Essay About Gimpel The Fool Transformation

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Chris Augustin English 102 Mon/Wed 8:30am 23 February 2014 Essay Gimpel The Fool Transformation Gimpel The Fool is a short story by Issac Bashevis Singer. The whole story revolves around the main character Gimpel. Gimpel the fool, which he is called by the Jewish town of Frampol, is always being made fun of and also has teased by them. Gimpel transformation through tough situations and his strong beliefs help improve his development as a character, makes him simply not a fool. Gimpel is not simply a fool because of the way he has handled the tough situations in early years in Frampol. Like when Gimpel was really young every one in the town used to make fun of him because everyone believes that Gimpel was gullible. They called him a lot of names like imbecile, donkey, flexed-head, dope, clump, ninny and fool. People called him these names because he believed in what everyone tells him, which they took advantage of. But in that situation Gimpel is not a fool because he acted maturely on what people think about him. Gimpel didn't let the name calling bother him to a big extent. The true foolish thing is to act in an irrational manner and to start getting aggressive with everyone.“I was no weakling. If I slapped someone he’d see all the way to Cracow. But I’m really not a slugger by nature. I think to myself, Let it pass. So they take advantage of me.” These are not words of a fool, but they are words of a very trusting and reliable character. Its showing here that gimpel does not have to give into the town people but he chooses to. Everyone in the town lies to him but Gimpel acts mature about how the way they treats him. Many of the townspeople plays tricks on him but he never let it bother him. The way townspeople have tr... ... middle of paper ... ...d she realized she was the fool for the way she has been acting and treating Gimpel all this time. Elka tells Gimpel everything like her adultery and also telling him that those are not his children. One night he had dream from the devil, the devil was persuading him on anyone that has ever tricked him."In brief, I let myself be persuaded."This dream is very interesting because he become very tempted to trick every body, this shows his transformation,not believing in the world, and not trusting in whats decent and good-natured. When Gimpel's devil tells him that there is no God, we see Gimpel's subconscious questioning the afterlife that he so faithfully believed in. By actually following the devil's orders, and attempting to trick the townsfolk, Gimpel reveals that he no longer cares about the well- being of society, and thus a detachment from that society is made.

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