Melanie Castellanos
Daniels
ENGL 3 - B5
26 August 2014
Bread Givers: Quest and Theme
As in any rite of passage novel, Sara Smolinsky is born into a world full of obstacles and difficult choices that soon will define her entire character. Sara is a young woman living in a traditional Jewish family and greatly dislikes her father and his inconsiderate actions. In Bread Givers, Sara Smolinsky struggles with a discriminatory society, the stressful challenge of finding a paying job while going to college and fitting in, and accepting and embracing her background, which is the overall theme of the novel.
Sara’s life, like any other great quest, started with a rough beginning: a poor family, sexist society, and the struggle to find true happiness. And sadly enough for her and her sisters, it does not get better quickly enough. Even their mother, who remarks, “And woe to us women who got to live in a Torah-made world that’s only for men”, points out the bigoted nature of their culture, despite
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conforming to it by marrying a traditional Jewish man. The chauvinistic lifestyle of her family empowers Sara to become successful as an independent worker, in spite of the boundaries and expectations they, or more specifically, her father, has set for her. When Sara finally escapes her family, she finds that her freedom from her family still leaves her with the rude and harsh environment of “the real world”.
However, it becomes clear that the struggle to work and become educated lights Sara’s internal fire, giving her a sense of being an individual woman. Her character obviously begins to build when we see her priorities; she even claims that she would do anything to achieve her dreams, even if it will kill her (177). This part of Sara’s quest allows for her to make decisions that will hugely impact how successful her future will be. When going to school, she struggles with herself because she does not fit in with the richer and happier people; she also comes to know a man who at first has good intentions, but he eventually tries to drive her away from her dreams. Nonetheless, Sara works hard, wins a writing contest, and continues her life without the negativity; this is a sign of Sara’s maturity and growth of her overall
disposition. After winning a money prize, Sara acquires a job as a teacher, but soon after she has found pure bliss in her life, news of her dying mother causes her life to go full circle.
One of the first and most vital sources utilized was Not By Bread Alone by Barbara Engel. This article comes from Barbara Alpern Engel who is a historian who has wrote several books on Russian women and specifically Russian women during the early 1900s. The book appears in the larger journal The Journal of Modern History. The purpose of this article is to expound on the subsistence riots in WWI era Russia and the ones that lead to the Russian Revolution. A value of this source is her specialization, it seems, in Russian history from 1700 onwards. She has wrote several other books on Russian history and thus she has a greater knowledge than most on the subject. A limitation of this article maybe since she
She sees her father old and suffering, his wife sent him out to get money through begging; and he rants on about how his daughters left him to basically rot and how they have not honored him nor do they show gratitude towards him for all that he has done for them (Chapter 21). She gives into her feelings of shame at leaving him to become the withered old man that he is and she takes him in believing that she must take care of him because no one else would; because it is his spirit and willpower burning inside of her. But soon she understands her mistake in letting her father back into he life. "[She] suddenly realized that [she] had come back to where [she] had started twenty years ago when [she] began [her] fight for freedom. But in [her] rebellious youth, [she] thought [she] could escape by running away. And now [she] realized that the shadow of the burden was always following [her], and [there she] stood face to face with it again (Chapter 21)." Though the many years apart had changed her, made her better, her father was still the same man. He still had the same thoughts and ways and that was not going to change even on his death bed; she had let herself back into contact with the tyrant that had ruled over her as a child, her life had made a complete
For an immigrant, entering into the United States during the early 1900s was a time in search for new beginnings, new possibilities, and a new life. Similarly, this concept was the same for Sara. In the early chapters of the novel, Sara's character is introduced as a young, courageous girl who works hard every day providing money and food for her family. Her job consisted of working in shops and going out into the streets of New York as a beggar
While she might think that her plans are working, they only lead her down a path of destruction. She lands in a boarding house, when child services find her, she goes to jail, becomes pregnant by a man who she believed was rich. Also she becomes sentenced to 15 years in prison, over a street fight with a former friend she double crossed. In the end, she is still serving time and was freed by the warden to go to her mother’s funeral. To only discover that her two sisters were adopted by the man she once loved, her sister is with the man who impregnated her, and the younger sister has become just like her. She wants to warn her sister, but she realizes if she is just like her there is no use in giving her advice. She just decides that her sister must figure it out by
Bread Givers is a book about Jewish heritage and culture. The plot is about the touching story of a young woman growing up, finding herself, trying to find her way to success, while dealing with day-by-day problems. It is about four daughters, their caring and gentle mother and their very bossy and tyrannical father. The father married them off, one by one to men that they did not really like. For the most part, these men turned out to be complete morons and self-cente...
As the protagonist, Taylor leads a life far from the ordinary, and gains matures and gains worldly knowledge through a journey most couldn't dream of. Deciding to leave her home in Pittman County, Kentucky she was the one to get away, both in mind and body. The culture of where she grew up didn't fit her personality, and she decided she wouldn't let herself fall into the life of the other people in her town. She bought a car and hit the road, with no plan or destination to adhere to. This journey shows the type of personality she possesses, and throughout the journey how it advances. Taylor was already quite an admirable person, and she already possessed many good traits. She was already independent and knew there was more to see in the world than what there was in Pittman County. She knew that there was room for improvement and infinite things to learn in the world, she just didn't know what they were. Sadly, most of what she lea...
... while she still has time (257). She fails at first, thinking her father is “bereft of his senses” in his second marriage (258). She believes this despite the Torah saying, “a man must have a wife to keep him pure, otherwise his eyes are tempted by evil” (259). Gradually, Sara begins to understand her father: the only thing he has in life is his fanatical adherence to traditions; “In a world where all is changed, he alone remained unchanged” (296). Reb has a deep and true fear of God, to expect him to change beliefs that he believes have been handed down by God, beliefs that have persisted for thousands of years, is illogical. It is impossible to reconcile fully the New World with the Old, and it is the responsibility of the New to be the more flexible, unfair as it may be.
“Asher Lev, an artist is a person first. He is an individual. If there is no person, there is no artist” (Chaim Potok). An individual with different characteristics has a different mindset, attitude, confidence and respect from those around them. In Asher Lev by Chaim Potok, Asher is a Ladover Hasid who grows up in a Hasidic community, who is deeply committed to his Jewish faith and finds difficulty between the expectations of his traditions and his gift. He is an individual with a broad mindset, who wants to do things inversely. He does not try to mold himself into the society because he knows he would lose his identity; therefore, he constructs his attitude towards himself, which helps him improve as an artist. His father, Aryeh is the leader of the Ladover Hasidic community who dislikes his son gift, which brings disruption and distress to the community. His Mother, Rivkeh Lev, which fascinates me, torn between her husbands and son’s love. As a woman, I am drawn to her character in the novel. Throughout the story, she is dealing with Asher and Aryeh disputes instead of her own misery. It is very hard for a woman to follow her own passion and dreams, especially in such stereotypical culture. There are very few who have achieved their dreams, but have lost respect in the society. In addition, Religion makes a great deal of difference in the lives of women too. The religion of Judaism relates to Islam because their culture and religion go hand in hand. This story relates to my struggle being a woman in such society. I belong from a community in Islam, where I have a different set of rules to follow because I am a woman and there are certain that I cannot do, it is off-limits. A woman has brought up with a belief system that she ...
Her struggles are of a flower trying to blossom in a pile of garbage. Growing up in the poor side of the southside of Chicago, Mexican music blasting early in the morning or ducking from the bullets flying in a drive-by shooting. Julia solace is found in her writing, and in her high school English class. Mr. Ingram her English teacher asks her what she wants out of life she cries “I want to go to school. I want to see the word” and “I want so many things sometimes I can’t even stand it. I feel like I’m going to explode.” But Ama doesn’t see it that way, she just tells, Julia, she is a bad daughter because she wants to leave her family. The world is not what it seems. It is filled with evil and bad people that just want to her hurt and take advantage of
... However, through the narrators partial freedom she more importantly finds a new compassionate/humane path on her journey to womanhood. Also, this new path in itself acts as a sort of self-healing for the grief experienced by the narrator. Though only partial freedom was found and cultural boundaries were not shattered, simply battered, the narrator’s path was much preferable to that of her sisters (those who conformed to cultural boundaries).
In struggling against the brutal dynamics of a system that simultaneously set before her ideals of a true woman, but refused to acknowledge her as a human being, Jacobs emerges scarred but victorious. Her rational powers and will to action facilitate her efforts to find strategies for dealing with sexual harassment from her master, for maintaining family unity, and in estab...
At the end of Bread Givers Sarah’s father, Reb, moves in with Hugo and Sara. With her father’s ailing health, Sara hesitantly agreed with Hugo to let Reb move in with them. Hugo believes that the addition of Reb will be enlightening for his and Sara’s home. Sara, on the other hand, is worried that her father’s constant presence in her home will bring back her past life that she has worked so hard to get away from.
In Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, social turmoil after a staged terrorist attack has led to a totalitarian Christian regime. In this dystopian future, the roles of men and women are much different than in today’s society. In The Handmaid’s Tale, women are unequal because they have no choice about their bodies, their dress, or their relationships.
The most important factor that shapes Sara Smolinsky’s decision is individual time. She is characterized as an intrapersonal individual. She is very concerned about herself and her life goals. Unlike her sisters Sara sees beyond her parent’s beliefs and the poverty surrounding her. Throughout the novel Sara endeavors a transition between her old World on Hester street and her new world as a clean idealist. In the novel Sara continuously mentions her need to become a person in society. For instance, at her mother’s funerals she refuses to rend her garment to show grief (297). This shows how extreme Sara is about completely neglecting the Torah. This also gives an insight to how self-observed she is that doesn’t wouldn’t even respect her traditions
In the beginning of the novel, Sara’s dad reveals what their culture thinks of women by saying The prayers of his daughters didn’t count because God didn’t listen to women…Women could get into Heaven because they were wives and daughters of men.” (page 9). As the book continues, she lives watching one by one her dad marrying off her sisters to whom he believes are the perfect fit to the family. When her dad finally finds someone who he believes is worthy of calling a son in law, she refuses to go with him, her dad then replies with the comment, “What’s a woman without a man? Less than nothing” (chapter 15). This gives an insight to the reader on how her father’s point of view of women remains the same as it was in the beginning. Growing up in this kind of home inspired her to work harder to leave her home. As soon as she had the chance, she would leave in order to make an attempt in living with by herself without the help of a man, even if it meant defying the wishes and the culture in which she grew up