Mary Antin‘s Portrayal in The Promised Land and Anzia Yezierska‘s Portrayal in Bread Givers:

IN THE SHTETL:

-No wonder he said, in his morning prayer, “I thank Thee, Lord, for not having created me a female.” It was not much to be a girl, you see. Girls could not be scholars and rabbonim. (Antin 18)

-“For a girl it was enough if she could read her prayers in Hebrew, and follow the meaning by the Yiddish translation at the bottom of the page. It did not take long to learn this much, –a couple of terms with a rebbetzin, –and after that she was done with books.” (Antin 19)

-A girl’s real schoolroom was her mother’s kitchen. There she learned to bake and cook and manage, to knit, sew, and embroider; also to spin and weave, in country places. And while her hands were busy, her mother instructed her in the laws regulating a pious Jewish household and in the conduct proper for a Jewish wife; for, of course, every girl hoped to be a wife. A girl was born for no other purpose (Antin 19)

-Every Jewish man and woman had a part in the fulfillment of the ancient promise given to Jacob that his seed should be abundantly scattered over the earth. Parenthood, therefore, was the great career. But while men, in addition to begetting, might busy themselves with the study of the Law, woman’s only work was motherhood. To be left an old maid became, accordingly, the greatest misfortune that could threaten a girl; and to ward off that calamity the girl and her family, to the most distant relatives, would strain every nerve, whether by contributing to her dowry, or hiding her defects from the marriage broker, or praying and fasting that God might send her a husband. (Antin 19)

-As my mother had been trained to her business from childhood, while my father had had only a little irregular experience, she naturally remained the leader. She was as successful as her father before her….she was greatly respected in the business world. (Antin 31)

IN THE UNITED STATES:

-“…I cried out my herring with all the burning fire of my ten old years. So loud was my yelling, for my little size, that people stopped to look at me. And more came to see what the others were looking at.‘Give only a look on the saleslady,’ laughed a big fat woman with a full basket.” (Yezierska 21)

-“If a man wants a wife, he looks for one who can cook for him, and wash for him, and carry the burden of the house for him.” (Yezierska 64)

-And woe to us women who got to live in a Torah-made world that’s only for men. (Yezierska 95)