Paper 2 Draft

sorry about being late group couldn't figure out how to copy this so had to type it

In America today it is quite common to hear people talk proudly about their heritage, such as the Irish being heavy drinkers or the Italians being excellent cooks. However, when the immigrants first arrived to America many of them tried to forget their old traditions and “Americanize” themselves. As we see in the book Bread Givers, it is very difficult for poor immigrants to try and rise up to the high standard of being an American. Throughout the book we see immigrants dress themselves to look like Americans, go to school to receive an American education, and even marry to simply achieve a higher standard of living. Sara Smolinsky is the only character that is able to “Americanize” herself throughout her life but when her father sickens and she must care for him the burden of her heritage is still there.

            Throughout the book we see the older generation of immigrants, Sara’s father, hold onto their old values while the younger generation of immigrants, the sisters, try to fit in with American culture. What the children realize that their father does not, even until his death, is that the traditions of the old country do not work in America. The biggest realization of this is Sara’s father’s commitment to studying the Torah while his children worked for him, which would have been acceptable in the old country. But in America the man is expected to be the “bread giver” and provide his family with everything they need. Sara’s father and other immigrants during his time thought that prayer and commitment to their faith would provide them with what they needed in the new world. The American dream is to become a self-made man and that cannot be achieved by sitting in your house reading scripture and providing no income to your family. There is also a bit of irony here because Rockefeller is mentioned several times and Sara’s father speaks of having his money. Rockefeller earned his millions by becoming the American dream and Sara’s father simply wants wealth delivered to him through prayer and not by actual work.

            One important old tradition that Sara’s father brings up on many occasions is the inferiority of women and how their role is to wait on men. In the old country that is how it worked and even in an older America it was the case but things were changing and women were gaining their deserved rights. The law attempts to teach him this after he is arrested for assaulting the landlord’s collector lady when she disrespects him by stepping on the Torah. However, he is released because the other immigrant men pool their money to buy the best lawyer and thus probably learned no life lesson in the experience. A similar situation occurs later in the book when Sara’s father invests their newly acquired life savings into a fraud business instead of waiting to discuss the investment with his wife. This once again shows the lack of respect that the immigrant men have for their women. Even when Sara’s mother dies, her father waits only 30 days, which according to the Torah is acceptable, to marry again. He sees women only as his “bread giver” instead of the man providing for his family like in American culture.

            The younger generation of immigrants eventually realizes that keeping their old traditions is holding them back from obtaining a real American life. In the book, all the sisters attempt to break away from their father and their backgrounds but only Sara is able to do so and “Americanize” herself. As young adults, the 4 sisters would dress themselves in fancy expensive clothing in order to appear wealthier than they actually were. Mashah is the perfect example of this as she spends her wages on clothes and make-up instead of giving it to her father. The girls also spend their money on fixing up their kitchen so that when they bring guests over they do not appear poor. Eventually the girls realize that they cannot “Americanize” by disguising themselves and their surroundings. Sara also sees that she cannot escape her roots by simply changing her surroundings, as she is an outcast everywhere she goes. When she is living on her own and working in the laundry mat she talks to almost no one and it is relatively the same story when she is at college.  At the laundry mat she wears make-up to appear as the other girls and she is mocked and at college she attends a dance where no one dances with her. She seems to become fully “Americanized” when she receives her diploma and becomes a school teacher but her father becomes sick and she must care for him. In the end she tried to escape her heritage but no matter what she always had some part of the old culture with her that did not allow her to become American.

            Even though it can be argued that no characters in this story were able to “Americanize” themselves some immigrants managed to do so over time. The restraints of their old culture and traditions made that path incredible difficult though as we saw with Sara and her family. The American dream of becoming a self-made man was exactly that, a dream that many immigrants desired but few obtained.