Diamonds and Fairytales
By Khoo Lilin
Sara's story may be described simply as 'rags to riches'. Rather like the
rugged individualism Americans are so proud of, there is something magical about
the way Sara starts out with nothing but ends up with everything. The theme
of the fairytale demarcates the battle lines between the old world and the new.
In the fairytale (e.g. Cinderella), the poor girl magically gets both love (prince)
and diamonds (riches). In Bread Givers, there is a divergence in this convention
in that the old world values only the riches part and the new world values only
the love part. In this essay, I want to illustrate how the fairytale element
features prominently in the novel and how some well-known aspects of the fable
are used, adapted and even distorted to suit the purposes of the novel. Sara's
sisters may be seen as would-be princesses either because of their beauty (Mashah)
or hard work (Bessie) but ultimately their fairytale endings are thwarted by
old world materialism. Their tales illustrate the inadequacy of appearances
and riches. Sara's triumph and her emphasis on clean emptiness devoid of materialism
and glittering appearances, on the other hand, establish her as a champion of
the new world.
To begin with, Sara is almost immediately recognizable as a kind of contemporary
Cinderella. One of the first things we see her doing is picking coal, which
is of course also what Cinderella does at the beginning of that fairytale, which
makes her so black and sooty she is given the name Cinderella. Sara also means
princess or noble in Hebrew. From the Aramaic, Sarah/Sara means princess, guardian
angel. (Jastrow, M. 1903. A Dictionary of the Talmud.v.2. Brooklyn: International
Hebrew Book Inc. 1627). It is fitting also that she does not have a dress to
wear to the ball (at college) (218). However, more than delineating her role
as 'princess' in the novel, the narrative also illustrates how she ultimately
rejects some elements of the fairytale, so as to become her own person.
There are two parts to every fairytale: a poor girl marries a rich prince
and gets in return riches and love. In Bread Givers, this convention experiences
a divergence. The old world seems to demand only the riches part ("bread and
butter marriages") while the new world seems to demand only the love part (i.e.
Fania's love for her penniless poet). There is something corrupt, even sinister,
when the material aspects of the fairytale are wrenched from it and made to
stand alone. The elements of the fairytale are thwarted in the old world and
given an unnatural meaning. Anybody who is rich and has money is a 'prince.'
Zalmon the fish peddler is called a "Rockefeller prince" in his wealthy appearance,
although one could scarcely imagine a more unlikely prince. Moe Mirsky says,
"…For my dollar I can go to the finest restaurant, and I'm served like a King."
We see how the romantic notions of the fairytale are completely missing and
how selfish individualistic people like Moe are treated like "kings" just because
of their money. The appearance of all these unlikely 'royals' climaxes in the
form of Mrs. Feinstein. Mrs Feinstein says that "[she] was a princess by her
first husband," meaning that he gave her everything she wanted. Mrs Feinstein
is ironically very much like a diamond herself; she shines with all the silk
stockings and ribbons and jewels on her (263), she is like a hard stone not
caring for the dying Reb Smolinsky (289), she is also ultimately of little practical
value. There is furthermore something very ghastly about these people who are
ironically described or self-described as royals which makes us question the
old world values that have put them into being. The old world values money in
marriage above all else-Zalmon is valued for his wealth, Mrs. Feinstein married
only to "better herself." What is tragically missing is love.
The emphasis on material wealth in the novel is made clear through the use
of the leitmotif of diamonds and jewels. We are made to understand that diamonds
and jewels in this novel are a sort of literary shorthand for materialism, appearances
and the shattering of those appearances (illusions). Sara's sisters are wooed
with diamonds; Mashah was made to believe that Moe Mirsky was a diamond-dealer,
Fania was given diamonds to wear; and even Berel Bernstein offered Bessie a
diamond ring from a pawnshop if she would marry him (50). What we see, however,
is how transient this material wealth is; all these fairytale-like marriages
turn out very quickly to be shams. Mashah's diamond-dealer turns out to be a
shoe salesman, Fania's millionaire turns out to be a gambler. Sara's suitor
Max Goldstein also once set up an imitation jewelry stand. What is clear in
the image of imitation jewelry is that something that is valuable is copied
and made fake. Likewise, the beautiful fairytale weddings turn out to be fake.
What is worse is that although all these marriages turn out to be shams, there
still has to be some kind of cover-up and make-believe. The perpetuation of
the myth has to go on "because no matter how the shoe pinched…[they] had to
hide [their] shame from the neighbors." (84) The use of the image of the shoe
is particularly apt when we recall how Cinderella's prince found her by going
around with the glass slipper until a pair of feet fitted into it. However,
in this artificial reality, the shoe does not fit and it hurts but everyone
has to pretend and make-believe it fits although it causes pain to the wearer.
The sacrifices that have to be made to keep up appearances are borne ultimately
by the woman. As Sara goes to Mashah's house, she realizes "…now as I looked
at her I saw what bloody toil it had cost to turn the dirt of poverty into this
little palace of shining cleanliness." (147) The illusion of the fairytale is
kept up by having the appearance of an outward "little palace." Inside that
"palace", however, the irony is that the princess is a maid. This shows up the
failure of satisfying oneself through outward appearances or "the outside show"
as Sara puts it.
The use of diamonds in the novel also points out the fact that in the profoundly
patriarchal old world, women are treated as commodities. Like a diamond, a woman
is measured only by how valuable she is to men. On describing his new wife,
Father says, "What a womanly woman! What a virtuous soul! …the more I see her,
the more I feel what a diamond treasure she is. How she could make a man happy!"
(258) In praising (selling) Bessie to Zalmon the fish peddler, he says, "…a
golden child with a diamond heart!" The comparison that Father explicitly draws
between wives and diamonds shows that he treats wives like a sort of possession,
a commodity to keep and hoard. Zalmon also likens a wife to a crown, "a young
wife would be like a crown on my head." To him, a wife is an ornamental possession;
a wife would give him someone to rule over and to affirm his own sense of power
as a "king" of the house. The image of royalty here is thus of a very warped
sort: the prince wants the princess not for herself alone, but so as to enhance
his own sense of self-worth and accumulate his material possessions. Because
the familiar aspects of the fairytale are thwarted, we feel a sense of unease.
Mercenary aspects emerge and overwhelm until what is left is no longer beautiful.
Although Sara is the main protagonist in the novel and the 'princess', we
see that in Sara's case, the fairytale element is also not developed to it full
potential (because of her choice). We do not see her piled with riches and opulent
luxuries like a traditional princess; she rejects princes glittering with gold
like Max Goldstein; instead she chooses only quiet simplicity. It is somewhat
ironic that the real Cinderella does not have any diamonds while her sisters
are being wooed with them. It is also ironic that one of the first things Sara
the princess sees in the shop window after she has money is a pink ball gown
(238) but she refuses it. This departure from the traditional fairytale seems
to suggests that only what is good and truly beautiful in the fairytale of tradition
is retained-the love and happiness that she has found with Hugo Seelig. What
is crass or materialistic about people's fairytale dreams-diamonds, chandeliers,
beautiful dresses and the like are starkly absent from Sara's tale. The fact
that Sara's story does not conform to the traditional narrative form of the
fairytale is also telling; she has moved away from convention and written her
own happy ending. She gets her "prince" by inner wealth rather than outward
appearance.
In conclusion, we see how Sara chooses ultimately to ignore the crass materialism
and the opulent riches, to focus only on clean emptiness and love. The novel
seems to signify, through the example of Sara and the counter-examples of other
characters, that materialism is ultimately transient and self-serving i.e. that
people who value materialism are selfish and individualistic and eventually
resort to deceit and putting on false appearances in order to achieve their
goals and get what they want. The narrative also illustrates, through Sara's
happy ever after ending with Hugo Seelig, that only love is enduring and can
provide true happiness.
Work Cited
Yezierska, Anzia. Bread Givers. New York: Persea Books, 1975.
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