Identity and Responsibility: Fatherhood in The Fixer
"Permit me to ask, Yakov Shepsovitch, are you a father?"
"With all my heart."
"Then you can imagine our anguish," sighed the sad-eyed Tsar. (Malamud, 332)
This passage, coming in the final pages of Bernard Malamud's The Fixer, represents a human reality commonly portrayed in both real life and fiction: the truth one feels is often much more significant than the sum total of the events that have actually transpired. In actuality, Yakov Bok, the novel’s protagonist, has no children, nor does he have any reason to lie and say that he has. The discussion takes place during a delusion episode en route to the court date that will finally decide Yakov’s fate after over two years of painful abuse and dehumanizing humiliation. No consequences rest on the truth of this exchange. If we assume that he has no reason to answer dishonestly in his fantasy, and that he is not somehow mistaken about the existence or nonexistence of his children (a subject that is so close to his heart throughout the book that he surely would remember), then we as readers must only conclude that he is telling the truth. If it is not the literal truth, then it is certainly the psychological truth.
There are several other moments that shine throughout the final chapters of The Fixer, that jump out at the reader, suggesting themselves to us as the long awaited key to what all this suffering and sorrow has been for. There is the sacrifice that Kogin, the guard, makes when he puts his life on the line when he can no longer witness any more torture; or Yakov, when he rebelliously throws his disgusting, filthy undershirt in the Deputy Warden's face. Yakov shouts his praise of liberty and revolution and "Death ...
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...aw, to make him a more forgiving man and consequently a better Jew. "What she did I won't defend—she hurt me as much as she did you," he tells Yakov in their conversation in Book One. "Even more, when the rabbi says she's now dead my voice agrees, but not my heart.... I've cursed her more than once but I ask God not to listen. (Malamud, 10)"
In no insignificant way, Shmuel's relationship with Yakov almost directly mirrors the way Shmuel feels about his daughter. They both hurt him, but he absorbs it and continues on, accepting it as It is not his religion that tells him how to accept misfortune. Instead, he uses religion as a tool to put up with what he perceives to just be his lot in life. It is almost impossible to not see him as a father figure to Yakov, in the way that he frets, persuades, bickers, pleads, and prays that the fixer will become a better man.
Just before World War II Rudi Kaplan starts learning a very important lesson. A Father’s Promise is a historical fiction written by Donnalynn Hess. The setting is in 1939 right before World War II in Warsaw, Poland.
to avenge the foul murder, but to leave his mother out of it as her guilt would
The novel The Chosen by Chaim Potok presents an important theme that is mirrored in other works of literature. The Chosen's portrayal of a dysfunctional father-child relationship is present in the song "Dead Bodies Everywhere" by the band Korn and in Sherwood Anderson's short story "Tandy". All three works depicted fathers who attempted to change their children into someone different. The works showed how this could hurt the children's relationship with their respective father. The pieces of literature also show how this type of dysfunctional father-child relationship can lead to the child finally disavowing their father and previous life. The Chosen, "Dead Bodies Everywhere", and "Tandy" all show Fathers that try to change their children, the damage caused by this effort, and finally the total renunciation by the child of their previous life.
The second prisoner was a young boy who was being hanged for the fact that he stole weapons during a power failure. The significance of this particular hanging was the young boy’s lack of rebellion, his quiet fear and the unbearable duration of his torment. The boy had lost all hope and was one of the only victims who wept at the knowledge of their demise. What made this case different from the rest was not only his youth, but also his silence, and emotion and the fact that it took a half an hour for him to die, as a result of the lightness of his young body. Even though he was constantly tortured and provoked by the guards before he was hanged, he still said nothing, unlike the two people who joined him, who both shouted in defiance. His quiet courage really stood out as an unspoken and unannounced rebellion not only for the Jews, but it showed the doubts that some of the guards began to have. “This time, the Lagerkapo refused to act as executioner.” Although this quote is one sentence it still shows the effect the boy had on everyone in the camp. Even though the prisoners had been living with the constant presence of death, the execution of this young boy made them feel emotion they believed they had lost forever. This death was an unsaid act of rebellion in the sense that it showed the audience that there was indeed still some sensitivity left no matter how much both the prisoners and the guards were dehumanized: the prisoners as merely a number, and the guards as ruthless
In this first paragraph, the author battles with a commonly held belief that children are the “property” of their parents for a certain amount of time in their lives. The author constructs upon the topic slowly by disclosing his problem with the idea of children as property, only to bring his own life experiences into count by explaining his adolescence with a dysfunctional family. By bringing in his personal experiences, the author is in some sense considered an authority figure on the topic of a child’s life with a dysfunctional family. He compares the concept of parental custody with apprenticeship, and he puts it all together by creating a practical solution to the problem. His true thesis sentence is seen in the last paragraph where he says, “We have invested far too heavily in the unproved “equity” called the nuclear family; that stock is about to crash and we ought to being finding escape options” (p 196). By gradually giving the reader background info on the problems of the modern dysfunctional family, and then stating the thesis at the end, he very clearly gets his argument across.
because he used the Jews for his own good. The Jews ran his business, and
...ompletely and genuinely. Raskolnikov ‘s soul is no longer under the weight of his crime and he is finally able to embrace her love and give love in return.
“Tricky business, fathers and sons. In my case, a lot needed settling,” (7) acknowledges author Craig Lesley in his personal narrative Burning Fence: A Memoir of Fatherhood. This book delves into relationships between fathers and their sons. The introspective writer employs flash-forwards and flashbacks, effectively keeping the reader enrapt and drawing connections between the generations of Lesleys. Near the end of the book, the writer inserts effective concluding thoughts he holds towards his father. While the memoir displays an unhealthy view of unforgiveness, it portrays the importance of a father figure in a child’s life.
Jess Walter creates a world based on his own experience as a child and adult living in Spokane, Washington, in his newest collection of short stories “We Live in Water.” In his stories “Anything Helps” and “Thief” the theme of fatherhood and sacrifice in one’s life is shared. In “Anything Helps” readers follow a story of a homeless man named Bit. Bit would do anything to buy his son the new Harry Potter book. In “Thief” a man becomes a detective to see which of his kids are stealing from the family vacation fund. The stories are extremely different, but both reveal that fathers would make any sacrifice for their children it is a part of fatherhood.
Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment incorporates the significance of murder into the novel through a multitude of levels. The act of killing is not only used to further the plot point of the novel, but also offers insight to the reader of Raskolnikov’s ideology and psyche. This is portrayed through both his initial logic and reasoning behind the plotting of the crime, as well as through his immediate and long term reactions after killing Alyona Ivanovna. The emotional and physical responses instilled in Raskolnikov after killing Alyona Ivanovna as well as his justification for doing so helps illustrate his utilitarianism by offering accurate insight into the character’s moral values. These reactions also serve to show the instability of Raskolnikov’s character due to his changing emotions from being completely justified as the ubermensch to showing a sense of great regret. By including the act of killing, Dostoevsky further develops Raskolnikov’s character, and provides another level of detail to readers concerning his ideology and beliefs prior to his actions.
... After he possessed the girl, he raised her according to his thoughts and ideas, hoping that someday she would become the perfect woman he had been searching for. This might sound unfair to the girl because he deprived Murasaki of freedom and autonomy. Nonetheless, to achieve his perfectionism he would do anything, which was selfish but intriguing.
Through suffering and guilt comes a personal need to redeem one's self and once again achieve an inner peace of mind. This process of redemption is not easy, but is worth the prize of being reborn into a new being. When one fully commits him or her self to being saved, there is no stopping that final result. In Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky draws from personal experience to create a story based off of suffering, which ultimately exemplifies a message of redemption and rebirth through said suffering.
The author’s purpose is to also allow the audience to understand the way the guards and superintendent felt towards the prisoners. We see this when the superintendent is upset because the execution is running late, and says, “For God’s sake hurry up, Francis.” And “The man ought to have been dead by this time.” This allows the reader to see the disrespect the authority has towards the prisoners.
...o persuade him against his will. She tells things just how she sees them fit and tells it like it is.
James Joyce uses his novel Dubliners to reveal how fathers are in Dublin during 1904. Joyce utilizes his stories within Dubliners, such as “Eveline” and “Counterparts,” to describe the cruelty fathers were during the early 1900s. Within “Eveline” Eveline Hill is trapped within her home dealing with her abusive father and trying to escape the reality with her lover. However, she remembers her mother’s promise of maintaining the household. Her father is a prime example of Joyce’s representation of fathers within the 1900s. He is an abusive man usually when he is only drunk. During his rarity of soberness, he shows characteristics of a normal father. “Counterparts” exhibits the same aspects of fathers. Farrington eludes from his work at the law firm to have drinks with his friend. This makes him into an incompetent nuisance within his work that makes him angry, even though it is his own