Bread_Givers

Bread Givers Clashing Values in a Society: Conflicts within Reb Smolinsky in Anzia Yezierska’s Bread Givers Values and status are linked together in every society. Status is given to the persons who embody the values of that social construct. The values of the Old Country, Russia, were those of spiritual and religious piousness and learning. Therefore those who studied religion, like Reb Smolinsky, were among those who held the highest status. However, in America, these values were not the same. Immigrants soon learned of the capitalist nature of a materialistically driven land where whoever had the most wealth held the most status. The question arises, what happens when people in a society with one set of values enter a society with different values' To assimilate successfully, the immigrant’s values must undergo a change. In her novel Bread Givers, Anzia Yezierska tells the tale of an immigrant family who has difficulty coping with such a clash of values. Reb Smolinsky in particular is a character that craves his status so much so that he changes his values in America and adopts something he doesn’t understand, thus ruining his family. Jews in Russia lived differently than they did as immigrants in America. In Russia father, smolinsky, status, reb, america, values, yezierska, money, daughter, because, sara, family, country, old, own, value, wealth, society, religion, new, himself, daughters, torah, novel, man, thus, order, mother, ferraro, community, yet, work, instead, high, end, achieve, study, rich, poverty, out, one, once, now, marry, love, life, learning, learn, landlady, father’s