31 pages • 1 hour read
Isaac Bashevis Singer, Transl. Saul BellowGimpel the Fool
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1953A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Bread
In the Jewish faith, bread holds deep religious symbolism, reflecting sustenance, community, and connection to tradition. For this reason, in “Gimpel the Fool,” Gimpel's role as a baker symbolizes his attempts to physically and spiritually nourish his community through his faith. This is portrayed when Gimpel shows his love for Elka. When she bears a son shortly after their wedding, he gives her "a white loaf as well as a dark one, and also poppyseed rolls I baked myself" (997) in addition to many other delicacies. Similarly, he reaches out to Elka after she gives birth to her second child. He is forbidden from seeing her, but every day he sends her "a corn or a wheat loaf, or a piece of pastry, rolls or bagels, or, when I got the chance, a slab of pudding, a slice of honeycake, or wedding strudel—whatever came my way" (999). This outpouring of generosity from the bakery symbolizes Gimpel's love for Elka and her children even though the townspeople mock him for his devotion.
Bread is also symbolic when the Evil Spirit visits Gimpel and persuades him to urinate in the day's batch of bread dough. This act is the opposite of nourishing: By carrying it out, Gimpel would be poisoning and defiling his community. The kind of bread he is making is not specified, but certain types of bread have religious significance in Jewish culture. For instance, challah is a special braided bread eaten during the Sabbath and Jewish holidays. The act of separating a small portion of the dough before braiding, known as "taking challah," recalls the ancient offering given to the Temple priests in Jerusalem. This practice imbues the baking process with a sense of sanctity and remembrance. Challah appears during Gimpel's wedding festivities held by an "old granny" dancing near Gimpel.
By urinating in the bread dough, even if it is not challah, Gimpel is essentially defying God and his heritage to get revenge on the town. This is completely against his sense of ethics and belief, and in the end, he relents. This event prompts Gimpel to give up his role as a baker, leave Frampol, and find his own happiness in the world. He realizes there is no point in trying to nourish a community that rejects him, and that if he stays, he will inevitably be tempted to compromise his beliefs again.
Dreams
Frampol
Frampol, the shtetl where this story takes place, is a town shaped by traditional Jewish ways of life, religion, and culture. Shtetls were primarily pre-World War II Jewish communities in Eastern Europe that rejected outside cultural influence. Frampol is an ironic portrayal of a shtetl because instead of representing the mystical wonder and piety of religious beliefs, it is full of ill-intentioned people who mock Gimpel, who is a man of great faith. Frampol comes to symbolize all the humiliation and ridicule Gimpel suffers during his childhood, adult life, and marriage. Finally, to save himself and his beliefs, he leaves the town.
At the time Singer wrote the story, shtetls like Frampol were fraught with anxiety over the encroaching outside world. This is hinted at in the story when Gimpel runs home after being given permission to see Elka again: “Dogs in the Christian yards barked at me when I passed, but I thought: Bark your teeth out! What are you but mere dogs?” (1000). It is symbolically significant that the barking dogs are from Christian yards, implying that the surrounding Christian community is hostile or dangerous. This also hints at the world outside Frampol for the first time in the story. Earlier in the story, he ran in fear when he thought he heard a dog barking; now, Gimpel brushes off the barking dog, showing he is no longer afraid to face the unknown.
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