Daniel Hernandez 

Critical Analysis Research Paper 

Authorial Risk in Exploring and Questioning Your Religion 

In both stories “Eli the Fanatic” and “The Conversion of the Jews” by Philip Roth we see authorial risk be taken by centering their stories around characters that question their self-identity and religion in controversial ways. Following these characters challenges the reader to question their ideas on religion, helps them understand the characters’ internal conflicts, and sympathize for them. In “Eli the Fanatic” by Philip Roth we follow the character Eli Peck a Jewish lawyer going through the struggles of trying to come to an agreement with both his Orthodox Jew community and the new Hasidic Jews. Throughout the story the reader can see how Eli doesn’t really choose one side of another he is trying to be able to help both by coming to a decision with Tzuref the rabbi. Eli offers to send his clothes to “greenie” the deaf Hasidic Jew who’s critized  by the community not assimilating into the American culture and openly embracing his Jewish traditions. Eli wanted to make a deal that the greenie would get new clothes and not walk in the community with the black suit anymore so that they could stay in the community with the other orthodox Jews. The Tazaref replied by saying “Thats all he’s got”. In “Fact,Fiction and History in Philip Roth’s “Eli the Fanatic” Steven Fink states “For Eli, the “nothing” that is the emptiness of Tzuref’s yeshiva office or the assistant’s lack of a suit has so no emotional or moral resonance; it is, for this modern American suburbanite, simply not something and therefore a space to be filled.” Eli thinks he can just give the man new clothes and it will solve the issue. He doesn’t understand that significance and power the suit holds for him and the other Hasidic Jews. Steven Fink also states “ Tzuref understands that for his mute assistant and his whole band of orphaned survivors, nothing is precisely what they have.” After the horrible events Jewish people had to go through after the Holocaust the Hasidic Jew came closer with his faith and after all the suffering, he had to endure this suit is a symbol of the only thing that stuck with him and helped him through it. After sending the greenie a suit of his own, he gets a box in front of his doorstep with the man’s suit in it. The author doesn’t let us know if this was the greenie trying to play a trick on Eli and purposely causes him to reflect on what he did, but Eli suspects the greenie is the one who left it. After trying it on we see a huge change in Eli’s actions and thoughts. He starts walking around with the suit on and everybody in the community is asking if he’s okay and wondering if he’s having a mental breakdown. He starts speaking like the other Hasidic Jews and saying “Shalom” and he goes to visit his newborn son in the hospital with the suit on. He keeps on telling them “Im the father” we see how serious he is about this new religious identity and that he plans on to pass it on to his new son. The story ends with Eli in the hospital then being sedated and putting to sleep and the author stating “The drug had calmed his soul, but did not touch down where the darkness reached” 

Throughout the beginning of the story the author shows us Eli really being in the middle of two types of religious people, the orthodox Jews and the Hasidic Jews. It isn’t until he puts on the suit, we see his complete flip in religious identity. Steven Fink states, “The greenie suit is the embodiment of his own suppressed religion” and the author states “Eli had the strange notion that he was two people or one person wearing two suits”. The author shows such a calm character like Eli throughout the story, suddenly becoming fanatical because of the new suit he put on. Eli believed it was just something replaceable but once he put it on, he felt the power that religion can hold, especially if it’s the only thing you have in life. This is controversial because of his sudden change and extreme actions afterwards; the readers might see Eli as unhinged and acting outlandish. When he is just questioning his own religion because of the suit, he feels the strength of his own religion and who he really is. He has become so assimilated and like the other members of his community that he completely forgot about the struggles and power in his Jewish religion post Holocaust. This authorial risk of following Eli helps the reader understand him though, if you look deeper into the story, you can sympathize with him and understand why he was driven to what he did. Instead of immediately dismissing him as crazy we understand his self-identity crisis and why it happened. At the end of the story the author tells us about Eli being sedated after all his actions. This leaves us readers also wondering if this was just all a mental breakdown or did the suit make the darkness reach somewhere the blackness hadn’t. 

In “Conversion of the Jews” by Philip Roth we follow the character Ozzie a Jewish kid in Hebrew kid that challenges his religious beliefs in controversial ways. In the beginning of the story, we listen to a conversation between him and his friend about what they learned in Hebrew school. The author shows us immediately Ozzie questioning his religion by not agreeing with the Rabbi when he says that God couldn’t create a baby without having sex. This leads to a day in class during discussion time where Ozzie is questioning the Rabbi about this but he’s getting dismissed by him. In both stories the authors show the characters questioning their religion and that leads to extreme actions but because of us following Ozzie as well as Eli, we can understand them and wonder if they are in the wrong for doing these things. During an argument between the Rabbi and Ozzie, Ozzie states “You don’t know anything about god” this angers the Rabbi, and he ends up hitting Ozzie as a result. This leads to Ozzie running to the top of the Hebrew School and threatening to jump off to all the people below him. After his mother, fire fighters and classmates came to the bottom and were trying to convince him not to jump we see the most controversial part of the story. He makes everybody on the ground kneel for him and tell him that they believe God can do anything. After they listen to Ozzie and agree he says “Mamma, don’t you see—you shouldn’t hit me. He shouldn’t hit me. You shouldn’t hit me about God, Mamma. You should never hit anybody about God”. He then comes down from the top of the building. 

In both stories we follow these two very controversial characters that are questioning their own religion and identity that causes the reader to question if we should see them as crazy and outlandish or maybe if their identity crisis was a real reason to push them to do these things. In “The Conversion of The Jews” at the end of the story we see Ozzie make everybody defy their religion so that he doesn’t kill himself. The readers can see this as insane and unbelievable that this kid could make a group of people do this for him as if he was God. From following this character, we see what leads to this though, he felt as if he couldn’t question his religion that what the Rabbi said is what is right and there is no other answer. He felt dismissed and ignored so that drove him to do these things. This is an authorial risk to write about such a controversial character doing these actions and trying to make a point about questioning your religion out of it. This helps us understand Ozzie as well though we know he felt frustrated that he had to abide to what his Rabbi told him even though he didn’t agree. We might see him as crazy but what would you do when the thing, you’re being told every day to believe and that there is no other way isn’t what you believe, and you are a young kid trying to understand and question it but the authority around you won’t allow it.