a literature discussion over "bread givers" by anzia yezierska- maggie, riley, emma, and calvin
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week 5 reporter emma
After graduating college with a teaching degree and as a recipient of $1,000 that she one in an essay contest, Sara returns home to New York. Unfortunately, her mother has fallen fatally ill and passes away soon after her arrival. Quickly after her death, Reb remarries but learns that his new wife, Mrs. Feinstein, is after his late wife’s lodge money. Sara and her sisters find this new marriage is dishonorable to their mother and refuse to give financial help to either of them. Mrs. Feinstein writes to the principal of the school, Hugo Seelig, where Sara is teaching in an attempt to discredit her for not providing her with money. Hugo sympathizes with Sara and they begin to date. One night, Sara is on her way to have dinner with Hugo but she finds her father extremely ill, lying in the gutter and selling chewing gum. Sara walks her father home out of concern and cares for him. Sara realizes her father needs a wife to help support him so she is able to convince her sisters to help out with their father and his new wife. Reb admits to Sara that he is unhappy and Sara reluctantly asks her father to come live with her and Hugo. Reb isn’t sure if he’ll be able to live with Sara but makes her promise that she’ll keep sacred all that is sacred to him. The novel ends with Sara and Hugo walking home while agreeing to let Reb move in with them.
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week 5 discussion director maggie
How does Sara’s education affect her? How does she now view herself? HOw do other now view her?
How does Sara react when her mother dies? How does she feel knowing it has been years since she has seen her? HOw does her father react? How do you feel about thee reactions. Connect this to your own life, how would you and those close to you react if your mother/father/guardian died?
Reb remarries- is this ethical? Why does he feel the need to do this? How do the others feel about this? What would you do in the children’s position?
A new man enters Sara’s life- how does this relate and circle back to the beginning of the novel (love by choice, Moris Limpkin, etc.)?
The novel ends by Sara letting her father move in with her. After all she's been through, do you agree with this move? State your final feelings about this book.
(answered on schoology)
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reporter week 4- maggie
In chapter 13 to book 3 of the “Bread Givers”, there is a definite shift of energy surrounding the setting and our main character, Sara Smolinsky. At this point in the novel, she has moved into a single, small, and horrid room in her home on New York City. She is alone now, and has run away from her past torment. Through these events which work as the story's rising action, Sara’s defiance and strength are renewed. She is outcasted by the girls at her shop, but takes this as a sign to focus on her work. Sara’s loneliness pushes her to become better, as she soon takes on school. She is outcasted there as well, but still finishes ahead of her class. Then, the recurring theme of love in this book reappears when a new man enters her life. A relationship is formed between Sara and this new man, “Max Goldstein”, and Sara falls hard. She feels what she believes is love. She believes it is the only sort of love she will ever feel again. SHe soon realizes that he, in a businessman way, only takes in the relationship, and never gives. She realizes the toxicness of the relationship and leaves. She then declares her only loves are her books. Anzia Yezierska places this plot point in to show the change of the nature of love and patriarchy in this story. Sara no longer feels the need for love in a man that her misogynistic father placed in here. She now can move on to the bigger, more important things in life and become a great women. She no longer feels the dred of a mans hold on her soul. With this new found freedom, she enters college, forgetting her father's anger and following herself, She is a fireball, defining teachers expectations and working only for herself. She does fall for a man, a teacher, but unlike past experiences, pushes forward. She graduates college, after winning an essay contest. Sara has gone from a girl who can barely read or write to a college graduate That is what this portion of the “Bread Givers” is about. Sara moving forward and forging a road for herself. She is becoming her own bread giver.
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week 4 diction detective - emma
“that man could wake the dead from their graves.” (pg. 255)
Sara is describing Max Goldstein here and instead of using more dainty, positive word choice (as she does in the paragraphs surrounding this quote), Sara employs the use of words pertaining to death - often thought of in a negative context. This creates a jarring contrast between how she describes Max, painting him in a good light by still saying that he “could WAKE the dead”, but also utilizing some juxtaposition and litotes to foreshadow her eventual break up.
“The joy of the dance burst loose the shut-in prisoner in me. I was a bird that had leaped out of her cage. Wild gladness sang in my veins, swept me up, up, away from this earth” (pg. 259)
Again, by throwing in more “gore-y” language in the midst of something pleasant - such as the freedom of dancing - creates a kind of meaning that is hard to explain. Sara feels this kind of happiness and joy in such a raw, primal way that they only way to describe it is to use words that would typically be likened to pain (veins, prisoner, going away from earth).
“All I could feel was the hurt of his beating me down. Just as I looked to Father for love, he rose up to stone me.” (pg. 272)
The reference to stoning hints at more biblical times at which people we stoned if they were in opposition to public opinions. By saying that her father’s disapproval towards her decision to turn down Max, Sara feels as though she is being abused; a constant beating of her father’s verbal accusations that has made her have deep-rooted doubts towards her ability to choose love.
“I saw there was no use talking. He could never understand, He was the Old World. I was the New.” (pg. 274)
By creating a contrast between the Old and New world, Sara is able to realize how arguing with her father will never lead anywhere and that she will never be able to change his mind over matters because that’s how he was brought up to believe. However, as Sara grows and learns to fend for herself, she can see how she doesn’t need her father’s approval to be happy.
“Darkness and stillness washed over me. Slowly I stumbled to my feet and looked up at the sky.” (pg. 286)
Sara’s description of “darkness and stillness” washing over her paint something that desolate yet somber. Her desperation is clearly seen in the way she looks up at the sky for answers with helplessness taking over her.
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calvin discussion director week 4
Why does Sara perceive New York's education system the way she does?
Why does Sara chase after Mr. Edman so much?
Why do you think Sara is so interested in the subject of psychology?
How is Sara's life in college same and different from when she lived with her family before?
Why does Sara always feel the need to fit in with others even if everything she tries never works?
(answered on schoology)
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week 3 bridge builder - emma
As Sara takes on her life in college, she begins to notice that the people around her don’t share the same desire to achieve an education as she does. She explains how she is ridiculed day after day because of her unending supply of questions that even make the teacher’s frown with annoyance.
As bridge builder for this week, I liken Sara’s struggle of standing out to the American school system and how it has evolved into something that is detrimental to the students it tries to teach. Everyone has a natural desire to learn, however, so much pressure is put of memorization and passing standarized tests that students no longer want to learn new things. Instead, that desire has been stripped away and replaced by a frantic need to survive off of the highest test score and fanciest college acceptance letter.
Sara even acknowledges this, saying, “they [her peers at college] didn’t hunger and thirst for knowledge, they weren’t excited about anything they were learning, so it jarred them that I was so excited.
“To them I was only a selfish grabber of their time because I was so crazy to know too much.” (pg. 246)
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weeks 3 artist- maggie
bread givers by; anzia yezierska
a mood board: maggie artist week 3
“this door was life. it was air. the bottom starting-point of becoming a person. i simply must have this room with the shut door.”
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diction detective week 3- maggie
synesthesia, noun: production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body, such as words and color.
“As I listened to the ticking of the clock, each minute of each hour seemed like the ashes of a thousand years slowly smothering me.” page 129.
I selected this phrase because the word choice of “ashes and smothering” create a feeling of grey and dullness in my mind, supplemented and strengthened by the time connection of a thousand years. It brings the same weariness that Sara feels in that empty “fake” of a store. When that line is read, I see the color grey. Anzia Yezierska chose that phrase for just this reason, to bring a feeling of dread in the reader's heart and make a closer connection between the main character and reader. She is also symbolizing that time is not all that is choking Sara, but her abusive and controlling father and his idiotic mind.
“Sunshine flowed out of her eyes over her children.” page 148.
This phrase itself to me is art. It inflicts unknown emotion upon me, something I can only describe as warmth in my stomach and picturesque yellow daisies in my head. The juxtaposition of this phrase and the dim dusty life which Masha lives are so different, yet this descriptor makes it feel as if the goodness is able to vanquish the evil. Yezierska writes this to show hos Sara see’s her sibling’s life. There is suffering, and she knows that, but she is able to still see comfort. This enables her to live without worry for her sister, knowing she is still surviving through her children.
“I felt like one crucified in a torture pit of noise.” page 164.
This line throws you into a feeling of uncomfortableness and fear. The mention of crucifixion makes you shutter, as you understand the utter state of fear that Sara is in as she experiences school. All Sara wants it to be successful, and you understand that as she, though with the feeling of death running through her, still studies for her future, This line makes me think of red for two different reasons. The first being, of course, the bloody torture she endures, and the second being the intense passion for what she does, and how she will not stop unti she recieves what she wants.
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calvin bridge builder week 3
In the chapters I have read for this section, Sarah is seen to heavily rebel against her father as she feels she has the rights to do whatever she wants since she lives in America. As bridge builder I would relate this event to how people are desperately trying fight for gun control rights and how so many are standing up and protesting for what they believe in. Sara is protesting against her father’s will and the way he wants her to live her future and runs away to pursue her dream of being a teacher. People all over the United States of America are trying to protest for gun rights after the Florida school shooting so that an event like this will never happen again. Sara rebelled against her father and left home to go to college because she believe she had the rights to mold her own future.
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riley discussion director week 3
Riley: discussion director
do you think Sara is becoming like
her father the way that her sisters say? does she think that highly of herself?
would you be willing to sacrifice anything for your dream, and do you think sara is brave for doing so, even if thousands of others do the same?
dwell on the purpose of education. do you think it's as important and crucial to survival as we are lead to believe? why are we meant to believe education is all we should live for in high school?
in your opinion should sara make decisions with her head or heart? it's difficult to stay on track and remember your dreams, just as it is hard to find motivation to suck the life out of yourself.
now that the focus is on sara living alone, how do you think her commitment to education and work will affect her from now on? what themes already present in the book doe this represent?
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week 2 artist - Emma
“the quietest bearer of the heaviest of burdens”
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discussion 2 - reporter
Emma
Within chapters 6 and 7, we again see how Reb plays matchmaker to the detriment of his daughters. The fishmonger, Zalmon, recently has lost his wife and searches for a replacement to care for his six children. Red, believing he has the perfect solution to his friend’s problem, offers up his own daughter Bessie in marriage. Bessie is horrified at this resolution and her own mother tries to defend her, however, Reb has his eyes set on beginning his own business and a little nagging from his family won’t shake his from his dream. Zalmon later comes to court Bessie and she refuses the gifts he brings her such as his wife’s old fur coat and gold watch. The only thing Bessie finds bearable is Zalmon’s youngest son, Benny, whom had scratched his knee on their way over to the Smolinsky’s house later on. Zalmon, noticing that Bessie has taken an interest in Benny uses the child to bargain for himself, trapping Bessie into caring for him until she gives in to his courting. In return for his excellent matchmaking, Reb is now holder of four hundred dollars. Mrs. Smolinsky begs Reb to put the money in the bank but he refuses, telling her that the cash must be on hand in case of a bargain. Soon after, Reb sees an ad for a grocery store that’s for sale in Elizabeth, New Jersey and he rushes off to see it, believing this is the bargain he’s been waiting for. Sara and her mother follow suit and follow Reb to where the store is located where upon arrival they come to knowledge that Reb has already purchased the store. Further inspection of the store prompts the realization that they’ve been swindled as the store is not really stocked and the only reason people shop there is due to the ridiculously low prices. Reb remains calm, trusting in God, but his wife is frantic.
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