Anzia yezierska struggle for independence in the new world and her Research Paper

Anzia yezierska struggle for independence in the new world and her strategy on being successful - Research Paper Example She struggles to rise out of the poverty of the New York City ghetto, to have cleanliness and space for herself. She also struggles with the desire for secular education, while continuing to respect her father's strict religion. Most importantly, Sara is struggling to be able to make her own choices. She desires independence and free-will and she is willing to work hard to achieve it. The novel's ending is controversial, though Sara does get the happily-ever-after ending the American dream promises to all immigrants. The youngest of nine children in a devoutly Jewish family, Anzia Yezierska was born in the Russian-Polish village Plinsk, near Warsaw, between 1880 and 1885. The exact date of her birth is unknown and Yezierska, herself, was constantly lying about her age to further convolute the biography. Her family immigrated to the United States in the early 1890's, joining an older brother who had moved several years earlier. Yezierska was given the name Harriet Mayer by her new gov ernment, though she went by Hattie at first and then reassumed Anzia in her late twenties. Her family moved to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a largely Jewish ghetto, where Yezierska would later find inspiration in the crowded, bustling Hester Street for her writing. The crowded tenement her family lived in, as well as all the unfortunate idiosyncrasies of living in such close proximity to your family members and your neighbors is reproduced in Bread Givers as well as her other novels. Yezierska's writing, as well as her struggle for independence, personal space, cleanliness, education and financial security come from this period of her life (Horowitz). Yezierska's father, Baruch, also reproduced in Bread Givers, was a talmudic scholar and valued the study of sacred books over any work that would financially support his family. The task of bread-winning fell on Yezierska's mother and subsequently, their nine children as soon as they were able. Extreme poverty, coupled with the fa ct that their religion does not respect the educational aspirations of women, caused Yezierska to attend elementary school for only two years. She finally moved into the Clara De Hirsch Home for Working Girls, determined to gain her independence. Choosing education as the route away from her parents and their old world beliefs, Yezierska forged a high school diploma and was admitted to Columbia University's Teachers College and given a scholarship. Yezierska was said to have wanted to become a â€Å"domestic science teacher to help better her people,† though she only taught elementary school for five years before turning to fiction as a career. Her determination to acquire an education and carve her own way in her new country is evident in every phase of her life. By placing her desire for education above everything else she was able to earn a living for herself and earn a good reputation in her community. (Horowitz). In the novel, Bread Givers, Sara Smolinsky struggles with many of the same issues as Yezierska. The tenement the Smolinsky family lives in on Hester Street is incredibly crowded and cleanliness is something often strived for, though never fully achieved. They're so poor that when Mother comes home to find ten-year-old Sara peeling potatoes for dinner, with all the weight of the families hardships upon her young shoulders, she reprimands her wastefulness. â€Å"