How are Frances and Belle's lives different in the novel, Her Mother's Daughter?

Frances arrived at Ellis Island from Poland when she was thirteen, "not a peasant" as her descendants are always quick to tell themselves, but nevertheless a terrified and naive young woman. Frances' hard life is essentially lived "between two cultures," but her daughter Belle acculturates rapidly. She goes from sweatshop "girl" to art school student and later from a Depression Era housewife in a cramped apartment to comfortable leisure in retirement.