58 pages • 1 hour read
Philip RothGoodbye Columbus
Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1959A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Strength of Relationships in Jewish Families
A defining and repeated theme of Roth’s collection, Goodbye, Columbus, is the strong family bonds that exist between parents or parent figures and their children. Each of these stories follows Jewish characters, and their relationships illuminate the importance of family in Jewish communities. In the titular story, “Goodbye, Columbus,” protagonist Neil witnesses the Patimkins’ commitment to their children as well as both their critical and forgiving nature. Brenda’s mother continues to be overbearing toward her, but her father is kind and patient with his eldest daughter. Mr. Patimkin’s commitment to Brenda is further proven in his actions and words following the discovery of her diaphragm by Mrs. Patimkin. He writes a letter to Brenda before his wife can, and in it, he affirms his love for her and her place in the family: “You have to have faith in your children like in a Business or any serious undertaking and there is nothing that is so bad that we can’t forgive especially when Our own flesh and blood is involved” (127). While Mrs. Patimkin condemns and shames her daughter for the diaphragm, Mr. Patimkin approaches her immediately with kindness, saying that the fact that they are family is most important. His first priority is to her as his daughter, and he believes that Brenda deserves forgiveness. He goes on in the letter to tell her that she is welcome home whenever.
This kind of care and commitment echoes throughout the other stories of Goodbye, Columbus but is most directly addressed in the story “Defender of the Faith.” When a letter arrives on Marx’s superior’s desk from Grossbart’s mother, Captain Barrett questions why the young soldier’s mother is even involved. Marx goes on to explain to him the importance of parental-child relationships in Jewish families: “Jewish parents, sir—they’re apt to be more protective than you expect. I mean, Jews have a very close family life. A boy goes away from home, sometimes the mother is liable to get very upset” (175). Although it is later revealed that Grossbart wrote the letter himself and fabricated much of it, the idea of family commitment remains intact. Throughout the story, he frequently cites his desire to assuage his and his friends’ parents’ worries about them as a motivating factor behind his attempts at discovering their deployment location. Grossbart’s actions are not always honest, but he understands the importance of familial bonds and uses them, even if they are fabricated, to influence the people around him.
In the story “Epstein,” protagonist Lou Epstein struggles over damaged familial relationships that were once strong. He owns a business, Epstein Paper Bag, and as he nears retirement, he laments that he is not able to keep it in the family since his son died at a young age and his daughter is uninterested and unmarried. It is important to Lou that the business he built with his family stays with the family. He built Epstein Paper Bag with his brother, Sol, but conflict led Sol to leave the business, and the two rarely speak. Sol’s son, Michael, is visiting Lou, and Lou wonders about what the business could be if he and Sol never fought: “[H]e shifted his thoughts to Sol so that the flush might fade: if there had been no words with Sol it would be Michael who would be heir to Epstein Paper Bag” (210). Lou considers how the erosion of his relationship with his brother impacts the relationship he has with his nephew and even the future of his business. If he kept his familial relationships intact, many of the problems he faces would not exist. He laments the ways in which the relationships he has with his brother, wife, and daughter all changed over time throughout the story. “Epstein” demonstrates how a lack of strong family bonds can create stress and conflict and lead to painful decisions.
Class and Status as a Source of Conflict
Class and status are sources of conflict throughout Goodbye, Columbus. In the titular story, “Goodbye, Columbus,” protagonist Neil believes that he possesses a lower status in the eyes of the Patimkins because of his working-class background. His insecurity causes tension between himself and Brenda, culminating in the climactic scene in the hotel in Boston when Brenda lets Neil read the letters she received from her parents. In both letters, Neil is referenced in ways that blame his lower-class status for the corruption of their daughter. Mrs. Patimkin’s letter is particularly harsh, painting Neil and his family in a disparaging light: “He is his parents’ responsibility and I cannot imagine what kind of home life he had that he could act that way. Certainly that was a fine way to repay us for the hospitality we were nice enough to show to him, a perfect stranger” (129). Mrs. Patimkin’s view of Neil as an ungrateful stranger proves to Neil that he was never truly welcome or accepted in the Patimkin house because of his class. While he remains on the fringe, characterized as a boy who took advantage of the Patimkins’ kindness, Harriet, who comes from a wealthy family, is accepted immediately into the Patimkins’ family. Neil despises this treatment, and his insecurities over Brenda possibly sharing this view of him with her family lead him to break up with her.
In “You Can’t Tell a Man by the Song He Sings,” status once again leads to the dissolution of a relationship. In this story, the unnamed protagonist becomes friends with the ex-con Albie Pelagutti. Albie and another boy, Duke, are both viewed as different and even threatening by other students and are immediately treated as outsiders. Both boys come from a disadvantaged part of Newark but are sent to the protagonist’s school in hopes that its “higher culture would absorb the lower” (240). While this difference at first has no impact on the protagonist’s ability to be friends with Albie, their differing circumstances eventually deteriorate their friendship. One day, Albie breaks up a practice fight by pushing the protagonist, who then accidentally breaks a window. Albie flees, leaving the blame with the protagonist. Looking back on this event, and the meeting with the principal in which he was shown his record, the protagonist understands why Albie ran: “I understood—just short of forgiveness—why the two of them had zoomed off and left me to pay penance for the window by myself. Albie, you see, had always known about the filing cabinet and these index cards” (246). Albie’s life is filled with run-ins with the law and authority figures, and though he is trying to be better, he cannot afford to have another incident placed on his card. His life, so different from the protagonist, leads him to abandon his friend and shirk responsibility. The protagonist, though he understands this, does not forgive him for it.
Class and status play an important role in the final story of Goodbye, Columbus, “Eli, the Fanatic,” as well. In this story, Eli Peck represents the Jewish people of the suburban town Woodenton, New York, as they try to evict a large family of Jewish immigrants and Holocaust survivors because of their traditional clothing and plans to open a yeshivah. When Eli attempts to explain the town’s reasoning, Leo Tzuref pushes back: “‘Look, Mr. Tzuref, I didn’t come here to talk metaphysics. People use the law, it’s a flexible thing. They protect what they value, their property, their well-being, their happiness—’ […] ‘They hide their shame. And you, Mr. Peck, you are shameless?’” (266). Their disagreement stems from the town’s preoccupation with status. The town tolerates its Jewish residents only as long as their cultural and religious practices are not too visibly different from what non-Jewish residents perceive as the norm. Eli’s statement about the uses of the law makes clear what is really at stake here: This is an affluent suburb in which property values depend on the perception of elevated status. Because of antisemitism, the presence of Jews who dress and act differently from their Protestant neighbors threatens that perception.
Pressures of Modernity on Tradition
In many of the stories in Goodbye, Columbus, characters struggle with what it means to be Jewish in the modern world, where they experience prejudice and judgment for their identity, their adherence to tradition, and their rejection of it. The first instance of such a clash occurs in “Goodbye, Columbus,” when Mrs. Patimkin interrogates Neil about his religious involvement. Mrs. Patimkin, who is very involved with the Jewish philanthropic group Hadassah, invites Neil to Temple and asks whether he is orthodox or conservative, but Neil’s response reveals a divide between them: “I considered. ‘Well, I haven’t gone in a long time…I sort of switch…’ I smiled. ‘I’m just Jewish,’ I said well-meaningly” (88). Their conversation continues, and Neil clarifies that he is orthodox, but his evident lack of religiosity draws judgment from Mrs. Patimkin. Despite both characters being Jewish, Neil’s identity does not depend as strongly as Mrs. Patimkin’s on religious activity.
Building on Neil and Mrs. Patimkin’s discussion of religious involvement, “The Conversion of the Jews” explores the conflict between modernity and tradition in a unique manner. In this story, Ozzie Freedman consistently challenges his teacher on religious topics, questioning his knowledge and the workings of God. This exploration of the theme differs from other stories because it presents the challenges traditional teachings and beliefs face in an increasingly modern world. For a child such as Ozzie, the ever-changing world raises more questions than answers when it comes to his faith, and he expresses this in class: “Trapped, Ozzie blurted the first thing that came to him. ‘Why can’t He make anything He wants to make!’” (146). Ozzie’s question represents his confusion over the matter of the supposedly all-powerful and all-knowing God. Ozzie’s teacher has told him that the immaculate conception, as believed in the Catholic faith, is impossible because God cannot impregnate a woman without intercourse. Ozzie sees this as a logical flaw in the rabbi’s theology since God is supposed to be all-powerful and should thus be able to do whatever he wishes. Ozzie questions traditional thinking as he grows up in the modern world and wants his questions to be answered rather than dismissed.
The conflict between tradition and modernity boils over in the collection’s final story, “Eli, the Fanatic.” In this story, a yeshivah moves into a town whose Jewish population forsakes many traditions in favor of peace and balance with the local Protestant community. In a similar way to Neil’s work life in “Goodbye, Columbus,” many of the outward signifiers of Judaism are forsaken in the name of modernity to make the lives of the Jewish community easier. When the yeshivah threatens this balance, Eli addresses its headmaster, Leo, explaining their situation: “[F]or Jews and Gentiles to live beside each other in amity. For this adjustment to be made, both Jews and Gentiles alike have had to give up some of their more extreme practices in order not to threaten or offend the other” (262). Throughout the story, Eli justifies this shift away from “extreme practices” as a shift to modernity. He explains to Leo that the townspeople are uneasy over the traditional suit and hat the man who runs errands for him wears and requests he wear more modern dress. This conflict suggests that these different religious groups cannot live side-by-side if traditional Judaism is apparent and visible, and the notion behind hiding these traditions is that modernity will bring peace, safety, and coexistence.
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