Bread GiversBread Givers tells the story of Sara Smolinsky, whose life is almost the same as Anzia Yezierska, who is the author. Through Sara we witness the collapse of a family due to old world religion and customs. Sara tries hard to distance herself from her past, but in the end she proves that your family will always be there, for better or for worse. Sara Smolinsky is the youngest of four sisters; the eldest is Bessie, who everyone calls the "Carrier" because the whole family lives on her salary. “I knew the landlord had come screaming about the rent that morning. And the whole family hung on Bessie's neck for her salary. If he did not find work soon, we would be thrown into the streets with shame and laughter for the whole world to see.”(1) The second eldest daughter was Fania, who loves to read and speaks her mind. The third sister is Mashah, "she is empty-headed, loves her pretty face, and spends her earnings on drugstore clothes and accessories, to the scandal of her sisters, her mother's disgust, and her father's blunt anger." (Turbulent) ) The last daughter is Sara, who is the most independent and is looking for her own life, away from her father. “Reb Smolinsky, wise in the Torah tradition, comfortably walled in the isolation of his learning, calmly gathers the earnings of his four daughters and sings of the terrors, hatreds and punishments of the Old Testament and the Jewish writers.” (Boisterously) We don't hear much from the girl's mother, Shena, but we know she enjoys Reb's sanctity. Family structure is very important to Reb and Shena but not to Sara, she believes she can create her own family however she wants. With or without religion. “Four young immigrant daughters and their selfless mother collide with a...... middle of paper...... that challenges individualism: Anzia Yezierska's Bread Givers.” The immigrant experience in North American literature: Carving out a niche. Ed. Katherine B. Payant and Toby Rose, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999. Rpt in Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, vol Sources. Web. April 11, 2014. • "Overview: Novels for Students. Ed. Sara Constantakis. Detroit: Gale, 2009. Artemis Literary Sources. Ghetto Web in a New Novel." The New York Times Book Review (September 13, 1925): 8. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Daniel G. Marowski and Roger Matuz. Vol. 46. Detroit: Gale Research, 1988. Artemis Literary Sources. Web. 11 April 2014 • Yezierska, Anzia and Alice Harris: a novel with photographs 3. ed.