Anzia Yezierska’s novel, Bread Givers, follows the life of Sara Smolinsky and her desire to truly be independent from her tyrannical Orthodox rabbi of a father. Every time her sisters are married off to men they don’t love, Sara more and more hates the restrained life of a Jewish woman in the 1920s.
While reading the book, I saw the words bread giver actually mentioned only a couple of times. Each time, the words were referring to Mashah’s husband, Moe Mirsky, as her bread giver and how she needed him for money. Although it is usually never explicitly said, the bread givers are chosen carefully throughout the whole story. In this book, bread giver translates to the person who brings home the income for the house. It’s very similar to the term many American’s use today, “Dough Maker.” In this case, bread means money for the survival of the family even though the actual bread giver may not be so willing to give away his “bread.”
In the book, the bread giver may not always be one man. For the Smolinskys, the bread givers are the daughters of Reb Smolinsky as he brings no revenue home from being a rabbi. The eldest daughter, Bessie, actually makes the biggest wages out of all the daughters towards the middle of the story. Reb relies on Bessie’s wages to primarily keep up his religious lifestyle and to secondarily feed himself and the rest of the family. When Berel Berenstein wants to marry Bessie for no dowry, Reb is selfish to choose Bessie’s valuable wages over her happiness and declines Berel’s offer.
When the older daughters are married off to men of Reb’s choosing, their bread givers become their husbands. For Bessie, her worries and stress continue from her younger life into her married life as she switches from a bread giver to a mother of multiple step children. Her only happiness is from caring for her youngest stepson, Benny. Zalmon the fish peddler becomes her bread giver and provides for her in exchange for cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children. Mashah’s bread giver, Moe Mirsky, deceived her and Reb before they got married by saying he was a rich diamond store owner when in fact he was just a worker for a diamond store. He spends most of his wages on fancy clothes for himself while Mashah can’t even pay for the milk bill. Her beauty which was once the most important thing to her has now been replaced with taking care of her children and keeping her small house clean and decorated. For Fania, her bread giver is the wealthiest out of all the daughters. Abe Schmukler showers Fania with fancy clothes and jewelry only to show the world how wealthy he is. Sara becomes her own bread giver when she runs away from her and sees how hard it is to manage money by yourself.
All of the daughters are unhappy in their lives mostly due to the effects of their father. Like most immigrants at that time, bread giving becomes the most important thing to them whether it be from their husbands or made by themselves. Yezierska picked a fitting name for this book since it is all about finding who can give or make the most “bread.”
