The history texts that we have read previously may do a good job illustrating the story of immigrant groups, and of highlighting individual success stories. However the story of the group tells little of an average individual’s day to day life, and the success stories are 1 in a million type cases that don’t capture the toil and drudgery required to climb to the top. Bread Givers may be fiction, but it is based on Anzia Yezierska’s experiences as a woman who eventually found success coming from the Jewish Lower East Side. I found Sara’s story to be both tremendously sad at times, for the fates of her sisters and her family’s everyday struggles captured a reality shared by many immigrants, but also to be inspiring. Sara captured the idea of the American Dream: she rose from poverty to obtain a college education and career success, becoming, as she says “a real person”. Yet her story doesn’t neglect the particular heart break hidden in the American Dream–as Sara becomes Americanized, she neglects cultural tradition and even family. In leaving behind poverty, Sara leaves an ancient history behind in order to forge a new one. This is not to say that she completely abandons her culture, but rather to point out that she changes from the Old World with its strict traditions to the New World’s ways, and that while she gains much, including, finally, a sense of personal pride and independence, she does lose something as well.