While her mother was concerned more about the economical aspect of life, the father was preoccupied by the spirituality of his family, about conserving customs and traditions: ‘ Father pushed his hand from his arm.’ (Yezierska, 63) In fact, this conservative attitude of her father and the constant differences they had concerning social and moral values is what made Sara more and more determined to leave home and become an American. Running away from home was Sara’s first step towards becoming a ‘person’. But in order to complete herself as one, she knows she first must be educated. She succeeds in getting herself into college, but she soon finds out that there are many discrepancies between her – an immigrant, and her colleagues – genuine Americans. She finds herself longing to be one of them: ‘Even in school I suffered, because I was not like the rest.’ (Yezierska,
Not following her sisters footsteps, Sara wants to make a difference for herself and decides she wants to associate with the American life. Richard F. Shepard writes “Miss Yezierska’s people, the foreign born and their upwardly mobile offspring, did not want to find themselves. They wanted to lose themselves and find America, to shed Europe and to live the American Dream” it is describing the characters of Bread Givers especially Sara Smolinsky and how she wants to get rid of her Jewish Culture and adapt an American culture. In the 1920's, an immigrant’s gender ultimately decided what experience he or she would have in America. It was much better to be a male then a female because then
born wife Betty and daughter Mahtob to visit his family. Once there, Moody decides he wants to stay in Iran, believing it would be a better place for the family. Betty disagrees and tries to leave with her daughter, although Moody is determined not to let that happen. In the movie Not without my daughter, because of Betty’s displacement, she feels as though she doesn’t belong and she is not seen as an equal in Tehran. And this contrasts with how she felt when she belonged and had her identity in America.
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Top Girls By Caryl Churchill both feature motherhood and marriage as one of their main themes even though the texts were set at different points in time. The Bell Jar was published in 1963 around the time of the publication of Betty Freidan’s Feminine Mystique. The Feminine Mystique stated that the ideal housewives of the 1960’s were a myth as each one of them were secretly unhappy but never spoke out about their unhappiness due to fear of not abiding by the social normality of the time. This feeling of displacement in the social norm is what Plath bases the experiences of protagonist Esther upon and what eventually drives Esther into mental instability. Motherhood and marriage is seen to be a key factor in the society of which The Bell Jar is set ,and is portrayed as one of the things that supresses female identity when Esther is asked to be “Mrs Buddy Willard” as if she is owned by Buddy and not her own person.
O’Connor seems to suggest that only through conflict of religion can the “good” be found. Bailey's mother views herself as a proper southern lady—genteel, upright, and wise but to the reader; her actions reveal her as another person. She primps excessively, lies, and uses racist language, like using the words “pickaninny” and “riggers” to describe a child of African descent. She begrudges America's goodwill contributions to postwar Europe, and foolishly blurts out that she recognizes The Misfit. The beginning of the story starts off with the Grandmother trying to persuade her family not to take the road trip to Florida.
The family tradition goes that the youngest daughter of the family must be her mother’s caretaker until she or her mother dies. That means that Tita may not partake in anything that would keep her from fulfilling her duties; that includes marrying. Tita sees this tradition as unfair and she is not afraid to rebel. Esquivel uses magical forms of communication and the symbol of the food in this story to explore how rebellion affects the characters and to suggest that rebellion will lead to freedom. The events,
-M.Reisz choice of life to not get married and support her ownself was a decision that Edna wanted to live. When Edna develops the relationship with M.R she is intrugied by M.R decision to have her own indpendence. M.R way of life brought out a different side of Edna. A side that Edna knew was the missing part that she kept wondering about until now. Edna wanted this lifestyle to be her ownself and not live as someone she did not want to be such as M.Rag the way that society intended on her living.
Dee is under the impression that she appreciates her heritage more than Maggie ever could. She expresses these feelings on page when she says, "Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!" she said. "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use". Dee's mother adds that when Dee went off to college she had offered a quilt to her and then she thought they were old-fashioned.
Regret because it made me think how much different my life could be right now if I would still live with my parents, and guilt because well I'm guilty of doing exactly as the author had mentioned is a problem in America. Before reading this I've had some thought that I made a bad life choice leaving so early, but Natadecha-Sponsel does such an immaculate job at connecting this cultural difference to me personally, I think I'm going to have to run home after reading it and give my mom a hug! The author showed me that just because as a society we're brought up to be so individual doesn't mean that other people don’t still appreciate your company, or need you. Along with that I also feel sort of curious to how different not only me, but my family would be if we were brought up in Thailand rather than
Maggie knows she deserves the quilts made by her grandmother and aunt far more than Dee does but of course Dee thinks that everything is about her and that she should have what she wants. Maggie probably thinks that Dee will get the quilts because she had seemed to be Mama’s favorite, but not this time. Like Mama says, “This was Maggie’s portion.” Maggie deserves them way more than Dee. It is like they are back in church where once she would give Dee her “slightest whim,” she now refuses. After the fire it left Maggie with scars on the inside and out and that is why she acts so shy and timid throughout her