When I read Bread Givers, I was engrossed by the debilitating circumstances that the Smolinsky had to endure. Even if the daughters sought relief from their suffocating lifestyles, it seemed that their father’s unyielding grasp on their future vanquished any hope to pursue their own interests. This tragedy is largely due to the distinct generational chasm between the father and his children. While he is stubborn in keeping with traditions from his home country, Poland, the children observe and yearn for the independent, indulgent way of life that was so popularized in America. Although poverty, racism, gender inequalities, and much more prevented these immigrant children from advancing to a greater extent, it was their link to their inflexible past and culture that more significantly precluded their pursuits of happiness.

Bread Givers. The title itself has an interesting twist: Although Sara’s father is supposed to be the “bread giver” of his family, his weary, overworked daughters are the ones who struggle for the sustenance of the household. Yet, in the end–almost as if Yezierkska incorporates an ironic spin– her father is forced to lay aside his esoteric contemplation and begin to peddle goods during his last years of his life. “Bread Givers” also has another relatively metaphoric dimension to its meaning. In the father’s perspective, the “bread” that the he feeds his children is the Word, or the Torah, is more important than that which nourishes the physical body. So, in this sense, he is in fact the true “Bread Giver.” But rather than bringing forth beneficial results in his daughters’ lives, the “bread” that he provides exacerbates the dynamics of the family. Aside from his youngest, Sara, who blatantly denies the bread he gives her, all of his other daughters succumb and listen to his relentless preaching.