What it Means to Be a Female Immigrate In the novel, Bread Givers, author Anzia Yezierska tells the story of life as an immigrate in the Untied States. For many immigrates, the U.S. was the key to a better life; a life free of economic depression and religious oppression. America was a fantasy to many. Sara's father lectures to his wife about not needing a feather bed; "Don't you know it is always summer in America? And in the new golden country, where milk and honey flows free in the streets, you'll have new golden dishes to cook in..."(Bread Givers, 9) To much dismay, the realization that America was not a land of golden streets comes too quickly. Flooded with people, New York's Lower East Side becomes a place of poverty for most. Immigrates find themselves living in slums, where dirt and disease runs rampant. Life was arduous for immigrates. However, according to Yezierska, life as a female was much worse. In the 1920's, an immigrates' gender ultimately decided what experience he/she would have in America, for it was better to be a male than a female. In Russia, the "Old World", it was preached that a woman was only on Earth to make her husband happy. In order to get into Heaven, a women had to have a man at her side. America, the "New World, was mingled with different cultures. A female in America, no longer had to live solely for her husband. This clash of conceptions was the cause of numerous confrontations. This can be seen after the father drove away Jacob, Bessie's true love. Sara titles him "...a tyrant more terrible than the Tsar from Russia."(Bread Givers, 65) Sara's sister's could not enjoy their lives as American's because of the strong hold their father had on them. As Sara watches her sisters auctioned off one by one into lifeless marriages, she vows not to be like them. All of this would never happen if they were men because men were not slaves to the female race. The struggles of being female were not
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