Surprisingly I can relate to this story. If one was to categorize me a specific religious affiliation I would be considered Jewish. All of the traditions, name socializations, and even the way of life in New York I can relate to because I have first hand experience with it. Trust me it’s no easy task to be a jew...especially if you have relatives that are orthodox in the homeland. I loved this story especially because of the ending. It came full circle: it kind of had a miserable o poor me start, then a happy fra lala I found love and love found me bit, and then boom misery strikes with the relationship between a name to rape. I also respected and truly relish in that even though the main focus of the story had to due with Judaism, Nessa Rapoport also included sections of Islam and Christianity, which again made the story come full circle in the sense that all of humanity is connected in some way or another. What I thought was ironic in this story was the symbolism behind names. On the fourth page of this short story, the two main characters meet and discuss the young mans name. You come to find out that it’s sort of an alias name because he is a poet and his publisher changed it for him. She being the traditionalist...or so one thinks at first... tells him that he cant change his name because that is who he is. He responds with that it is just a name, the soul underneath is the same in better and worse. Fast forward through their blissful life to the last page where they are discussing names for their daughter. She chooses a biblical (Christian) name that she found while he was away at war. Now the tables turn because he now becomes the traditionalist going on and on about the Jewish way and how the child should be names after her mother. Out of rage the woman rips out the page from the bible and quotes it and as soon as she is done her husbands associates the text to rape. Boom. end of story. I don’t know why but that totally blew my mind. I think that she saw the text from the bible to be a positive love at first sight reference, much like one she described for having with her husband, and he I believe saw the masculine not taking no for an answer response. I think that this goes hand in hand with equality or lack there of in the sexes when it comes to marriage and even how they can sometimes morph into something one doesn’t expect. Hell there is another argument in itself in this story: Expectations. Again there is a ton of underlying expectations put on these characters in this story. I really don’t want to go into them but I will list off a few.
- Family obligation
- Religious sanctions
- Cultural standards set on women in different places in the world
No comments:
Post a Comment