Bread Givers And Family Limitation

In the great story of a young girls triumph over poverty, rejection and innumerable failures as a child, she will unfortunately never truly prosper as an adult in the world in which she lives. Our protagonist, Sara Smolinsky who is the youngest of the four Smolinsky girls, has the most motivation in life to be independent, and fend for herself. However to achieve this goal she would need to break loose of the family chain and peruse a life elsewhere. It appears she has done so as she runs away from home seeking an education. Six years or so go by and she has more than fulfilled her dream of independence, however as members of her family take on life threatening sickness she once again feels the need to come home, and falls back under the spell of family obligation. As for other characters in the book, the same problem with familial duties always interferes with what one truly wants.

Early in the book we first learn about the oldest Smolinsky sister Bessie, who is also known as the, "burden bearer" of the family. The Smolinsky's rely on Bessie to contribute her wages to the family's well being, and is seems that if she fails to make good enough money, the family will undoubtedly fall into pieces. "And the whole family were hanging on Bessie's neck for her wages. Unless she got work soon, we'd be thrown in the street to shame and to laughter for the whole world." (Pg 1) Perhaps it is Bessie who has suffered the most from her family duty. It seems that Bessie has not even had time to develop a personality due to the weight her family has put on her shoulders throughout her years as a young child and through her adolescence. She needs to work in order to feed her family and she unlike Sara, has no freedom and no chance of escaping her family duties without the separation of her family due to poverty. This truly holds Bessie back from what she wants. Her duty to her father keeps her from marrying Berel and going off to live with him. However she wants, like Sara, to run away and be independent but she feels that without her family she will be left alone in the cold world with no where to go. This frightens Bessie and she feels that she would rather stay with what she has at home, than risk getting something she truly wants by running away from her family.

Another sister of Sara's named Masha, who is known as the family "empty-head" is really the only one who is living how she likes to. She dresses very nicely, carries herself with self-confidence. She enjoys going to the park and listening to free music when she can, and also buys paper flowers because they are pretty. She values beauty very much and it is what gives her a stringer sense of independence in the book than any other characters at this point. She falls for a piano player named Jacob Novak whose music happens to be one of the most beautiful sounds Masha has ever heard. After Masha hasn't seen Jacob in a while she worries, she paces in anxiety and feels as if he led her on and is never to be seen again. But he comes back one day, "Masha! His hands reached out to her, pleadingly. I have been a coward--bullied by my father. I listened to him because of the concert--but no more. You're everything to me." (Pg 62) We now see this trend in families outside of the Smolinsky household. And in the following of Jacobs father, Marsha's feels the need to do the same, "I give you the last warning, never see that man again. If you do, I'll turn you out of the house. You must choose between that scoundrel and your father." (Pg 64) she becomes very weak and helpless when her father snaps at her. Masha has to give into her father and never speaks with Jacob again. She let the man she loved and the chance to fix up her life get away because of her father's strong opinion on Jacobs work. She has become trapped for life; she must now wait for her husband to be picked by her father, and her food to be put in front of her by her sister. She remains beautiful on the outside for the remainder of the story however she looses her substance and spark for life. No longer is she who she once was, thanks to the responsibility she feels that she owes to her father.

Sara Smolinsky is different than her sisters. As the youngest child in the family she strangely is the most independent and seeks a life apart from her fathers jurisdiction. At the end of book one the fight that pushes Sara out of the house is the best thing that could happen to her. It releases the pressure of an eventual escape, like Bessie had and she had herself prior to the actual event; allowing Sara to venture into a world of her own and get what she truly desires from life. An education perhaps, a place of her own, putting food on her own table and other things that signify independence. However, strangely enough the man she so desires to get away from is whom she most resembles in her own life. Her father