Conflict Between the Old World and the New World: Father-Daughter Relationships and Jewish Immigrant Culture in "Bread Givers" by Anzia Yezierska
Acculturation is an inevitable process that is confronted by most immigrants and new settlers in America nowadays. Through acculturation, an individual belonging to a particular culture are exposed to another, radically different culture. In the process of acculturation, the individual experiences internal conflict as s/he tries to reconcile both "old" and "new" cultures-the culture s/he has grown up living with, and the culture s/he is now encountering as a new reality, respectively. This internal conflict can be illustrated as a point of reconciliation of the values and beliefs of the individual, especially if both old and new cultures are contradictory in nature. An individual who had been exposed to traditional culture that holds conservative values and beliefs may experience difficulties in changing his/her viewpoint of reality as s/he confronts life from the perspective of a liberal and straightforward kind of culture. Sometimes, the individual learns to adapt to the new culture and reconcile it with his/her old one; oftentimes, however, the individual retains his/her old ways, creating conflict not within himself/herself, but between him/her and the society s/he lives in. A contradiction of the old and new ways re
sult to this conflict, wherein the individual is forced to conform to society, despite his/her insistence to retain his/her old cultural roots. An example of Reb's unrealistic viewpoint of his life is mirrored in the following passage, which explained why the Smolinsky family was tolerant of the father's impractical adherence to live life based on religious philosophy alone, and not with hard work: These are the dynamics that Sara Smolinsky, the protagonist of "Bread Givers" by Anzia Yezierska, underwent as she confronted different realities in her life as a Jewish immigrant from Poland. As she and her family tried to establish their new lives in America, she faced difficulties in her life as she tried to create a balance between her liberal values and beliefs in life as opposed to her father's "old world" ways, subsisting to the promise of religion as the Smolinsky family's way to overcome poverty and suffering. The Smolinskys' life is just one of the numerous scenarios immigrants in America found themselves in: the promise of a good and prosperous life is shattered with the hard realities that they faced. Instead of a bountiful life, the Smolinskys experienced poverty and hardships, not to mention increased family conflicts between members who faced their reality (Sara and her mother) as it i
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Approximate Word count = 884
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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