Bread Givers by Yezierska is about a young woman who is struggling to find her place in a new society. Born to a poverty stricken family, she has to take on the responsibility of an adult at a young age. Though the story in set in an earlier time in New York some of the circumstance that she has to face are still issues that families migrating to the city, today, have to overcome. Sarah the narrator and protagonist grew up with a father that was very religious. He devoted a lot of time to his religion and this was reflected in his views and how he raised his girls. He wanted his daughters to share the same ideas and belief as him. However, this was not the case. Sarah and her sisters were growing up in a society that was different from the one that her father grew up in. The clashing of new world and old world ideas was a cause for the divisions and ultimately the separation of the family. Similarly today many families that come to the city from other countries have to now face the change about what role religion will play in their life and that of their children. Will the new world ideas out rank the traditions?

Sarah growing up in poverty, knew that she wanted a change for her future that was beyond her time. In her family the women were the ones that worked and took care of the bills. It was engraved in them by their father that needed to be married, to be wives and mothers. Sarah ultimately leaves her home and her parents. By doing so she gives herself a “bad name” because this was not the norm. Never the less she did it because she wanted more meaning and an education in life. Many women of the time did not seem to value this. Similar to Stansell New York Bohemia, Sarah was the new woman of the time. She forgoes all traditions to peruse her education and to be a teacher, a face of the generation that was to come.