Freedom Is Not Free in Bread GiversAnzia Yezierska in Bread Givers and "Children of Loneliness" explores the theme of reconciliation from assimilation to culture American and the preservation of its cultural heritage. “Richard F. Shepard claimed in the New York Times that the residents of Yezierska…did not want to meet up. They wanted to get lost and find America” (Gale Database 8). Rachel and Sara, the main characters, move forward using the American motto that hard work will pay off. The problem for both is losing their Jewish identity in the process. Yezierska, like the female characters, experienced the loneliness of separation from the Jewish people as she rose above poverty. “I am alone because I left my own world” (Ebest 8). She explores this question repeatedly in her work trying to find a solution to a difficult problem to solve. In order to achieve religious, social, and political equality, 23 million Jews immigrated to America between 1880 and 1920 (Chametzky, 5). Anzia Yezierska wrote about her experiences as a poor immigrant in her work of fiction that became the voice of the Jewish people in the 1920s. She struggled to obtain an education that would allow her to rise above her family's poverty and d acquire a certain autonomy. Rachel and Sara, the female protagonists, reflect the author's life from struggling immigrant to college graduate. Yezierska uses her own experiences to describe the Jewish immigration experience from a woman's perspective. She was able to gain a commercial following that allowed her to mediate cultural differences between the dominant culture and the Jewish people, which helped resolve the differences between established Americans and these new immigrants for a time (Ebes. ..... middle of paper .... ...linked to particular ethnic identification Freedom in America does not come free; every immigrant ethnic group eventually loses its cultural identity, but it also adds to the. diversity of the American voice. Works Cited Chametzky, Jules. "American Jewish Literature. Ed. Jules Chametzky, John Felstiner, Hilene Flanzbaum and Kathryn Hellerstein New York: WW Norton, 2001. 1-23. Ebest, Ron « Anzia Yezierska and the debate popular periodical on Jews', Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States. Gale Literary Database Spring 2001. Gale GroupYezierska, Anzia Bread Givers, 1925.---. “Children of Solitude”. Flanzbaum and Kathryn Hellerstein. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001. 233-244.