When did it all go down the drain? Life for the Smolinsky’s wasn’t bad before the young couple moved to New York from Russia. In fact, they were pretty well-off. But business went bad, and forced the two to make their way to the land of opportunity. What was waiting for them past Ellis Island can only be depicted as the saddest poverty story told, one that can cause any reader to become frustrated beyond words.
For Reb, the patriarch of the family, nothing was more important than the studying of the Torah. He titled himself the light between his people and God, and disregarded any shame that was cast among him. His own family muttered some nights in disgust about how hard they worked as women and how lazy and conceited he was on his hollow quest to be with God. Although he’s said so many times that riches meant nothing on Earth if it meant they were not awaiting in Heaven, he still carried on about finding his daughters rich entrepreneurs to marry. This was Reb’s American dream, coming to a land where he didn’t have to work, and marry off his daughters so he didn’t have to worry – the money they’d provide would give him his new business. The only sad part of his dream is it ruined the dream of his own children.
Through the eyes of Sara, we witness her three sisters all fall eagerly in love with men they couldn’t have. A poet, a businessman, and a pianist – all ready to take his girls for brides and all shunned by the bitterness of a stubborn, nonsensical father. They each dreamed of running away and chasing opportunity for all it’s worth. They dreamed of hard work for not only their husbands, but for their own independence.
As for Sara, her dream was similar to that of her sisters. The only thing that separated her from them was she had the will to escape. While all three of her sisters stuck true to their loyalty to their father, she cracked. It was no longer her priority to slave for him. It was her turn to make her dream into reality.
