Understanding Jews Study: An Introduction to Jews American Literature (Case Study Sample)

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Understanding Jews Study: An Introduction to Jews American Literature
Introduction
The development of Jews literature has evolved over time with their writers becoming among the major writers in the world. Many of their writing are influenced by the turbulent times the Jews people have faced in foreign lands, notable one being their mass execution by the Germany dictator, Hitler. Among their many writers Ozick and Roth stands out from their creativity and richness of language. From the book the Pagan Rabbi, Ozick narrates of a Rabbi a religious man who commits suicide after deviating from his religious teaching and embracing foreign ideas. The defiant rabbi get seduced by a woman and eventually kills himself. On the other hand Roth in his book call it Sleep exploits the plights of a Jews family who migrates to the US. Using different characters he reveals the harsh times the immigrants had in the US in early 20th century. These two books though in a deferent setup, addresses a similar theme, that of an outsider. This literature will analyze the books, Pagan Rabbi and Call it Sleep to bring out the theme of outsider in the two books
“Call it Sleep” by Henry Roth
It is fascinating the way Mr. Roth vividly paints the picture of immigrant’s plights in the United States of America in the early 20th century. Through the character David, he explores the life of an immigrant in the slums and streets. He reveals the suspicion with which the immigrants were subjected to and the poor relationship the native had with the immigrants. At all times, the native took every chance to exploit the immigrants in every possible aspect. This is revealed in the context where David meets and becomes friends with a Catholic boy who offers him a rosary in exchange for a chance of meet Polly and Esther (David’s step-cousins). When the chance came, the Catholic boy (Leo) took Esther to the basement of their candy shop and raped her. David meets Luter, a friend of his father whose intent was to have a sexual relationship with David’s mother Genya (Roth 22). Roth reveals this from the intense dislike of characters Luter by David. From the passage David dislikes Lute’s face at first sight: It was not because it was particularly ugly or because it was scary, but because an individual felt own features trying to imitate it while one looked at it. David, with his small mouth and the bow of his lips conspicuously thick and arched; he actually felt himself waiting for it to relax. And the way his nostrils swelled up and out almost fatigued one hoped the dimples in his would soon fill out (Roth 105).
The drama portrays confusion between the distorted systems of the city and David’s perception. It is characterized by existence of many misunderstood secrets. When David overhears his aunt talking with his mother, he comes to learn that she was in love with a non-Jew man before she married his father. From this conversation David devices a lie to the rabbi that his true mother died and Genya is his aunt. This lie explodes when Rabbi Yidel narrates the fabricated story of David regarding his imagined parenthood to Albert who accuses his wife for infidelity. Roth uses different stylistic devices to convey his message in the drama.
He uses Street Language by incorporating dialects from other languages and distorted spellings. When Joyce saw her classmate by the water edge, Roth puts it:
“An ecstasy of flight made radiant his eyes and wild his breath and tremulous and wild and radiant his winds wept limbs
_One! Two...look out!
-O, cripes, I’m drowned
-One! Two! Three and away!
-Me next! Me next!
-One...Uk!
-Stephanoforos! (Roth 93)
The language in the drama is a crush of informer’s sometimes vulgar language of the street with the translated Yiddish language and the immigrant’s dialects. With this mix, Roth tries to show the richness in the immigrant’s languages multiculturalism. The author further uses fragmented consciousness to portly his thoughts of confusion and the conflicting society that David finds himself after his family migrates to the America;
-Thought this-? No
Maybe went two.
Then when he ran.
Wasn’t looking and went two.
Next one.
That would be it. Find it now. Mama is waiting (Roth 89).
These fragments of consciousness characterize the drama. Roth has applied this style across the book revealing the state of confusion and conflict between the inner being of David and the society he lives. Roth uses limited disclosure to explore the inner feelings of David: “How long he lay there he did not know. But little by little the anguish lifted...” Throughout drama Roth tries to bring to light the plight of immigrants in the US. He uses Albert symbolically as the representation of the cruel society that the immigrant lives in. The brutality exhibited by Albert to his family, the merciless whipping of David, his total mistrust of his wife and constant accusations reflect the perception and treatment of the immigrants by the natives. The writer succeeds in painting a vivid picture of the hard times the immigrants experienced during the 1930s depression through his character Albert (Roth 56). However, through the development of his theme, he brings out the notion of a reciprocate cruelty from the immigrants. After Albert secured a job to deliver milk, one day accompanied by David he beats a man almost to death for having intentions to steal from him. On the other hand, Cynthia Ozick explores the plights of a Rabbi who is an outsider to his own religion.
“The Pagan Rabbi” is the title-story of the book “The pagan rabbi and other stories”. It is built upon a religious leader who hangs himself. Throughout the development of the story, Ozick paints the Rabbi as an ideological outsider to his religion. Ozick views western civilization as full of Greek paganism that threatens the existence of Judaism (Ozick 72). The author employs irony in presenting her theme. The rabbi, a religious leader and a teacher of region is viewed as the custodian of morality in the society and the protector of Judaism. He should be a living example of the teachings of the scripture. He is also responsible for correcting the behavior of his congregation.
However, the religious leader in the story, Isaac Kornfied ends up hanging himself for violating the very teachings he represent. The unnamed narrator claims they had a long friendship with Rabbi Isaac from their seminary schooling. After learning the suicide of the Rabbi, the narrator makes effort to inquire what motivated the Rabbi to such unfortunate action. He visits the Rabbi’s widow who claimed that Isaac had converted from a Jew to a pagan. The writer paints a clear image of the tree where he hanged himself. Here, Ozick uses symbolism where the Rabbi dying on a tree is a punishment for abandoning his family religion, disobeying the torah laws and adopting Greek paganism. The writer contrast Judaism worship which entails the soul as opposed to the Hellenistic worships that concerns the body. The other worships are branded paganism by the writer.
Ozick employs symbols across the story to develop her story and theme. The death of rabbi Kornfield comes after being seduced by a female dyad (Ozick 102). The narrator also learns that Kornfield had deflected from Judaism to paganism a...