The Struggle in Bread Givers Essay - 1388 Words

The Struggle in Bread Givers Several changes have occurred since the 1920s in traditional family values and the family life. Research revealed several different findings among family values, the way things were done and are now done, and the different kinds of old and new world struggles. In Anzia Yezierskas Bread Givers, Sara and her father have different opinions of what the daughters role should be. Sara believed that she should be able to choose what her life will be, because it is her life. She was assimilated to the new world in this sense. She felt that since she lived in America she should have the right to be free to chose her lifestyle and make it what she wanted. She believed that she should be able to keep†¦show more content†¦Im going to live my own life. Nobody can stop me. Im not from the old country. Im American! Saras father wanted to control everybody elses lives, in his family, but he did not want anyone telling him how to do things. He felt that he should be able to control the family spendings even though he did not earn a penny. He went against his wifes request and used every penny of their savings to buy the store. His wife asked him, Promise me that you wont pay out the money till I come to see what you buy. (113). He went ahead and bought the store without letting his wife come down to see it first like he had promised her. He made a huge mistake then, just as he had with his daughters. He did not pick a good husband for any of his daughters. He was fooled not only by the store owner but also by the daughters husbands. The reason he made all these mistakes is because he would not listen to anyones advice. If he had listened to his wife, he would not have bought the store because she would have been with him, and she would have noticed something was wrong because she was already susp icious. She says, Does he really ask only four hundred dollars for all this?...Ask him to give you a pencil to count up all the goods there is in stock. (114). She has more sense about business then he does, but he gets to be in control of all their money. Today, women have more of a say in what goes on with the financial part of the family as well as with who they are going toShow MoreRelatedInternal Struggles Of The Bread Giver995 Words   |  4 PagesInternal Struggles of the Bread Giver The Bread Giver is about an internal struggle that went on within a recently immigrated Jewish family. Not only were they coping with the changes of coming to America, but gender roles within the larger community were also shifting. 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