A Realistic Look at the Bread Donors and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent America is a country which was created and colonized by immigrants from many different countries. These immigrants came to America seeking the "American Dream" of freedom and a better lifestyle, and their narratives have been recorded by various authors in both fiction and nonfiction stories. But can the narrative genre be considered a reliable source for studying immigrant narratives? If American immigrant literature is to be used as a reliable source for understanding the immigrant experience, it is necessary to justify that this literature adequately traces the history of immigrant fiction. In an effort to justify the narrative genre as a reliable source for understanding immigrant fiction, we will examine the personal lives and fictional works of Anzia Yezierska and Julia Alvarez, two second-generation immigrant authors, who wrote about immigrant experiences. In doing so we will determine whether these women's personal stories follow the basic immigrant narrative, whether their fictional stories convey a realistic portrayal of the immigrants they write about, and as a result we can assume that American immigrant literature can be a reliable source for understanding the immigrant experience? The American immigrant narrative begins with the immigrant's decision to leave the old world. The reasons for leaving may vary from person to person and country to country, but everyone arrives seeking a better life than they had in the old world. The narrative continues with the actual journey to the new world and the struggles encountered along the way. Once in America, many immigrants are shocked by the new culture they encounter... middle of paper... in America, and the narrative genre can be a reliable and entertaining source for understanding the immigrant experience in this country. multicultural society we call the United States of America. Works Cited Alvarez, Julia. How the Garcia girls lost their accent. New York: Plume, 1992. Alvarez, Julia. Something to declare. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 1998. Contemporary Authors. vol. 147. Detroit: Gale, 1995Contemporary Literary Criticism. vol. 46. ​​Detroit: Gale, 1988. Contemporary Literary Criticism. vol. 93. Detroit: Gale, 1996. Dictionary of Literary Biography. vol. 28. Detroit: Gale, 1984Harris, Alice. Preface. Bread donors. By Anzia Yezierska. New York: Persea, 1975. v-xviii.Seller, Maxine. To Search for America: A History of Ethnic Life in the United States. Englewood: Ozer, 1977. Yezierska, Anzia. Bread donors. New York: Persea, 1975.