Analysis: The Conversation Of The Jews By Philip Roth

103 Words1 Page

During this week’s reading I have found that it was surprising that Philip Roth is best known for his provocative and uncomfortable explorations of Jewish and American identity. He is known as a “bad boy of literature”, because he writes about things that others are not willing to. This surprised me because when reading “The Conversation of the Jews”, I felt that it was not about discussing uncomfortable issues about religion, but that they were simply asking each other questions about Jesus and other faiths. In his other writings, however, they maybe more confrontational, but this short story did not seem to

Show More
Related

  • The Rabbi In The Attic Analysis

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    The short story, The Rabbi in the Attic, written by Eileen Pollack (Curtis, 1998), enlightens the reader to the difficulties experienced by religious congregations as a whole, in a very regimented and legalistic form or religion. Pollack’s story also alluded to the fact of how ordered types of religions can lead to conflicting views and ideals from within the congregation over the same God (Schultz, 2015). The theme of The Rabbi in the Attic is undeniably about the harmful effects on congregations that adhere to ritual, tradition, stringent religious law and the emotional upheaval that follows dogma (Schultz, 2015). The Biblical allusion in The Rabbi in the Attic was highlighted by the characters and mimicked the adversity experienced by Jesus Christ with the Scribes and Pharisees in the New Testament gospels. Rabbi Heckler could be considered representative of the high priest Caiaphas (Pollack, 1998, p. 237) in enforcing the law, and the congregation, as those being oppressed by the law and wandering in darkness (Pollack, 1998, p. 240). After Rabbi Heckler’s ouster enters orthodox Rabbi Marion Bloomgareten, who represented the essence of reform similar to Jesus Christ (Pollack, 1998, p. 255). Like Christ, Rabbi Bloomgarten

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel's "Night"

    760 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the memoir, Night, author Elie Wiesel portrays the dehumanization of individuals and its lasting result in a loss of faith in God. Throughout the Holocaust, Jews were doggedly treated with disrespect and inhumanity. As more cruelty was bestowed upon them, the lower their flame of hope and faith became as they began turning on each other and focused on self preservation over family and friends. The flame within them never completely died, but rather stayed kindling throughout the journey until finally it stood flickering and idle at the eventual halt of this seemingly never-ending nightmare. Elie depicts the perpetuation of violence that crops up with the Jews by teaching of the loss in belief of a higher power from devout to doubt they endure.

    Read More

  • Solution to the Current Global Economy: Judaism and Economic Reform, by Norman Solomon

    1119 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the essay “Judaism and Economic Reform”, Norman Solomon, a Jewish-American journalist, presents a compelling argument on the basis of the need for economic reform while providing simple religious base solutions. While discussing two major economic problems that plague the world’s current economy, Solomon introduces the Jewish view of the global economy and their general view on economics as a whole. With this introduction to the Jewish worldview of economics we as readers are able to transition into understanding Solomon’s solutions of education & using Jewish law to improve the current state of the global economy. Although Solomon’s ideas of education and relying on Jewish law to improve the global economy seem logical, Sallie McFague, a Christian theologian, provides a different yet similar viewpoint of improving the global economy in her essay “New House Rules: Christianity, Economics, and Planetary Living”. Her discussion of ecological and neo-classical economics forces the reader to revert back to Solomon’s essay to analyze his methods of fixing the current global economy.

    Read More

  • The Color of Water by James McBride

    882 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin with, the dual narratives of the text here present a unique mixture of chronology and perspective. Moreover, noteworthy is also McBride’s usage of the rhetorical strategy of alternate chapters and parallelism. This can be seen when McBride remarkably places related chapters together to juxtapose the life of his mother and that of himself. This allows one to observe the parallelism in the two lives; and perhaps more importantly, understand the significance Ruth’s life has had on McBride. For example, McBride places the chapters “Shul” and “School” next to each other. Here, both Ruth and James are struggling and are trying to fit in but are rejected due to racial and social conflicts. Another example is, “The New Testament” and “The Old Testament.” Both of these chapters revolve around the embarrassment Ruth and James feel for their circumstances. In “The Ne...

    Read More

  • Immigrant Reality Exposed in Bread Givers

    3301 Words  | 7 Pages

    Krupnick, Mark.. "Jewish-American Literature." New Immigrant Literatures in the United States: A Sourcebook to Our Multicultural Literary Heritage. Ed. Alpana Sharma Knippling. WEstport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1996. 295-308.

    Read More

  • The Color of Water, by James McBride

    782 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin with, the dual narratives of the text here present a unique mixture of chronology and perspective. Moreover, noteworthy is also McBride’s usage of the rhetorical strategy of alternate chapters and parallelism. This can be seen when McBride remarkably places related chapters together to juxtapose the life of his mother and that of himself. This allows one to observe the parallelism in the two lives and to understand the significance Rachel's life had on McBride. For example, McBride places the chapter titled “Shul” and “School” next to each other with each giving a view of the problems they faced in school. Here both Ruth and James are struggling and are trying to fit in but are rejected due to racial and social conflicts. Another example is “The New Testament” and “The Old Testament.” Both of these chapters revolve around the embarrassm...

    Read More

  • Jewish Children 1930-1940 Essay

    752 Words  | 2 Pages

    The life of a child in the 1930-1940 was not an easy life not if you were a Nazi, not if you were Jewish. These Children lost their childhood because of a war. Their shattered childhood creates stories that seem horrific to us today. Life as a child growing up in a Nazi family is probably easier than dealing with the problems that the Jewish children have. However, every Nazi child had to sign up for the Hitler Youth. The Hitler Youth was an organization to discipline young minds and preach to them about anti semitism. Hitler Youth was one of the largest youth groups in Europe at the time if parents did not have their children in it they would face fines or have charges of imprisonment. The Nazi regime brainwashed the kids, they made them aggressive and intolerable. In the group there was even a small ‘Gestapo’ that would make sure all the children were doing the correct task if not the ‘Gestapo’ would report this. This shows how much power the children were given. During the 1940s more boys were recruited to join the army or guard concentration camps and ghettos. When the allied forces surrounded Germany the Nazi’s decided everyone of he age of fifteen and above would have to fight the war. They would be given rigorous training,

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel: A Survivor of the Holocaust

    1741 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Jewish Community. Publication Society, 1996. http://www. Wiesel, Elie. A.

    Read More

  • American Judaism: Orthodox to Reform and Everything between

    1801 Words  | 4 Pages

    Einstein, Stephen. & Kukoff, Lydia. (1989). Every Person's Guide to Judaism. New York: UAHC Press.

    Read More

  • Holocaust

    3103 Words  | 7 Pages

    The delineation of human life is perceiving existence through resolute contrasts. The difference between day and night is defined by an absolute line of division. For the Jewish culture in the twentieth century, the dissimilarity between life and death is bisected by a definitive line - the Holocaust. Accounts of life during the genocide of the Jewish culture emerged from within the considerable array of Holocaust survivors, among of which are Elie Wiesel’s Night and Simon Wiesenthal’s The Sunflower. Both accounts of the Holocaust diverge in the main concepts in each work; Wiesel and Wiesenthal focus on different aspects of their survivals. Aside from the themes, various aspects, including perception, structure, organization, and flow of arguments in each work, also contrast from one another. Although both Night and The Sunflower are recollections of the persistence of life during the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel and Simon Wiesenthal focus on different aspects of their existence during the atrocity in their corresponding works.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Rebellion In The Jewish Museum, By Daniel Libeskind

    292 Words  | 1 Pages

    This is what is fascinating about Berlin. Rebellion for the sake of rebellion rarely leads to much actual growth. Rebellion must come about because one believes there is something better than the past has provided. In the Jewish Museum, by the famous Daniel Libeskind, the same true rebellion as Deniz can be seen albeit in a much more sober context fitting of the tragic history of Berlin’s Jewish community. Rather than reference the past in an obvious manner by simply extending the original baroque museum building, he splits it completely, with no visible connection between the two; from an informed pedestrian perspective, it looks as if there is a snaking zinc monolithic building next to a traditional, symmetrical structure. However, Libeskind

    Read More

  • Summary Of Human Nature And Jewish Thought

    1357 Words  | 3 Pages

    The book “Human Nature and Jewish Thought” from the author Alan Mittleman is one of the bases used in the class Humanity 2.0 to try to reach an understanding about human nature. The book uses the comparison between Jewish tradition and lessons and the western thoughts to dig about the core of the human nature. In the chapter two of the book “Persons in the Image of God”, the author talks about the hybrid nature of the human, and our potential for both good and evil.

    Read More

  • Larry David's The Baptism

    1486 Words  | 3 Pages

    They believe the act Larry performed was extremely amazing and brave. Once the marriage is broken up, the two families begin an extremely loud and passionate argument. Both families unify with each other causing an extremely passionate argument when the other begins to trash their beliefs. The American Jewish Historical Society wrote a piece titled Appeal to the Israelites of the United States for a Founding of a College. This writing compiles a variety of stories told in the first-person comparing and contrasting the treatment of Jews in various time periods. The American Jewish Historical Society focuses on how Jews are perceived in America, often as minority group with a constantly growing voice. The Jewish Role in American Life, written by Bruce Zuckerman notes that, “From inception of the United States, American Jewry has identified with the key social norms and political symbols of this society, and Jewish institutions have reflected not only the core terminology of American society but also the structural characteristics of the federal governmental system,

    Read More

  • Jewish Apocalyptic Literary Analysis

    1233 Words  | 3 Pages

    Christopher Collins writes on authority and orality of myth. He proposes names attached to tales become single-references to recall entire stories. Such names gain authority through surviving trial and ordeals (Odysseus, for example). By comparison, ANE and Second Temple authors studied here legitimate texts by capitalizing on already assumed authorities—a god, angel, or king—acting as message originators. The revealed-secret recipient often contributes to engendered authority as well by name recognition. How, then, do authors orchestrate this authority in apocalyptic literature?

    Read More

  • My Jewish Experience Essay

    594 Words  | 2 Pages

    All of my life I have labeled myself as Jewish, although I have not once ever questioned what it means to be Jewish. I have spent many years of my life in an orthodox Hebrew school and excessive hours in Synagogue simply because my parents told me I had to go. I did not understand why I spent so much time in a place that I felt had no importance to me. This was until my perspective was changed my Junior year when I took an interest in the land of Israel. It all started when I began learning about my heritage in a teen group and following traditions such as celebrating Shabbat weekly. I have been to Israel before, but did not appreciate my time there because I was younger and thought it was just another vacation. My second time there I realized that Israel is a land of learning and the homeland of the Jewish people.

    Read More

More about Analysis: The Conversation Of The Jews By Philip Roth

Open Document