History 246 Reading Guide
Discussion: Immigrant Women: Balancing old-world and new-world expectations
- Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers (1925; reprinted 1975, 1999).
Further reading:
- Peggy Pascoe, �Gender Systems in Conflict: The Marriages of Mission-Educated Chinese American Women, 1874-1939,� Journal of Social History 22.4 (1989), 631-652. [in Ellen Carol DuBois and Vicki L. Ruiz, Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women�s History 1st ed. (1990), 123-140] or (ACADEMIC SEARCH PREMIER through Bowdoin College Library Gateway).
- Judy Yung, �The Social Awakening of Chinese American Women as Reported in Chung Sai Yat Po, 1900-1911,� Chinese Historical Society of America Bulletin (1988). [in Ellen Carol DuBois and Vicki L. Ruiz, Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women�s History 1st ed. (1990), 195-207].
Questions:
- Yezierska clearly located her story in space�Hester Street in New York City, and in ethnicity and culture�Eastern European Jewish immigrants. Why didn�t she locate it so clearly by era?
- How does Yezierska tell the story? How does it unfold? How does she divide the story�and why?
- Why is there so much anger in this semi-autobiographical story?
- Why is the book called �Bread Givers� rather than �Burden Bearers�?
- How do women survive in this immigrant world? What is Yezierska�s message about types of survival? Is there a �promise� of America for women?
