Analysis Of Goodbye Columbus

Love is not given, but is instead earned. From this simple concept arises the existence of the thin line between lust and love, becomes hazardous during the unstable bond and passion between Neil and Brenda in Roth’s Goodbye Columbus. The presence of greed and selfishness within Brenda, unfortunately takes a toll on the chance of a healthy relationship, and eventually foils their armour. Continuously, she denies Neil of his true identity, and slowly creates a mask for him to cover up and hide himself in shame. The life of Neil’s present is Brenda’s past, and she strives to gain his trust in order to reform his life in the similar fashion. In the end, it proven that their love for one another is not authentic, and instead is mutated into something

With this in mind, Brenda cleverly obuses Neil’s open mindedness in formulating a scenario to enable a source of faith and new level of relation to develope among themselves. Once brought into action, she uncovers the other side to her integrity. Respectively, Neil shows benevolence to that part of her that seems to understand him deep inside, “There among the disarrangement and dirt I had the strange experience of seeing us, both of us, placed among disarrangement and dirt: we looked like a young couple who just had moved into a new apartment; we had suddenly taken stock of our furniture, finances, and future [...] ” (68) However since she has grown accustomed into a new rank of social status, and away from “the disarrangement and dirt” of Newark, she has become more attracted to life she occupies anon in Short Hills. This knowledge disillusions her that wealth advantages come with power, and that power is her responsibility. She through her selfish and noble heart feels the need to improve Neil, because it’s her past for a reason. Meanwhile, he interprets “the strange experience of seeing us” as a gateway into a compromise of “furniture, finances, and future” in their relationship. In this case, Brenda is unable to welcome the real and raw elements of Neil, distorts the possibility for them to experience love for one another. Thus, the misinterpretation and

The overbearing presence of the pressure to change shadows over Neil as he realizes that his love for Brenda is not enough to detach herself from wanting to make her past also his past. Only after Brenda over welcomes herself into his life, does their relationship find it’s breaking point and dulls clearly into the sight of lust not love “What was it inside me that had turned pursuit and clutching into love [...] What was it that had turned winning and losing [...] I was sure I had loved Brenda, though standing there, I knew I couldn’t any longer [...] Whatever spawned my love for her, had spawned such a lust too? If she had only been slightly not Brenda … but then would I have loved her?” (135-136) It becomes evident that Neil finally comprehends his naiveness of misunderstanding that their relationship began from “turned pursuit and clutching into love”. This unhealthy dependency made him chase after her constantly, being afraid of “winning and losing” her in the process. Despite that there could have been the existence or possibility of love “If she had only been slightly not Brenda”, the desire of their forbidden love “had spawned such a lust too”, because of the societal gaps between them that created a challenge. In the end, love could would have never survived through the war zone and battle of their relationship, as long as society