OL74657W Page-progression lr Page_number_confidence 93.86 Pages 230 Ppi 500 Related-external-id urn:isbn:0394604709
Urn:lcp:goodbyecolumbus00roth:lcpdf:c4276ca4-8195-458b-ba2c-b7b1e5ebc66b Extramarc OhioLINK Library Catalog Foldoutcount 0 Identifier goodbyecolumbus00roth Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t4cn8467m Isbn 0553234080ĩ780553234084 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Openlibrary_edition Marx finds out and intervenes so that Grossbart gets orders to go overseas with the rest of the group.Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 21:31:42 Boxid IA108715 Boxid_2 CH120801 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City Toronto Donorįriendsofthesanfranciscopubliclibrary Edition 38.
In the end we see that Grossbart truly gets his when he tries to get his orders changed so he can stay stateside while the rest of the trainees were getting shipped over to the Pacific. Roth shows Grossbart as a conniving person who takes advantage of anyone who has ever helped him with anything. This shows how Roth possibly felt about the world at that time and how dishonest people can truly be. During the story though we see how Private Grossbart takes advantage of Marx’s kindness when he and the others are allowed to leave for the night to go to a special dinner his aunt supposedly cooked for them but returns back with only a bag of Chinese food. Eating kosher, attending services, Passover dinner, these are all things that are special and important to them and they help the Sergeant to remember how important they are to him also. The men allow Marx to see that all they want to do is stay faithful to their religion and be true Jewish men.
Marx allows the men to see that he went through everything that they are going through and he made it just fine. At first Sergeant Marx questions Grossbart, wondering why he and the others believe they should get special privileges just because they are Jewish. Throughout the story we see the relationship between Sergeant Marx and Private Grossbart form and change over time. In a biography of Roth’s life by Lee Hermoine it discuses how he had a “over-possessive mother who, like most Jewish mother’s only wanted the best for her son.” This theme is conveyed throughout the book. The men tell of how their parents are very concerned and overprotective of their sons. Roth brings himself and his family alive through the characters and happenings of the story. Roth joined the army in 1955, just ten years after the end of World War II, so through these men’s difficulties you can see what Roth himself probably went through during training. The Defender of the Faith explores Sergeant Nathan Marx’s confrontations and dealings with a new trainee, Sheldon Grossbart, who. The main characters in this story also include Sheldon Grossbart, Michael Halpren, and Larry Fishbein, three Jewish trainees trying to deal with the difficulties of basic training and also those of being true and faithful Jewish men. Defender of the Faith is considered to be the best part of the collection because it explores the conflict between personal feelings and religious loyalty, rather than exploiting, as Roth had done previously. The story is written in first person allowing us to follow Sergeant Marx’s true perspective and feelings on what he is going through in the story.
In “Defender of the Faith” we watch a Sergeant in the United States Army come back from fighting in World War II and come to terms with his Jewish faith and what it truly means to him by reconnecting with a part of his heart he hasn’t been able to use for a long time. Defender of the Faith In Philip Roth’s, Defender of the Faith, Sergeant Nathan Marx is the Defender of whom the title speaks.