Reading Responses
Yezierska, Bread Givers, 53-128
Passage taken from Bread Givers, 87-88
What caught my attention in these pages was Sara's pursuit of Morris Lipkin,
how she always goes after (here, literally) what she wants and how she is actively
involved in the construction of her future. In the first couple of pages in
the book, we see how she is the one doing most of the action. She snatches up
the quarter from the table and sells herring in the streets. She goes out of
the house to look for coal. Finally, she leaves her home and family and goes
in search of her own dreams and happiness. Sheis an active bread giver rather
than a passive bread taker.
This is opposed to what we see in pages 53 to 128, where there is a different
portrayal of her sisters being manipulated and pushed into unlucky marriages.
The portrait of passivity that is Fania's, Bessie's and Mashah's is clearly
delineated. Mashah is first portrayed as a "painted doll", and after
her failed relationship with Jacob Novak, a "dead face","cold
as a stone statue", "frozen", "weak, dumb, helpless",
all of these qualities connoting stillness, and thus passivity. Fania is equally
resigned to her fate. Only Bessie comes close to actively deciding her fate
when she tries to run away, but ultimately ".stopped fighting."
I noted also how Sara seems to be attracted to learned men of letters, first
Morris Lipkin (a poet) and then Mr. Edman (a school teacher), and finally Hugo
(a principal). Her thirst for knowledge is evident; knowledge attracts her because
it is to her the key to empowerment. Thus, knowledge here seems to be personified
and actualized in the physical bodies of these three men and her pursuit of
them could be seen as a parallel thread to her pursuit of knowledge and learning.
It is surely no mere coincidence that she gets knowledge (university degree)
and man (Hugo) at about the same time.
--Lillin Khoo
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