Paper Example on Jewish Teachings

Introduction

From a young age, Sara has rejection towards her fathers, who is a rabbi, Jewish teachings. She is in denial against the education that a woman is less than nothing without a man's presence. Sara is more accepting of the American culture, whereby women do not need to be bossed around by men. She is determined to figure out her own life independently. However, it should be noted that even after Sara found her independence, she is still left with a void of being with her family and finding love. In the long run, she discovers that even with independence and financial liberation, this doesn't necessarily mean success, but it was a necessary evil in finding her own identity. Achieving democratic freedom means leaving what Sara had been brought up in and making her choices in society to do what she considered to be better than what she already knew. Achieving democratic freedom in this instance refers to standing against what she already knew in an expectation that she would make better of her life.

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Being Financially Independent

Her orthodox father says that in America, everyone had no option but to make a living because they each had two hands and two feet. Later on in the book, Reb, Sara's Jewish father, gets scammed into a business deal that involved him buying a busy store. In dealing with this, he sticks to his faith, saying that the individual who stole from him only made him stay closer to his God, and claims that bad things happen for individuals to move closer to God and that it is for our good. On the other hand, Sara is not close to the idea of the old world's faith, beliefs, and values. She is quick to note that America was a pillar of opportunity as long as she had the determination and strength to work hard. Sara furthermore watches as her sisters get married off to men they did not love; Zalmon, a fish peddler, got married to Bessie. Their marriage is of benefit to their father financially, and this repulses Sara to a great length.

Self Realization

In the book Bread Givers, a narration on abject poverty struggles to get an education and success. It reveals the hurdles faced by young daughters with the yearning for success in a strict father. He is also traditional and very much into religion, in this instance being the Jewish religion. In the book, Sara resides with her family, her three older sisters, Fania, Mashah, and Bessie, her Orthodox Jewish father, Reb Smolinsky, and her mother, Shah, in the lower east side of New York. They are a poverty-stricken family, and their father spends much of his time studying sacred texts of the Jews and the Torah.

He humbly refuses to be the household provider, and much cannot be blamed on him as in their culture, women are the primary providers of income. On the other hand, her mother decides to rent out their front room, convincing Sara's father to move his sacred texts under the bed to be able to make money for their rent. In the writing of this entire book, there is a struggle in achievement and defeat with new happenings of the world surrounded by orthodox beliefs, norms, and standards.

Poverty in the highest degree is an obstacle to great lengths in Sara's case. Together with her family, they live in abject poverty, much of which contributes to her father, Reb Smolinsky. Reb lacks knowledge of the American business practice and hence cannot make it on the commercial trade. Not only has Reb's religion have left him prey to swindlers, but also it has been a hindrance to him upgrading his family's status economically. This, in turn, has left Sara between a rock and a hard place in her efforts to try and pursue her independence. In the end Yes, Sara is liberated to self-realization but only after passing through a whole list of struggles. In her effort towards self-realization, Sara has to pass through many challenges of getting her family out of poverty and still realizing her independence.

Ethnic Difference

Sara is in a community where her gender as a woman views not only as a source of income but also as a significant income source. Her culture, therefore, places her in a position of not being able to do much for herself. Her father is a Jew and teaches the holy text. This being so, Sara is incapable of leaving her faith, which is seen as an obstacle in her reach out to the things which matter to her. Despite this, she decides to go out of her way and still pursue the essential things such as her personal goals. Sara is the pinnacle of a human being, who has been made to feel inferior, and even so, she goes beyond what her culture and family expects from her and chooses to make her future better. In saying so yes, indeed Sara has to renounce some but not all of her aspects of ethnic difference to become American

The Woman's Place

Ethnicity differentiates people among their different groups. Those who belong to a similar ethnicity have similarities in culture and traditions, values, and norms. In simplicity, ethnic groups are the same as in cultural communities. In the Jewish ethnicity, men are the bosses. The man runs the entire show, but also, a woman's happiness is equated to having a man in their life and bearing the man-children. A woman in this book has been depicted as valueless without a man to the point that she has been said to have no meaning on earth and even in heaven if she is without a man.

In the book bread givers, both women and men have been seen to oppress the female gender. Many of the female characters, Sara's mother, agree that their lives have been tied around men, and this cannot be blamed on them as it was part of their cultural traditions and even faith. Being raised in New York City, Sara and her sisters could see the American culture where women were not tied down to their husbands. They seemed to be financially liberated. They hence left in the competition with their father in the choice of their spouses. Reb turns into a dictator in the household after Sara refuses to get married to Mr. Goldstein. Her father quotes the Torah saying, a woman is nothing without a man. A woman without a man in the Torah is viewed as having neither hope in heaven nor life on earth. Sara is puzzled by the notion that men were the only ones allowed or even have the right to be called people. She is more than determined to attain her goals and push away from the cultural, ethnic, and traditional ties.

Struggle for Autonomy

The oppression against women is evident in the entire book; women are seen to have no place in their society; they are seen as sacrificial lambs throughout their lives. Sara finally gets to see this and is quoted that she has to empathize with her father's actions as it was not his own doing but the society, cultural traditions, and ethnicity that required this from him. Sara is hell-bent on finding her individuality despite her background. She struggles through and furthers her education but is still left feeling tied down to her family. She eventually feels the need to let her independence and sacrifice to get there go down the drain in order to avoid failing her mother in death by accepting to take care of her father.

In the American society, seeking individuality is not a farfetched idea. However, it should be noted that various women have come a long way in the American society, especially in a male dominated era. Sara is looking for respect, individuality, freedom, and success in her life. Women not only in America but throughout the world struggle with rising away from the limits of a male-dominated society and be their person. Sarah was left with no other option but to come back home and take care of her ailing father in the long run.

Achievement of Freedom

Yes, Sara's development from her father's tyranny up until her refusal to be tied down to the old world is an achievement of freedom. In the book bread giver, Reb's character has consistently stood out in more than one way due to his orthodox nature and his staunch religion. This is viewed to get in the running of his household. At the start of the book, his wife asks him to rent out a room in order for them to make some extra money. Still, he is reluctant to get his books out of the room as much as his family was living in abject poverty. Reb is only concern as long as there is enough food to keep him and his family members breathing. He is of the feeling that women are to put work in for their husbands in order for them to secure a place in heaven. Reb is further ruining his daughters' lives by placing them into marriages that they are not willing to go into. He chooses his daughters' spouses for his financial gain.

He speaks of how God is happy with a woman who gets married and remains subjective to her husband in all aspects. He has his claims in having trust in a man based on religion. Sarah refuses to get married to Mr. Max Goldstein and heads to college to pursue a career in being a teacher, and even after her success, her father doesn't change.

Sara refuses to accept Goldstein because of his love for goods that are material in nature. When she feels the urge to visit her father and do so, her father isn't accepting her. He tells her that it was a mistake for her to visit him. Her father is a real tyrant who is unaccepting of his daughter's choices in society. He expected her to conform to the old traditions. He is upset that his daughter wasn't willing to conform to what was stipulated by her Jewish custom. Women should be allowed to take a role and even lead in terms of European hierarchy. There is still much to be done to equate those of the female gender to those of the male, and indeed Sara's development is an achievement of freedom to Europe's hierarchical oppression.

Conclusion

Immigrants come to America in the conventional days and believe they are coming to the land of opportunity in this modern-day. In so doing, they are filled with a lot of hope in having a better future, much more than what they could have ever imagined in their countries of origin. Democratic equality is seen as a guarantee in the equity of liberties and freedom. Sara's family believed that they would have a better life in America, not realizing that they were carrying their ethnicity with them. They knew America to be a land of milk and honey flowing in the streets, a golden country.

They even thought that it would always be summer in the state, with the thought that all this was true and that even their pots and pans in the kitchen would be of a different glow. This mentality quickly changed when they realized they still had to be the bearers of their ethnicity in a new place. They were still tied down to their traditions, such as their father's religion, their father's option of choosing their spouses for them, and his tyranny in the household, especially on the notion that women had to be subjected to being submissive their entire lives.