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Chapter 7
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Bread Givers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Immigration, Poverty, and Struggle
Independence
Religion, Gender Roles, and Oppression
Change and Anxiety
Summary
Analysis
The store isn’t much, but it’s all the Smolinskys have now—so they move from Hester Street to New Jersey and live in the back of the store. Sara fixes up the place while Mother goes out and bargains with wholesalers to loan them goods to stock the store with. The customers are few and far between—and Father isn’t helping the matter. Once day, a man comes in to buy some bran. Father scoffs at the American habit of eating bran for breakfast—back home, in Shnipishock, they feed bran to livestock. The man leaves without buying anything.
As Sara and Mother throw themselves into fixing up the grocery and negotiating with wholesalers, respectively, they try to undo some of the damage that Father’s poor judgment has caused. Despite their industriousness and their business acumen, Father continues to insist that he knows best—just because he’s a man and believes it’s his right to have authority over them. His attempts to hold on to his tyrannical rule, however, only make things worse for the Smolinsky family.
Themes
Another time, a young girl comes in to buy rice. It costs 12 cents, but the girl only has 10 cents. She promises to come back with the rest of the money later, and Sara agrees. When Father learns of this, he goes off on Sara for trusting the girl. With this, Sara loses what little patience she has left. Without another thought, she grabs all her belongings and tells Father she’s headed back to New York to work. She won’t stay here any longer. Father says she’s just 17 and can’t live on her own, but Sara says she’ll stay with Mashah or Bessie. And if there’s no place for her with her sisters, she’ll stay with strangers—any place is better than here. And with that, she departs.
