Jeremy Feliz Delgado

Prof. Nochomovitz

FIQWS

May 20, 2020

Outsider

            An outsider is someone that does not feel like they belong in a certain group, someone that cannot fit in. Immigrants and their descendants might feel like an outsider more often, as they are exposed to different cultures and religious beliefs and some might be confused as to what group they belong or fit in. We can see examples of this on Jewish-American stories like “The Conversion of The Jews” by Philip Roth and on “What Must I Say to You?” by Norma Rosen.

Roth’s “Conversion of The Jews” is a short story of a Jewish-American boy that questions the beliefs of the group of people that he should belong to. Oscar or Ozzie is a 13-year-old boy that is having trouble understanding what he is being taught at his synagogue. He did not understand why his Rabbi named Binder said that Jews are “The Chosen People” if on the Declaration of Independence, it said that “all men are created equal” (Roth, Philip 2). This shows the influence that American culture has on Ozzie. In one of the classes Ozzie’s Rabbi presented Jesus, but as a historical figure, a normal man but not God. But Ozzie questioned this, as he lives in the United States and was exposed to the beliefs of Christians on Jesus (Roth 2). He did not understand how God was not able to make a woman have a baby without an intercourse but was able to create the world in six days. Ozzie asked his Rabbi “Why can’t He make anything He wants to make?” referring to God allowing Jesus to be born without the need of an intercourse. When the Rabbi was about to give an answer, he shouted at his back “You don’t know! You don’t know anything about God!” (Roth 4). The Rabbi got very mad and accidently hit his nose and made him bleed, Ozzie then ran to the roof after calling the Rabbi a “bastard” twice (Roth 4).

When he was at the rooftop about to threaten to end his life by jumping, he asked himself “Is it me? Is it me? … Is it Me ME ME ME!” (Roth 4). This is the most thought-provoking part of the story since he does not know who he really is, and this affected him so bad that he even threatened to end his life. Here is where it is very important to think about the idea of an outsider. He has done things that he would have never done before if he were like the other kids at the synagogue. He acted like this because he became an outsider and was confused as he had not realized it. He was trying to understand the ideas of two different cultures that had many differences. Both could not be true, so he was not sure witch one he was a part of. Now he does not know who he is. The alienated character of Ozzie is the whole reason the story develops in the way it does. If he were just like all the other kids who did not care or who simply went along this story would be completely different.

            In “What Must I Say to You?” the narrator is somewhat of an outsider although it does not affect her as much as it did with Ozzie on the previous story, as she goes along with it. The narrator is a third generation American-Jew married to a Jew from an Orthodox family who was born in Europe (Rosen, Norma). The narrator is an outsider because it is not clear what groups she feels that she belongs to. She hates Germans as she says “It is the word German that does it to me. My soul knots in hate. German!” (Rosen 159) One would assume that the cause for this hate is the Holocaust, yet she did not suffer from it and apparently her family did not either. The only reason she would feel this way then, is because she identifies with Jews therefore, she blames all Germans for the Holocaust. But also, when her husband said that he wants to “put a mezuzah outside our door” something important for Jews, she came up with a lot of excuses as to why she did not want it (Rosen 157). One of them implicitly being that it remembered her what happened in the Holocaust and she did not want to remember that, so she tried to hide that part of her. She also does not have a connection to Jewish culture as she is a third generation Jew and as time passed for her family the customs and traditions wore off. Her husband had to explain what a mezuzah was and other parts of Jewish culture. Her husband places the mezuzah even though she opposed but after an argument she ends up giving in. Then she regrets it and says “What might be the world if women would continue the dialogue? But no, they must give in and be satisfied” (Rosen). She is an outsider, but it does not affect her life as much as she gives in and believes that she should not stand up for what she believes. She goes along with things even though she does not understand them or agree with them. Her character influences the development of the story because although she is an outsider, she does not do anything to create a change. She stays quiet and this prevents her of finding out who she really is.

Some immigrants want to take their culture with them and keep on passing it down to their descendants. But as they develop in a new country they are exposed to new cultures and ideas that might go against their own culture and beliefs. This creates a situation where they might feel lost and become outsiders. A good example of this is what happened to the second generation of European Jews according to Nancy Haggard-Gilson, who quotes Herbert Gans argument “the distinctive traits of historical Judaism have been worn away by the friction of the second generation and its middle-class Protestant counterpart” (Haggard-Gilson, Nancy). As the second generation of Jews grows up in contact with a generation of Protestants this affects their relationship to Judaism, to their culture. Some of them assimilate to this new culture or at least are influenced by it and either leave their own behind or replace some aspects of it. For some individuals assimilating or not doing it at all puts them in a very hard place. As they might feel that they do not belong to any of these two groups that they have a relation with. Haggard-Gilson also quotes Arthur Hertzberg, who argues that “Jews have lost sight of what holds them together. They have abandoned Judaism but have not thought what else they might be” (Haggard-Gilson). This is what I mean when I say that some individuals are in a very difficult situation. As they do not know what they are anymore and are not aware of the things that connect them to others. “Jewish fiction has mirrored the concern with identity… novels of second-generation writers particularly have been drawn to illustrate the experience of Jews and their response to the pressure to assimilate” (Haggard-Gilson) “The Conversion of the Jews” and “What Must I Say to You?” are good examples of novels that show how some Jews respond to this situation and how some of them have become outsiders.      

In conclusion, we can see the theme of an outsider hidden somehow in many novels in Jewish-American literature as many people feel this way because of the friction of different cultures. Some people might stay quiet and go along like the narrator of “What Must I Say to You?” and others might stand up and even put their lives in danger to find out who they are, like Ozzie on “The Conversion of the Jews”.

Works Cited

Haggard-Gilson, Nancy. “The Construction of Jewish American Identity in Novels of the Second Generation.” Studies in American Jewish Literature (1981-), vol. 11, no. 1, 1992, pp. 22–35. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41205809?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Rosen, Norma. “What Must I say to You?” American Jewish Fiction: A Century of Stories, Edited by Gerald Shapiro,University of Nebraska Press, 1998, pp. 152-162, Google Scholar,  https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=MieEmjl9_ZEC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=american+jewish+fiction+stories+a+century+if+stories&ots=ple62j4_Yv&sig=zY06v9xK68PZkDKnKWks7JoTmjI#v=onepage&q=mezuzah&f=false

Roth, Philip. “The Conversion of the Jews.” The Paris Review, 10 Jan. 2020, www.theparisreview.org/fiction/4830/the-conversion-of-the-jews-philip-roth.