . . I’m going to make my own life!’” (138). Sara
measures success by how well she can become a self-sufficient and respected individual.
This desire to be self-sufficient surfaces in Sara at a very young age and strengthens over
the course of the novel as she goes through her life. One of the first instances where her ability
to work hard expresses itself occurs when she peddles herring on the street and comes home with
twice her principal and announces to her family, “’Give only a look what “Blood-and-iron” has
done’” (23). This nickname, Blut-und-Eisen, while used derisively by her father when her
hardheadedness directs itself toward him, serves as an apt description of Sara’s personality.
Throughout the novel Sara asserts herself as an exceptionally stubborn, strong-willed character.
This is much like her father; in fact, the nickname he ascribes her could just as easily be placed
upon his own head. In this way, even as she begins to separate herself from her family and their
expectations for her, she still preserves those characteristics that cannot simply be forgotten or
pinched out but remain in blood relations deeply inscribed in their genetic inheritance.
Another aspect of the Reb Smolinsky that affects Sara greatly is his failure to obtain a
sense of place in the New World. He cannot adapt to a life in America where he would have to
work to earn for his family and be unable to study his scriptures and say his prayers all day. His
knowledge of the Torah, a pursuit so revered in the Old World, only provokes others to label him
a schnorrer in America. The Reb’s devotion to his studies prevents him from fully assimilating
into American society where hard work and the dollar hold more sway than the Word of God.
Sara sees her father stuck in his old ways, unable to become a true American. This idea of place
becomes central to Sara as she continues outside her family’s house. She creates a strong need to
find her own place within American society, whether it be as large a goal as becoming a
Anderson
3
successful professional or something as simple as having her own room with a door she can close
to be alone.
While the Reb’s studies hinder his own fiscal success in America, his ethic of diligence
and responsibility toward learning resonates with Sara and gives her the stubborn determination
she needs in order to fulfill her goals for herself. Her sister, Fania, points this out to her when
she says, “’Come, Bessie. Let’s leave her to her mad education. She’s worse than Father with
his Holy Torah’” (178).
Sara inherits her father’s passion for knowledge and his unbending
conviction that only through laborious study may any hope for a life of fulfillment become
reality. But the Reb studies religious texts, pining for a peace of mind that he will never achieve
and occupying his time in a study that grants him nothing but his own personal satisfaction in
America. Although Sara takes after her father in this respect, she seeks a secular knowledge, one
of literature, psychology, and geometry, that will allow her a place in American society as an
educator.
Perhaps the only attribute that Sara takes from her father’s religious demeanor is his
ability to calm himself through prayer. While Sara never prays explicitly to God, she often
evokes a quasi-prayerful tone to motivate herself in to action. While struggling to study one
night amongst the cacophony of city life outside her window she recites this to herself: “’Stop all
this sensitiveness, or you’re beaten already before the fight is begun. . . . You’ve got to study.
As you had to shut your eyes to the dirt, you must shut your ears to the noise’” (164). While not
directed toward anyone but herself, this speech provides Sara with the necessary will to carry on
in spite of her loneliness and exhaustion in much the same way that a prayer might for her father
in an hour of despair. In her father Sara finds numerous traits which she aspires to abolish from
her character, but she also takes from him a keen sense of righteousness and determination that
Anderson
4
empowers her to create her own unique identity in a society that seems set against her successful
inclusion within it.
While much of Sara’s disposition comes as a direct response to her father’s domineering
rule of the household, her mother also plays a vital role in shaping her character. A particular
aspect she retains from her is a submission to men at the touch of their hand. In many scenes
throughout the novel Reb Smolinsky’s touch provides his wife total calm. As Sara visits her
mother before her death she witnesses her father’s use of this power: “The touch of his hand was
like magic. Her whole face softened. A beautiful look came into her eyes as she gazed at Father,
undying worship in her face” (248). This numinous power of touch pacifies Sara’s mother and
puts her at peace. In Sara’s romance with Max Goldstein he possesses this same power over her
as “the touch of his hand, the look of his eyes” allows her to forget “all his faults” (198).
However, in Sara’s relationship with Hugo Seelig this expression of male dominance does not
occur. There is no submission of her will and individuality to Hugo, only a mutual admiration
and love.
Nevertheless, just as with her father Sara comes to discover that she cannot simply step
outside her mother’s shadow. When she visits her mother after graduating college her heart fills
with the regret that she has neglected her mother for so long while working toward her own
goals. She thinks herself selfish when confronted with her mother’s impending death and the
memory of all she did for her as a young girl. As with her father, whom she reconciles with at
the novel’s end, at her mother’s death Sara experiences an awakening and accepts the burden her
heritage has placed upon her. Sara feels that her mother’s soul enters her own “like a miracle” at
her death (252). Even in her physical absence her shadow will always remain upon Sara.
Anderson
5
At the end of the novel Sara must seek reconciliation with her father. She admits to
herself, “I had come back to where I had started twenty years ago when I began my fight for
freedom. . . . I realized that the shadow of the burden was always following me” (295). Despite
his terrible and tyrannical demeanor Sara knows that she cannot leave her father in the placeless
situation after her mother dies. Here the power of touch reappears when Yezierska writes,
“Unconsciously, my hand reached out for his” (296). The difference now being that it is Sara’s
touch that is offered to soothe her father rather than a man calming a woman as in prior episodes
in the novel. In this moment both father and daughter recognize their dependence upon and
responsibility to one another. Sara has found that she could never escape her past and has
created her own method of assimilation which brings together the influences of both the Old and
New Worlds. In the end, after reaching her goals of professional and personal success, she finds
herself still at the beginning, stuck with her the burden of her past upon her and unable to escape
its shadow.
Anderson
Works Cited
Yezierska, Anzia. Bread Givers. New York: Persea Books, 1975.
6