- Reflect on the meaning of the title in light of your reading.
When it comes to the novel: Bread Givers author Anzia Yezierska chooses an apt title. Bread giver, similar to the common term breadwinner, incites ideals of the person in a family who earns enough to provide for the needs of the family. In traditional ideals, this person is usually the father/ husband/ male head of the family. Interestingly enough, in Sara’s family this is not the case. Instead of the father being the provider for the wife and children, in her case it’s the children (and wife) being the provider for the father. By titling the book Bread Givers, Yezierska is essentially defining the Smolinsky daughters.
The majority of the novel focuses on bread giving: the act of earning wages, providing for the family, working, looking for jobs, marrying wealthy, etc. Every crisis in the book occurs when one of the ‘bread givers’ roles is challenged; when Bessie’s hand is being requested, when no one can find jobs, when Sara’s mother (Shena) asks Reb to become a bread giver…
According to their father, Rabbi Reb Smolinsky, the best bread giver in the family is Sara’s oldest sister Bessie. Bessie, as the Ideal bread giver, always gives up all of her wages to ‘the family’ and never spends anything on herself. She also works tirelessly to be everything the family needs. On the other hand, the laxest of the Smolinsky bread givers is arguably Masha who, while she does help the family in some ways, spends the majority of her time and wages on herself.
While all of the Smolinsky daughters could be coined ‘bread givers,’ the few times the phrase is actually mentioned in the book is when possible suitors are being discussed. This is because in a usual situation the bread giver the male of the household. This draws even more attention to how in the Smolinsky situation the girls are the providers and the only person that cannot be considered a bread giver has total control.
After watching this abusive, unbalanced situation for years, Sara decides to break the cycle. Sara does not want anything to do with the term bread giver. Her actions break her off from the role her father has shoved her in. She does not want to be depended upon and abused by her father. Sara moves out, gets her own room and job, and no longer ‘gives bread’. Symbolically, she is the bread maker, breadwinner, and the bread eater. She refuses to give her bread.
