Linguistics and Literature Studies Vol. 8(1), pp. 26 - 34
DOI: 10.13189/lls.2020.080104
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Humor and Initiation in Bread Givers

Zhou Jingqiong ^*
Faculty of English Language and Culture, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, People's Republic of China

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the relationship between the humorous language style, situational humor, and humorous characterization and the initiation of Sara, the protagonist narrator of Bread Givers. Backed with humor and initiation theories, four events in Sara's life will be discussed in detail so as to establish the argument that wide-ranging humor helps narrate and construct the essential steps of Sara's ultimate maturation. These four events are as follows: (1) Sara's departure from her parents' home; (2) Sara's renting a room of her own in New York; (3) Sara's rejection of a rich young man's proposal; and (4) Sara's integration of reconciliation with her tyrannical father into her acculturation. Sara, rising from the ghetto to become a college-educated schoolteacher in the public school, succeeds in achieving maturation and Americanization through her decision for reconciliation with her father, her Jewish legacy by extension.

KEYWORDS
Bread Givers, Humorous Style, Initiation, Americanization, Jewish Legacy

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Zhou Jingqiong , "Humor and Initiation in Bread Givers," Linguistics and Literature Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 26 - 34, 2020. DOI: 10.13189/lls.2020.080104.

(b). APA Format:
Zhou Jingqiong (2020). Humor and Initiation in Bread Givers. Linguistics and Literature Studies, 8(1), 26 - 34. DOI: 10.13189/lls.2020.080104.