Making it in America"Bread Givers" by Amzia Yerzierska
...s view that Sara rejects, for she believes that there is more to life then serving a man. “I’m going to live my own life. Nobody can stop me. I’m not from the old country. I’m American!” (138). After her father marries off her three older sisters into unhappy marriages, Sara makes a declaration to herself, swearing that she will find a happier fate then her sisters. “No one from Essex or Hester Street for me. I don’t want a man like Berel Bernstein whose head was all day on making money from the sweatshop. No, I wouldn’t even want one like Jacob Novak, even if he was a piano-player, if he ate the bread of his father who bossed him. I’d want an American-born man who was his own boss. And would let me be my boss. And no fathers, and no mothers, and no sweatshops, and no herring!” (66). With this promise to herself, Sara begins the long struggle to part with her family and make it on her own. When her father makes a bad business venture with all of the family’s money, Sara finally speaks out. “Thank God, I’m living in America! You made the lives of the other children! I’m going to make my own life!” (138). With this, Sara finally gains the courage to disobey her father, and finally- to leave. With grim determination, Sara moves to the city and finds work at a laundry to support herself. She also finds a little hole in the wall room, where she can close the door and shut out the rest of the world. Eventually, Sarah formulates a dream for her life. “A school teacher- I! I saw myself sitting back like a lady at my desk, the children, their eyes on me, watching and waiting for me to call out the different ones to the board, to spell a word, or answer me a question” (155). In her mind, “it was like looking up to the top of the highest skyscraper while down in the gutter” (155). It is this dream that drives Sara to night school, where she studies hard and finally achieves her goal. “I… had done what I had set out to do. I was now a teacher… This was but the first ...