I wasn't sure if I understood this story or not, so I'm just going to blog a couple of points which I found interesting.
I loved the way this story began. It was such a direct beginning, and really jumped right into the problem of the story "I am Gimpel the fool. I don't think myself a fool." This is kind of the overall theme of the story... the fact that Gimpel beleives everything.
I was really confused as to what the "point" of the story was. Part of me wants to say the story is a hit at religion. Gimpel beleives everything, but in particular, he believes things which have religious references. In the third paragraph, it mentions "In the first place, everything is possible, as written in the Wisdom of the Fathers". He also beleives that the Messaih has come, and later on, beleives the schoolmaster later when he says that Adam and Eve had a premature baby. Later, the rabbi's daughter tricks him as well. Although the entire town makes a fool out of him, many of the specific examples trace back to religion. Is this just because the town is very religion-focused? Or is this a smack at religion itself, and how religious beleifs make people into fools.
Another question I had was about his wife. She's obviously the model for a bad wife , but there seems to be more too it. When Gimsel asks her to marry, and to give him a dowry, she answers back tells him not to bargain - either say yes or no. Is this saying that women should never talk back?
When I began this story, I felt bad for Gimsel. By the end, though, I think I came to beleive that this was really his fault. As Liz pointed out in class today, he knew that people were fooling around with him, and he still let it happen. He knew that his wife was cheating on him, etc, but let other people convince him otherwise. This happens multiple times, so I'd say this was his fault.
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2 comments:
Anisha, you wanted to know what the point of this story was. I read in an essay (I think its one of the ones that Dan posted) that this story is about Gimpel's unique view of the world. He is called a fool and those around him believe that he will fall for anything. But in actuality, Gimpel is open-minded and willing to accept anything at face value, unlike his cynical neighbors and wife. The townspeople enjoy playing tricks on him and using him as the butt of their jokes because he will not do anything to stop them. Gimpel just wants to give every situation a chance and see how it plays out. After his wife dies and throws all her indiscretions back in his face, Gimpel becomes cynical for awhile and plans his trick on the townspeople. But then when his wife visits him from Hell, he realizes the greatness of his unique, uncynical (is this a word?) view of the world and decides not to carry through with his plans. Instead he sets out to travel the world and spread his view.
Gimpel is a moral character living in an immoral world. The story is about how Gimpel's morality and faith lead him as opposed to those of his neighbors. Gimpel is able to see the world in a way that no one else can and, as a result, is ridiculed for it when he should be venerated.
I think this is a stab at religion and how seemingly rational people can be led to believe slightly irrational ideas. It's obvious that Gimpel is not a complete idiot, i.e. he does have rational thought processes, but he's just horridly gullible. The lay people of various religions share these qualities. I bring up an example of an extreme pro-life supporter who felt morally justified to murder a doctor who performed abortions. If we choose to believe what people tell us, we do things that other people may think to be irrational, but in truth, is entirely rational to us.
To your question about the wife, I don't think that situation says that women shouldn't talk back. I think it actually elevates the wife/women into a position of power that allows them to manipulate people, i.e. men.
I think this story may be a parody of the story of Job. Gimpel is enduring all these hardships that would try his faith in people, yet for some weird reason, he keeps on believing them.
That's all I got
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