Bread Givers The 1920s were a harsh and challenging era in American history. Many families throughout New York lived in abject poverty and saved from week to week just to earn enough to eat and pay rent. Many immigrants poured into the streets in desperate search of work while living conditions were harsh and many died of hunger. This is precisely the case of the novel Bread Givers, written by Anzia Yezierska. In this story we follow Sarah Smolinsky, an ambiguous, independent Jewish girl "trapped" by her religious traditions. Her story unfolds as she moves away from her controlling parents and moves to work and school in hopes of becoming a teacher. His life is not easy and he must endure countless sacrifices just to survive. With the determination of his will he graduates from university, but returns to his father to take care of him in his old age. At the beginning of the story Sarah hates her father and everything about him, and this connects to her hatred for her God and his traditions. Out of hatred for his father, he rejects his Jewish traditions and religious beliefs to build a better life in America. After achieving his goals, he cannot ignore the emptiness of his father's love. Sarah longs to be loved by her father. She begins to feel remorse for him and begins to remember her past and where she came from, slowly returning to her once lost traditions. At the beginning of this novel Sara Smolinsky, her parents, and sisters Mashah, Bessie, and Fania, all live together in a small, cluttered apartment. His father, a Hasidic Jew, does not work to provide for his family, but instead preaches to his family with rigorous spiritual guidance studying Torah as he chooses. His father justifies his lifestyle by claiming that his faith in ... middle of paper ... seemed to combine the assimilation of American culture with that of its long-standing Jewish traditions. He rejected and avoided countless Jewish traditions, out of hatred for his father. At the end of the story it seems that his relationship with his father grows stronger and, in turn, his religious traditions also grow stronger. The father is yet another way of looking at his struggle with Jewish teachings and religious traditions. Sarah's love for her father grows stronger, as does her willingness to accept her Jewish upbringing. Sarah is now an American woman who also carries with her the weight and responsibility of her Jewish past. All his life he had struggled to achieve all of his goals, and in doing so, he had ruined his most important goal: paternal acceptance. As she takes pride in having achieved all her dreams, she has also achieved peace of mind with her Father.