The ending of Bread Givers frustrated me. First of all, it was sickeningly sweet. After struggling for her entire life and hating her father, Sara lives happily ever after and invites the jerk to live with her. While nervous about the arrangement, she does her duty. This brings me to the second, most aggravating part of the ending. Though Sara fights to earn an education and be independent, she proves her father right by only being happy after a man loves her. She works hard, graduates from college, wins a writing contest, has a nice room of her own, and loves her job, but only considers herself a whole person after a man loves her. Furthermore, Sara is only able to be fully happy after she cares for her elderly father. She chases men of authority her entire life, attempting to compensate with her poor paternal relationship. When Mr. Seelig loves her, she gets her wish. This is so anti-feminist, and I am angry with Yezierska for ending her novel this way.
I understand that Sara's father represents her homeland's values, and by accepting him, she is attempting to reconcile her Americanized and immigrant identities. At the same time, this presents a problematic model for Americanized immigrant woman. If a person tells you your whole life that you are not a person, that you are worthless, and you have the strength to gain independence from him, welcoming him back into your life and caring for him in your home doesn't make you a fulfilled person. It makes you a doormat.
Am I unjustified in my displeasure? Did I miss something? Did anyone interpret the ending differently?
I really like your interpretation since that's not exactly what I took from it. I got the impression in Book II, after she refuses Goldstein's proposal, that she found a new sense excitement, or fullfillment, she hadn't previously experienced and craved for it. Throughout the book she talks about all she wants to do is love, and be loved in return, even before the encounter with her father. As for her taking care of her father, I couldn't agree more, but I guess that's just how traditional his values were. But maybe she accepted that; in the Book II she talks about how he is too Old World and she's the New World.
ReplyDeleteI think that, ironically, and depresssing or not, the fact that Sara allows her father into her home seems both to be symbolic for reconciliation between identities, but also proof that she has managed to learn from her father's behavior enough not to be like him!
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