Devora Barons Bill of Divorcement - Essay Example

?______________________________________________________________________________ E. On the day he was supposed to come home she happened to find, in the market, a few cherries from the Countess’s garden, and her eyes shone as brightly as the dewy fruit she was carrying home. I’ll boil them for my Isser Ber, she thought; he loves cherry jam. As she was boiling them later, standing over the stove with her cheeks flushed, she was surprised to see her two brothers-in-law from Kaminka enter, their faces as hard as someone about to execute a sentence, with Isser Ber himself walking behind them, his eyes averted and his face quivering like a flame exposed to a blast of chilly air. This passage is from Devora Baron’s “Bill of Divorcement” on page 55. The language is a translation of a Jewish author’s work. The length of sentences varies to slowly build up the action. The first sentence has 37 words and active voice shows the woman’s sense of control over her life. The second sentence has twelve words. It signifies how much she loves and adores her husband. The word “boil” seems to be a metaphor for her “boiling.” It foreshadows her fate as the one who will be cooked. The last sentence has sixty words and reads like a death sentence. Indeed, the word “sentence” is mentioned. Furthermore, the “hardness” or harshness of what happens to her can be summarized in how Isser Ber cannot look at her. He is guilty for what he will deliver to the woman who loved him too much. This passage is significant to the story, because it shows the hardships of women as wives in any patriarchal society, where they are supposed to play specific traditional gender roles. They must fit certain social expectations, or else, they will get sacked and get the Bill of Divorcement. The home that they painfully and patiently built will be gone in an instant that society decrees them unfit as a wife. This passage summarizes how society treats women who cannot be exactly what men want them to be. No matter how much a woman loves or sacrifices for her man, she will get no mercy for not being the woman that society wants her to be. ______________________________________________________________________________ 2. H. On the day I became thirteen years old and a member of the congregation, my mother, peace be with her, bound her kerchief around my neck. Blessed be God, who has given His world to guardians. There was not a spot of dirt to be found on the kerchief. But sentence has already been passed on the kerchief, that it was to be lost through me. This kerchief, which I had observed so much and so long, would vanish because of me. This passage is from Agnon’s story, “The Kerchief” at page 64. The language comes from the viewpoint of a deeply religious person. The sentences vary in length. The first sentence talks about the rite of passage of a Jewish adolescent. His mother must be proud of him to use her best kerchief for him. Agnon believes that God gives His world to His people. The kerchief is also described as spotless, a sign of purity. It is a metaphor for goodness. However, the last two sentences show guilt for losing the kerchief. This passage is significant to the story, because it stands for the meaning of purity. Purity is not something people wear like a kerchief during Sabbath. It is not like an accessory that people can choose to wear or not to wear as they please. Agnon depicts that purity is about following God’s words every day of one’s life, even if it means giving a precious kerchief to a beggar. Through his action of compassion, he shows that indeed, God has “given His world to guardians,” if these guardians know how to show love and mercy to those who need it the most (Agnon 64). ______________________________________________________________________________ 3. J. The rabbi’s son needs only a single moment to pass silent judgment on the woman who was intended to be his bride: Her dress hangs from her like a sack, her eyes are large, black, and pretty, but she flutters her eyelids tastelessly…her nose isn’t too long. Well, for six thousand rubles… The rabbi’s son picks up the book that is lying on the table—the poetry of Schiller. “And you, Madamoiselle, do you like Schiller?” “Do I like him?” she asks with a heavy sigh. “Do I like him! And who else would I like here? Schiller is the one consolation of my life, my sole and solitary joy…” This passage is from “Scenes from Limbo,” page 55 by Isaac Leib Peretz. The language shows that the rabbi’s son is both superficial and not superficial. First, he passes judgment on a woman, because of her looks. She is very thin, since her dress hangs like a sack on her. He also notices her pretty eyes and that she “flutters her eyelids tastelessly” (Peretz 55). He must not like long noses, since he says: “her nose isn’t too long” (Peretz 55). Despite assessing the physical, he demonstrates intellectual depth when he asks her about the German poet Schiller. Schiller is a metaphor for intellectual and spiritual rigor. When the woman answers that Schiller is her “consolation” in life and her “sole and solitary joy…” (Peretz 55), she also shows that she is not a tasteless woman after all. This passage is significant to the story, because it manifests the courtship process. Men look for beauty and intellect in their women. Women, however, do not have many choices, since they are the ones pursued. When they are poor, they rarely get someone they “deserve” in terms of virtues or intellect or both. ______________________________________________________________________________ 4. K. The trains make me free. Without them, what would I be in this world? An insect, a mindless clerk, or, at best, a shopkeeper, a kind of human snail, getting up early, working eight or nine hours, and in the evening, with the remains of his strength, locking up and going home to what? A disgruntled wife, an overgrown, ungrateful son, a stack of bills. I detest those somber places called houses. I board the train, and instantly I’m borne aloft on the wings of the wind. This passage is from “The Iron Tracks” by Aharon Appelfeld. The train is personified in the first sentence. The next sentences explore the lamentations of an unhappy married man. He likens himself to a “human snail” and an “insect,” as if his life is one slow process of agony for him. As an insect, he feels unappreciated in every aspect of his life. He disdains his work, wife, and child. The metaphor is that the train is his freedom. This passage is significant to the story, because it shows that the man is miserable with his life. The only way he escapes it is through his train travels. The train gives him a feeling of freedom, freedom away from his social roles and responsibilities. Inside the train, he is like God who can shape his life as he chooses. Outside the train, he goes back to being a “human snail.” ______________________________________________________________________________ 5. M. It is the way of the wind (spirit) to come and to go and to come again. There is nothing new. This passage is from “The Way of the Wind” by Amos Oz on page 60. It describes the nature of the wind to come and go over and over again. There is nothing new in this process, since it is a program of nature. The wind is a metaphor for life that comes and goes. This passage is significant to the story, because it underscores the mortality of human beings. People as young as Gideon or as old as his father can make their mark on the world, like a strong wind. Gideon wants to make his parents proud, but he shamed them in the end. But his life is of no essence to his father. He does not make him proud then or now. For Shimshon Sheinbaum, his own son is like the wind that does not matter to him, unless it affects him and his society in any way, especially in a particular way he wants. Read More