Bread Givers is a wonderfully detailed and honest story about a poor Jewish family living in 1920s New York City. I found this story to be particularly compelling because it felt very real. It was based on Yezierska’s life, which is definitely a major factor in the honest telling of the story. This book deals with a lot of issues that were not only prevalent at the time, but ones that are present today. Specifically, the struggles that immigrant families go through and female independence vs. family dependence.

The father of the Smolinsky family, Reb, is constantly concerned with how much money his daughters are bringing into the household, but restricts their freedom to make their own life decisions, like who they want to marry, whether or not they want to go to school, and others. The relationship between Sarah and her father was one that really stood out as being very tumultuous and unsteady throughout the book. I found myself really sympathizing for Sarah when she was constantly criticized by Reb for her life decisions when all she was doing was trying to succeed and make a life for herself, while at the same time supporting her family. Sarah’s going to school made her a new kind of woman that was emerging at the time–an educated, free woman who makes choices for herself. However her father was the constant restrictive force of the patriarchy, which was both angering and saddening. Every time that Reb criticized her, my heart ached because I knew that she was just a spirit that needed freedom but still loved her family enough to provide for them in the best way she could. This book definitely says a lot about women and the challenges they faced during this time, and especially those of poor, immigrant women, who probably faced the toughest challenges of all.