Murderers was a short story filled with intricate details that encompass many elements portrayed throughout Jewish American Literature. The young boy lived in New York City where most Jews who came to America lived and prospered. He told the readers how his family came from Poland but had all died including his uncle who we were told passed in the first line. This young boy was begging for money living on the streets of New York. His struggle to survive parallels other Jewish stories where the protagonist was stressed and struggling to prosper in America. What I found noteworthy was the boy’s sense of detail and his realization in beauty in many things. Where as the older generation characters did not even notice them. This parallels In Dreams Begin Responsibilities where the younger generation has appreciation for art and the beauty of nature while the older is focused on working and their old ways. The author gave the boy a positive outlook life’s details where as his experiences so far in his young life set him up for a negative perspective. “The Rabbi and his wife never took it, but the light and air of summer afternoon, in the eye of gull and pigeon, they were joyous” (96). He has nothing to be positive about, being homeless and all, and yet he looked at something as simple as the light and the sky and found beauty in it. He also paid a great amount of attention to details when he watched the Rabbi’s wife. His fascination with her wigs and her actions was profound for his young age. The author portrayed him to be young by his actions but his descriptions where that of an older soul.
Another reoccurring element in Jewish American Literature is the topic of sex. These young boys were climbing up to the Rabbi’s apartment to watch him and his wife have sex. They were so young and yet he made comparisons to the action of the cocktail mixer with that of masturbating. The author went into great details as to how the Rabbi’s body parts moved while the music played. I found it interesting and entertaining how the author added the element into the story while having young boys play main roles.
Lastly an element of race and how it was used in this piece stood out to me. The boy described the Rabbi’s wife by using different races for the readers to related to. “Aryan yellow slipped through pins about her ears. An olive complexion mediated yellow hair and Arabic black eyes” (96). I found it interesting as to how he wasn’t racist in the least bit but yet he used race to describe her. Also the comparison of a Jew to an Aryan was interesting as well. I had seen it before in The Shawl, where Magda was compared to an Aryan. In my opinion he used the races to describe her because the way she wore wigs one couldn’t tell what race she was because it looked like it had changed as she changed her wig. The ending was confusing to me and I didn’t like how they were sent away to some strange camp. WWII veterans ran the camp and the concept of such camps existence was very vague to me.
Murderers was a very dark, beautiful short story about a boy’s recollection of one summer he had in New York City after his uncle died. The story starts off very unexpectedly with the boy, who is unnamed, telling us about how his Uncle Moe had just died of a heart attack and how that is how everyone in his family goes by stating, “My family came from Poland, then never went anyplace until they had heart attacks.” (Pg.1) I thought this was a very odd way for the author to start this story because it immediately sets the mood as very depressing and dark, which he then changes to very beautiful and descriptive later on.
After telling us how he travels all over New York City using the subway system, he runs into some of his friends who tell him that the Rabbi is home and that they should go on the roof to watch them. Initially, we are not told why they are going to go watch them, but later on we find out that they are going to watch the Rabbi and his wife have sex. During the time they are sitting on the rooftop watching all of this happen, we get little snippet of the boys outlook on the world. From the rooftop he describes everything they can see, “The Brooklyn Navy Yard with destroyers and aircraft carriers, the Statue of Liberty putting the sky to the torch, the dull remote skyscrapers of Wall Street, and the Empire State Building were among the wonders we dominated.” (Pg.2) He even stopped himself from watching the Rabbi and his wife in order to look more at the beauty of the world, which, for a young boy, really shows how much he enjoys the beauty of his surroundings.
The thing I found most intriguing about this story was the boy’s description of the Rabbi’s wife because it seemed that he was very careful with the words that he used so as to paint the perfect picture of her. In calling her the “world’s lesson” (Pg.2) you can tell that he really thinks she is beautiful, even though she is in fact bald. I found it interesting when he said, “Today she was a blonde. Not blonde. A blonde.” (Pg.3) This caught my eye because it showed the ever changing ways of the Rabbi’s wife because of her many different wigs. One day she could be “A blonde” and the next she could be a brunette.
All in all, I thought that even though the story changed moods very often and very quickly, that it still seemed to flow together really nicely.
Josh, I really agree with what you are saying here about how strange the beginning is because of how dark and gloomy the feeling is at the start of the piece and then how it suddenly changes to a slightly humorous and extremely descriptive introspective insight. And yes, Leonard Michaels makes it clear that the young boy, though he watches the rabbi and his wife have sex, is more interested in the larger, beautiful world around him. I feel as though this means Michaels is trying to show that there was much purity in Jewish children. The most interesting lines of the piece to me were the ones he had after saying that though he watched their sex he would stare off into the distance and find piece. The lines; “I could tantalize myself with this brief ocular perversion, the general cleansing nihil of a view. This was the beginning of philosophy. I indulged in ambience, in space like eons.” This is the narrator describing the feelings he gets with the two different views that he has while sitting in the same place. While he could be entranced by the rabbi and his beautifully described wife, he also felt much peace when he looked out upon his view of the city.
In the story Murderers we can see a lot of mood changes through the story as Josh says at the beginning I believed this was gonna be a depressing story, starting with the death of his uncle and that everyone in his family had died of a heart attach. The author finds a way to change this mood without us even noticing something rare going on it just came naturally. The narrator then starts talking about how he moved through New York City and how easy it was for him to move around in the subway system. I also found amusing how specific and how many details the narrator used to expressed the looks of the Rabbi wife. It really showed that he was amazed by her beauty and by her wigs, she was not a regular woman for him she was out of the ordinary. Also it was funny the ways he talked about the wife and the Rabbi having sex, he expressed himself with words that make the story more interesting and funnier. I believe this was a short story that had a good flow, it is a fast reading and the change of moods and feelings through the story were done in a way that they seem natural and smooth.
Murderers was a very interesting and weird story to say the least. With the way it began, I believed it to be a story about a kid who wanted to find something unbeknownst to himself to cope with the death of his Uncle Moe, but in turn, the story was about their friend falling off a roof while masturbating to the local rabbi’s wife. After reading the story, I was trying to figure out the overall purpose of the story. What was the meaning of all the graphic language and description of gorgeous scenery and how did it play into a boy falling off the roof to his death? What I believe the author was really trying to portray in this story is how great America is for the Jewish people. He describes the beautiful view of the New York skyline and how it strikes him until he returns back to reality with all his friends masturbating and his rabbi having sex with his wife while the kids watched from the roof. We learn that the wife is also innocent as well and has been affected by some sort of sickness, most likely cancer. She disguises the cancer with many different wigs and looks beautiful in the process. I believe the author’s overall message was to say, “Take in the beauty of what we as a people now have. We are free to do what we want (shown by the kids sitting on the roof of the apartment) and no one can tell us otherwise. Do not indulge yourselves into a life riddled by impure things and impulses. Enjoy the beauty and freedom surrounding you.” While these kids partook in a sinful deed in the Jewish religion, masturbating, they did not notice the inherent beauty about them (and they’re overall surroundings) and in turn, died from it. I believe the rabbi’s wife was opposite because she noticed what she had in life and what a great life her husband and America gave her. I believe that’s why she is able to battle the disease that she had. As for the unlucky boy who died, he paid the price for looking away at what he had been given by this country and died for his negligence. He negligence also caused his friends to be punished and brought to a place that took their freedoms away as Hitler once did.
Interesting points, but I interpreted a few things differently.
For one thing, the wife isn’t sick or battling cancer. As part of an Orthodox Jewish custom related to modesty, married women are required to cover their hair. Women have applied this religious law a few different ways, for instance, wearing scarves, hats, or wigs to cover their hair. In the case of the rabbi’s wife in the story, she has chosen to shave her head and wear wigs. This makes sense when you consider that if an Orthodox Jewish woman chose to wear wigs instead of other more traditional head coverings (in order to not stick out in secular American society) wearing a wig over a full head of hair everyday would be pretty uncomfortable.
Also, I did not really see evidence in the story to support your claim that the author’s main point is to promote how great America is for Jews. On the contrary, the rabbi’s wife has had to adopt a pretty dramatic reading of Jewish religious law to avoid being seen as “Other” by White Americans. If anything, I think the story shows that, for many Jews, America is an urban environment where parents are over-worked and less likely to keep up with their children, leading to dangerous misadventures like the unfortunate death of Arnold.
I also doubt that the author meant for the child’s death to be related to his lack of appreciation for his aesthetic surroundings.
As for the camp where the kids end up spending the summer in New Jersey, I highly doubt that there was any comparison in the author’s mind to Nazi Germany, or the concentration camps scattered across Poland. More likely, the author is re-iterating that the Lower East Side is a difficult place to grow up, especially as a discriminated-against minority.
The short story Murderers caught my attention from the very beginning. The story begins with an unnamed narrator, obviously a young boy, telling us about how his Uncle Moe has just died of a heart attack. He tells us that he “became an expert in the subway system,” which tells us that he doesn’t want to be around his family during this time. To the narrator, “family meant a punch in the chest, fire in the arm,” they bully him and he doesn’t want anything to do with them. He talks about how his family has come from Poland, but have all died without going anywhere with their lives. They have all dedicated their lives to working hard and trying to make a life for themselves in America, but have paid the ultimate price. The narrator, on the other hand, sees all the beauty in life and goes into elaborate descriptions of the city and the world he sees around him. For example, when the narrator describes the scene around him as he sits on the roof: “The Brooklyn Navy Yard with destroyers and aircraft carriers, the Statue of Liberty putting the sky to the torch, the dull remote skyscrapers of Wall Street, and the Empire State Building were among the wonders we dominated.” I believe this is a parallel between this story, and In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, as they both show the older generation as hard working and set in their ways while the younger generation engages in more Americanized activities and has a better appreciation for art and the beauty in the world around them. The description of the rabbi’s wife stood out to me as well, “Aryan yellow slipped through pins about her ears. An olive complexion mediated yellow hair and Arabic black eyes.” It was interesting how he used different races to describe her, making her almost racially ambiguous. He even went as far as to call her blonde wig “Aryan”, even though the woman is clearly Jewish. The rabbi’s wife is bald, obviously from some sort of illness, and must wear wigs in order to look normal. She has many wigs, but we never find out her true hair color. “Today she was a blonde. Not blonde. A blonde.” This illustrates that the rabbi’s wife can change her appearance as often as she changes her clothes. One day she can be a blonde, another day she could be a brunette, and so forth. This shows how Jewish people at this time were trying to fit into American society through assimilation. She is trying to change her appearance not only to look normal, but to fit into society norms.
I agree with you christen in that the short story murders really captures your attention right from the beginning. Although my attention was captured from the title murders to begin with, it's such a bold unambiguous word. I do agree with the thoughts of how this boy feels like his family immigrated here to live some sort of American dream, but the reality is they had to work endless hours to put food on the table. This is all juxtaposed with the narrators happiness and optimis, as the narrator sees tremendous beauty in America and perhaps meaning that he sees hope in the American dream. Whereas the boy seems lost and is tired of being bullied by his family, who which to him, have lived some meaningless life, then die. Also I could not agree more with your thought on the rabbis wife. When I read her description as well I thought this woman sounds like a melting pot of ethnicities. As well as I thought Jewish culture would revere the "aryan" look a sign of too much American assimilation and a loss of jewish culture. Where as the wife seems to be like the blonde wig. The wife is trying to blend into the American life which not only happens to the Jewish culture, but to most that immigrate over America. This is also a generation gap as each generation grows they become more Americanized, and the children feel that American is the culture not their Jewish heritage , while important , just not as strict on the laws as they parents and especially grandparents were.
I really like how you compared this story to In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, because throughout the story I couldn't help but to think of other passages we have read in class. The way in which Murderers only focused on a group of kids, it reminded me of I Stand Here Ironing, how all of these kids parents are probably working hard to make an income all day so that's why no one is there to watch them and they are just roaming the city. I also found the Rabbi's wife interesting, as he described her in a way that clearly stated, no matter which race or hair color you applied to her, she was in her own way beautiful (very deep for a 12 year old who would usually only be focusing on the physicality). Something I liked about this story was the way America was not just portrayed as a place of new beginnings, or generalized as awful and almost impossible to live in. At this point in time people have begun to have kids, and this story shows that lifestyle of Jews as they continue to assimilate into American culture. They way in which the boy describes his NYC surroundings, it seems as though he is so comfortable with them that he claims them as his own. This is no longer a country of people just swarming in, but now people are bearing down and trying to prosper.
To be completely honest, I didn’t enjoy or understand Murderers. I thought it was extremely dark and it seemed to have a depressing and gloomy tone to it. I got that it was about this unnamed boy’s recollection of a past summer and that his Uncle Moe had just died of a heart attack that summer, but I don’t understand the significance of mentioning that. I also understand that his family all accomplished nothing in their lives and died without anything to be remembered by, but did that have something to do with the title? I couldn’t make this connection between “murderers” and the story. I agree with Josh that the author immediately set the tone of the story as depressing but later it turns descriptive and less dark. I wasn’t sure if the author was describing the Rabbi and his wife literally dancing or having sex, but I was pretty sure it was having sex. I think he included that the boy and his friends went to watch that to show that parts of culture here were different then they used to be and now you see couples (even Rabbi’s) engaging in sexual activities. I think that the author described the Rabbi’s wife with the most description because he wanted her to stand out from the rest of the story. The fact that she was bald and had many wigs was symbolic (in my opinion) of how things were constantly changing for the Jews. She was always changing her wig and it represented how the people of the time were constantly changing. I also wanted to mention how the boy in the story appreciated and loved life. His admiration of the city and of the world was so beautiful and strong that it in a sense was symbolic of the Jews wanting to make the most of their lives. This is a common theme found in Jewish literature, Jews wanting to be successful, and I think that the author represented this through this boy’s admiration and personality and his character itself. One thing that really stood out to me was that I didn’t understand the significance of the Rabbi calling them “murderers”. I don’t understand the symbolism behind that word, but was it because they got caught watching them have sex? Again was this a connection to the title or just a coincidence? I thought the story was hard to follow and it wasn’t really engaging. There was no specific symbolism or theme or idea that I could truly elaborate on because it just didn’t jump out at me while I was reading this story both the first and second times.
I agree with you, Murderers confused me. One thing I can clear up for you is that there were originally four boys on the roof. As they were watching the Rabbi and his wife, one of the boys slipped and fell, presumably to his death which would be why the Rabbi calls the other boys Murderers. The narrator started as a young boy who enjoyed taking the subway around New York, exploring the city and seeing everything he could. With one stupid idea to go on the roof and watch the Rabbi, the narrator ends up participating in the death of one of his friends and is then sent to the camp in New Jersey. The lesson in that is to enjoy what you have, while you have it, instead of wanting things that aren't yours, or coveting your neighbors wife, or else you'll end up with neither the things you had to begin with or the things that you were coveting.
If I could sum up Murderers in one word it would probably be “intriguing”. The last thing I expected when I read “Let’s go to our roof” was to find out that that roof was where these boys masturbated to their rabbi having sex with his wife! But that’s what kept me interested, what made me want to keep reading. If the story started out about a dead Uncle and somehow wound up with perverted Peeping Toms on a roof where one of them lost his finger, who knew where else this story would take me unless I kept reading? And that was another point that sparked my interest: the fact that Leonard Michaels could have so many exciting incidents happen within just four pages without losing the reader, or he himself getting lost and off track. I also noticed the very conversational tone of the story. The story involves these four boys just hanging out and that’s the feel one gets when they read it. However, for them being eleven year old boys, the speaker has a very high vocabulary which makes one forget almost that the story is being told by a boy. And because of that it takes away some of the creepiness of having someone spy on someone else during an intimate moment because they are just boys being kids. However, even after rereading this story multiple times, I still seemed to miss some points Michaels was trying to make. Like with the music, for instance. Did he write out the beats of this rumba to put more emphasis on the sex scene between the wife and rabbi and the hasty get away of the boys? Or was there a deeper meaning for the onomatopoeias and song lyrics? Also, the speaker makes an effort to give a detailed description of the wife but none of the other characters. The audience has this vividly painted picture in their minds of the wife but there are only minor details pertaining to the others. And then there is the story of Uncle Moe. The audience is told right from the first sentence that he is dead but then halfway through the speaker asks, “So what if my uncle is dead?” Is this spectacular view of the city and the rabbi supposed to be his reason for not being upset? For he says, “I was philosophical and luxurious”. I know there is a purpose for Michaels to write this story, I just don’t quite see what it is.
Vanessa Previl I had to read this story about three times to understand what was happening – Leonard Michaels was all over the place but in a good way, so intriguing would be one word that I would use to sum up this story. At first I from reading the title and the first sentence I thought the story was going to lead to a man trying to find out who killed his uncle because he didn’t believe that his uncle died by an heart attack – that’s not what happened. Reading on I realize I was misled but everything flowed not losing focus of what was going on. I didn’t expect the story to lead to a group of boys going on the roof to watch a rabbi and his wife have sexual intercourse with one of the boy falling of the roof and him with the others going to jail. But I think this story was told by an older man reminiscing on a critical time in his adolescence years of what happened to him after the death of his uncle and losing a friend. And I believe this story is also showing another shift – I doubt kids back them would have a thought of watching two people have sexual intercourse, especially not their rabbi and his wife. For the song, I thought he was trying to put us in the scene to actually view what was happing, to put us also on the roof.
Hailey, you bring up some good points. Honestly, if Leonard Michaels hadn't started in the middle of the "action" persay, this story wouldn't have grabbed me. It completely surprised me when the boys were on top of the roof, masturbating to the rabbi and his wife having sex. Talk about a crazy opener! In four pages, he kept me interested about what was going on.I also agree with Vanessa's statement of how this story was most likely the author making the main character reflect on his youth. I also noticed that the story's tone was very conversational, and it matched the piece quite well, in my opinion. The song, however, threw me off completely. What was it supposed to emphasize? This was a point in the story that I didn't follow. I hope we can go over this part tomorrow in class. As with every story, there's the question of "So what?" This is what I'm asking of this story. So what? What is the deeper meaning behind all of this?
One more note: Did the song exist in this story to underline what the boys were doing? Also, I felt that the author's tone of voice did not match a young boy's voice, so it felt like a self-reflection of a character's past. I found this very interesting. I love it when character's speak about their pasts on an adult level. It's how I look back on my younger childhood, and it helps me to relate to the story.
Kayleigh Koskan “Murderers” by Leonard Michaels is a kind of depressing, dark, yet beautiful story. It was a little confusing at first; I had to read it more than once to somewhat get an understanding of what it was saying. In the beginning it immediately sets a depressing mood because it starts off by telling that this little boys’ uncle died of a heart attack. It then went more in depth by stating that his entire family had died from heart attacks. The young boy, once his uncle had passed, started to notice the beauty of the world. I think with all the death he had seen in his life it helped him to realize that he should focus more on the beautiful things surrounding him rather than to dwell on the ugly that comes with dying. This story was very odd to me because these young boys were watching the Rabbi and his wife have sex. It is weird because that is not something I was expecting to read. It was, in a way, risky to write about in the time period where sex was more a conservative, keep to yourself human act, especially in the Orthodox Jewish community. In today’s way of life sex is a normal occurrence and reading about it or seeing it in movies is nothing out of the ordinary. I think that’s partly what this story was portraying. The world is always changing, the way people think is constantly changing. You can be super religious and the act of sex still will not be as personal as it used to be. Overall I did not like this story. I thought it was very weird and it had no entertainment factor for me. It was very confusing, the author was not very clear in his writing. I read it three times and I’m still not very sure of what Leonard Michaels is trying to say to his readers.
We had similar problems when reading "Murderers." After reading it through the first time I automatically liked it because it caught my attention and was interesting in a way that it was dark and slow story. But after I read it the first time I still wasn't sure on the exact story. After reading it through a second time I still was wondering what the authors theme intention he was trying to get through to the readers. It's almost like when you watch a movie and you liked it, but after watching it a few more times you like it more because little parts stick out to you and you understand some things better. I like how the story started off. It automatically got my attention when it started off by him telling a story about the death of his Uncle. Then the story changes gears and goes into him and his friends and thats where the story takes off from there. This story was a little different from the stories we have read so it caught me a little off guard when his friends are watching a rabbi and his wife have sex. Sex was most definitely not a popular topic to write about at this time so I was not expecting to read something of this manner. I liked the voice on how the author wrote it but I did not like how at the end I was still not satisfied with the story or can't really put my finger on how it affected me. I would much rather read something that has a purpose or tells a life changing story, etc.
“Murderers” was a very interesting and confusing read. The story starts off with a boy who is unnamed- and is also the narrator. The story starts off in a stimulating fashion with the boy telling us how his uncle has died from a heart attack. He also goes on very soon after and says “My family came from Poland, then never went anyplace until they had heart attacks.” A bit confusing to understand this quote, but it definitely adds to the dark and gloomy setting of the story. It was strange that the narrator, a teenage Jewish boy living in New York City, is so unexpectedly talking about his dead family members in a very nonchalant way. It almost made me start to think of the numbness that had to be inflicted upon the Jewish community after an insurmountable amount of torture that they had to endure for so long- and the negative implications that it can cause to the psychology of the generations that had to go through these hardships. Soon after the first couple of paragraphs of the story we start to see a different tone setting in. The narrator begins to get very descriptive in his use of imagery when describing the beautiful scenery that New York City has to offer. “The Brooklyn Navy Yard with destroyers and aircraft carriers, the Statue of Liberty putting the sky to the torch, the dull remote skyscrapers of Wall Street, and the Empire State Building were among the wonders we dominated.” This quote shows an enthusiastic interest in all that the City had to offer. However, soon after, the story begins to take another change and set in to different themes. It was somewhat disturbing when we come to understand that the children climbed up a ladder to spy on their rabbi while he had sex with his wife. The narrator also goes in great detail to describe the vast amounts of different wigs that the rabbi’s wife owns. It was interesting when he said “Today she was A blonde. Not blonde. A blonde” I began to think that maybe the different amount of wigs showed symbolism in the way that the Jewish community was constantly trying to assimilate into American society. The ending threw me off guard when I found out that the boys were caught by the rabbi when one of them feel down the ladder as they were spying on the couple having sex. What threw me off the most is that the rabbi due to his “connections” sent them off to some school that was ran by WWII veterans. All in all, the story was interesting- just difficult to follow and find relative symbolism through the acts of the teenage boys.
I would have to agree with Justin's post. I took notice how he started off very descriptive, even when they were up the ladder spying on the rabbi and his wife, he was describing pretty much all his senses at the moment- "we heard their phonograph. we watched them dancing. we couldn't hear...we smelled..we watched" a very rounded description of how he was feeling at the moment. I also took note of how the rabbi's wife changed her wigs often, and have to agree that maybe it's her way of trying to fit into society, putting on a persona of what she thinks she should be that day.He also said that "she was the world's lesson" which could be that whatever wig she took that day, it didn't really matter because her being was beautiful anyway. Maybe he meant it as he didn't think Jews should be criticized for what they looked like, what really counted was what kind of people they were. I was a little confused as to how the beginning of the story- the part about the heart attacks within his family linked to the rest of the story. Maybe when the rabbi mouthed the word "murderers" he was talking about them giving his wife a heart attack, from being sneaky little boys spying on their sex life.
Devin Harkins Murderers This story was a very interesting read because it constantly surprised me. At first I couldn't quite tell what direction the story was going to be taken. At the beginning the narrator talked about how many of his family members died of heart attacks. I feel like the way he spoke about his family members had a very matter-of-fact tone, practically emotion-less because it was such a regular occurrence. Death was such a common thing for this young boy that he didn't seem upset by the idea of his loved ones dying. The first line is so dramatically blunt that it shocked me and set the tone right away for the rest of the story. “When my uncle Moe dropped dead of a heart attack I became and expert in the subway system.” This statement was without any type of feelings and honestly took me by surprise. I had no idea what one thing had to do with the other. I could tell right from the start that the narrator had a very twisted way of looking at the world. Death was such a hum-drum part of life to this character that it had no effect on him. From death to sex the character seemed completely unfazed. As he watched the Rabbi and his wife have wild sex, Melvin just watched from a distance fascinated at what he saw. He watched every movement and analyzed it, mesmerized by the couple. He did not watch them for his own personal pleasure but simply because he was captivated by the event unfolding in front of him. Once he decided he had seen enough Melvin had his friends descended from the roof but got caught mid-escape by the wife. The Rabbi was so fuming and appalled that he yelled out of the window after the young boys screaming their names so that the boys knew they wouldn't get away with what they had just witnessed. For the boys punishment the Rabbi didn't waste any time and sent them straight off to a camp to be disciplined. While at the camp Melvin and the rest of the group had separated. Melvin again seemed indifferent by his friends turning on him. He seemed happy to be emotionally numb and not care about his loved ones. Melvin is an interesting character for which he seems unattached and emotionless until the narrator talks about the scene where we see the boys running from the roof feeling ashamed and frightened for their punishment.
I agree with you Devan this story was very interseting but also somewhat dark. He isn't bothered by his family dying. The narrator is more excited to have learned the subway than sad for his family member dying, one every year. He is almost jaded to death. I also agree with you when you wrote that the narrator was mesmerized by the couple. He wasn't up on the roof to masterbate like his friends, he was up there to see the sights and watch the rabbi have sex with his wife. All the while the rabbi has no problem with having all his windows wide open. What i was wondering is how many times had they gone up there before? there was a six inch ledge they crossed and no one seems to be afraid, and if the rabbi hadn't called out their names how many more times would the have gone up to the roof? Also at the beginning the narrator aslo writes that he likes to be close to the darkness, but he doesn't truly know darkness until he is laying in bed at the camp. Listening to the owl he realizes what true darkness really is, not a small dark tunnel, but wide open spaces where the darkness surrounds you.
"Murderers" by Leonard Michaels is a very dark and short tale about a boy reminiscing about the summer after his Uncle Moe died. He goes to explain on his family's Polish background and how every year he has at least one family member that dies in the same fashion that his Uncle did. Afterwards he tells how he spends his summer riding trains around New York and the surrounding areas. This is where the story really picks up. The narrator meets his friends and learns that the rabbi is back in town. The story gets sort of confusing here; the kids climb the building and begin watching the rabbi. The narrator and his friends begin watching the rabbi and his wife have sex. The interesting thing here is the narrator's description of the rabbi's wife. Now while he mentions and describes there intercourse, his description and details given about the rabbi's wife are very interesting. He mentions her wigs and how she can have many different styles and how beautiful she looks. The scene during sex is also interesting in how Michaels uses the music and lyrics the give the scene rhythm. In just a few short paragraphs, the boys go from watching the couple fornicate, and doing what teenage boys do when they see that to one falling from the roof and the others scrambling to help him.
What really got me with this story and made me re-read it was that one scene. Arnold’s ring caught the nail and he fell. Then all of a sudden all the boys are being sent to camps around the state. I felt like there should have been more, I wanted to know what happened to the boys. Did they drift apart, did Arnold lose an arm or sustain serious injury. However, just by reading what is there I think that Michaels wanted to show a boy’s story of growing up and living in the poor parts of New York. Almost a coming of age story, but the big realization is the boys watching his rabbi have sex and his friend fall off the roof and then get sent to camps around the state. One thing that really stood out to me was the boys descriptions of the rabbi’s wife. “Aryan yellow slipped through pins about her ears. An olive complexion mediated yellow hair and Arabic black eyes” (96). Comparing a Jew to an Aryan might have something to do with her wearing a wig and her race is undetermined.
The ending confused me though. The boys were sent off to camps ran by WWII vets. This ending almost seemed like a cop out to me, Michaels just didn’t wanna expand the story anymore and ended it. Maybe he had some reason for the camps, but I for one could not see the reason for them.
I agree with the above author about "Murderers" by Leonard Michaels having hints of a coming-of-age story, what with Philip and his friends lifestyle in the lower income neighborhoods of New York city. However, I was intrigued by the incorporation of the title "Murderers" or lack thereof. Considering the story begins with the death of Philip's uncle, I expected that the rest of the story would be filled with deaths and possibly a murderer. However, the story instead transitions into a tale about adolescent boys witnessing their rabbi and his wife have sex. Philip's reaction is to grin, "out of terror, (he) twisted an encouraging face." (pg. 97). Consequently, the idea of murder is associated with the end of the boys' innocence and the murderer is the society and lifestyle which the boys lead. As the author above stated there appears to be a loose ending for tale. It appears as if Leonard Michaels wanted to end the story and simply rid himself of these characters. However, I believe that Leonard Michaels uses the ending to emphasize the boys loss of childhood innocence. By separating the boys from their familiar childhood homes and friends, it signifies the beginning of a new part of the boys' lives and the conclusion of their childhood.
City Boy by Leonard Michaels possesses an array of themes that only a great writer can incorporate into one short story successfully, (without losing their audience) as Michaels has done here. Some of these are: religion, class, philosophy, psychology, death, sex. For the sake of this blog, I will focus on one theme: sex. With this said, Freudian theories are definitely manifested throughout this story. To some extent, I believe Freudian theories are the backbone to the creation and interpretation of this short story. As if the story itself doesn’t do a wonderful job at delineating its parallelism with psychoanalysis points of view; Michael makes a direct reference to Freud; when he says, “Freud said things about fathers and daughters. It was too obvious, too hideous” I believe this line can be applied to the short story specifically, itself being a representation of such. Although unrelated, I must state, as soon as I finished reading this short story I thought; is the modern short story writer Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt the female version of Leonard Michaels? I truly enjoyed reading this short story for this reason; I praised Bender for her originality and guts with tackling the subject of sex (Sex with no attachments, sex with strangers, and sex as a method of relieving personal frustrations to name a few. You name it; sex was the topic in her writings) but after reading this I see that her writings are not as unique as I once thought. Actually she had pretty good mentors; Leonard Michaels being one of them, to pave the way for her. Now, returning to City Boy, the opening paragraph plunges right into it (no pun intended). Phillip’s description of him having sex with Veronica is definitely unique in its own way. When sex was a taboo (to some extent still is), here we have a narrator describing it openly and not in its common form; pure, desirable, intimate, affectionate, positive demeanor. Instead, he describes it with dark, intense undertones almost as it if was more of a battle than a treaty. “Her crinoline cracked like sticks. Our naked bellies clapped together. Air fired out like farts… A little voice against the grain and power. Not enough to stop me… Now in the foyer a flash of hair and claws.” Now, how does all this sex talk tie into Jewishness? I believe Leonard Michaels was paving the way for future generations to commence on their own journey and break away from the old thoughts and principles. The idea of the new world versus the old world: breaking away from tradition and creating a new perspective as a Jew, here in America. As an author, he facilitates a new way of thinking and exploring human thought and action and the expression of the self. I feel as if Michaels was thinking at the time of writing this; now that we are in America anything is possible. He proves this by writing short stories such as City Boy and receiving as much recognition as his contemporaries whom wrote with a less explosive style than he, to say the least.
Lucy Macias I have to agree with Miss Diaz in that Leonard Michael’s style is “explosive.” He definitely tackles topics that even in today’s sex infested society are difficult to swallow. The implement of the Freudian themes within this short story also added to the “controversial” style by making the Mom be such a strong, outspoken woman, in contrast to her feeble husband fit in a textbook perfect way to the Elektra complex described by Freud in his work. Furthermore Michael’s description of sex was exciting and erotic, but with a hint of disgust. The comparisons and metaphors Michaels used to depict the opening sex scene were rough and earthy, almost as if they were being compared to wild animals in heat. “The rug was warm, soft as mud, deep.” I was taken aback when I read this line because I typically do not associate sex or anything erotic having to do with mud (other than chicks in bikinis wrestling…but that’s far in my mind) especially when the scene was taking place in the living room of an upper class family, where I can imagine fine figurines atop of tables, and all other sorts of delicate objects that are far from comparison to mud. This aspect of Michael’s writing is what made it intriguing to read, and what made the twisted guilt of the two main characters translate onto the reader. The story ends, and it is assumed that they have sex again, and despite the horrible heart attack incident, despite the running down the street buck naked, and despite initially getting caught in the living room, causing all this, they do it again with just as much vigor, and with even less care and less guilt than in the beginning. Again this made me picture animals being purely driven by instinct rolling around in the mud and sticks and with insects, and as gross as it is, it is still totally sexy and desirable; and for the time and audience for which Michaels is writing it is revolutionary, fresh and controversial, all the qualities it still possesses today.
The story ‘A Silver Dish’ was amazing to read. The text was so thematically filled and there was so much substance in it that I found it difficult to choose my main focus. I digress, however, here’s what I want to talk about first: Pop.
Besides Pop’s clear cunningness and manipulation, I see a definite struggle in Pop of identifying with the past and tradition, but wanting sin. First, throughout the story he guilt trips his son of his “duties as a son.” The protagonist even physically buries his father to perform said duties. This parental indebtedness relates right back to Jewish customs of respect for elders and doing what is right by your parents. For the liberal, sinning, free-thinking man Pop is, he still buys into these customary traditions of parental debt.
Second, the matter of the funeral itself comes into question. According to the text, “Pop had no more religion than you could find in the Yiddish paper” but he was demanding in regards to his desire to be buried among the Jews – to, in a way, find his ultimate resting place among the safety net of a community he knew so well. Sure, he enjoyed his deceitful, sinful life, but it seems he still knew, deep down, there was more than that, that was not his final destination. On one hand, I think maybe he didn’t see his actions at wrong, but he at least still knew who he was – a Jew. The plethora of sinful choices he acquired by death couldn’t change that. On the other hand, though, I think his desire to be buried with the Jews could also be his sort of apology to God, though. To me, it mimics the stereotypical prayer that “sets things straight with the big man upstairs” recited by those facing imminent death, so their life is ended in harmony with God, and they can insure that Heaven will be reached in the afterlife. This was his form of insurance, his last minute penance to God.
Also, Pop places such an emphasis on wisdom. He hates foolishness and riots against it through his actions. The love of wisdom has definitely been a previous theme in our class readings. A number of our stories have dealt with contempt for foolishness or character gaining wisdom from their mistakes. While Pop may go about things dishonestly, he still does it wisely. Pop may be highly immoral, but trouble does not come his way from acting out of ignorance.
These three different things really made me question Pop’s actual religious affiliation, or rather, what his previous affiliation was. Is he angry with God for seemingly making his life difficult? Does he hate God? Does he not care? Clearly he knows enough about the religion to have an informed opinion on it, so I’m left wondering what Pop’s history with religion actually is and how it informs his current decisions.
Desiree the points you bring up concerning the nature and history of Pop's religious beliefs also have me a bit puzzled. However for a man who has had such a troubled life as the one Pop has had I cannot blame the man for losing his faith. I had to ask myself, was his faith lost when he was abandoned in England by his parents, a reason I believe he is the cunning and deceitful man he was at the time of the story. I do agree with your point about his burial with Jews as being a safe haven for him, to buried with his people/community that is, and as a way a showing his devoutness to his religion as he is about to die. You also bring up Woody's duties as a son to serve his father. While I realize that this goes back to the principle of respecting ones elder, I just do not understand why Woody does the things he does for his father. Pop leaves his family and expects Woody to pay for his taxi, which is just unbelievable to me. For a father that hurt and tricked Woody as much as he did I cannot fathom why he even still talks to Pop.
I actually did not enjoy "A Silver Dish". First of all it was the longest of our short stories and I thought it was the most dry. It just seemed like a sad man's story. It was a pity party over a not so loving or morally correct Jewish father.
I found it interesting that you pointed out that you think Pop was buried with the Jews as an apology to God. I never thought of this because before I honestly thought he did it in spite of the people he screwed over. I thought it might be like an "In spite of everything I have done, I am still one of you and I will die with you" type burial.
Overall, I did not like this article and however I did like the overall themes you brought up like wisdom, losing faith, parenting, morality, and ethics. These are common themes in the readings we have done and overall important themes in the jewish culture.
What struck me most about Leonard Michaels’ “Murderers” was the overall tone of the story. There seemed to be a very apparent element of dark humor in the way that the narrator tells the story. Even throughout all the weird, twisted events happening throughout the plot, I couldn’t help but laugh at it all. There was something in the descriptions of it all that made the situation a very awkward, tragic, and humorous one. One thing that really stuck out to me was the reality of the couple whom the main character and his friends were watching through the window; there was nothing glamorous about them. Even though the narrator very vividly describes the rabbi’s wife as being beautiful, she is still far from perfect. I found it humorous and very real that the kids got sexual gratification out of watching a rather unattractive couple have sex through the window. The rabbi is described as being hairy and bearded (although I personally find beards very attractive, they are not always used to describe what the “ideal” handsome man should look like) while his wife is described as being bald. I personally found it hilarious and a bit disgusting that these kids had nothing better to do than to sit on the roof and masturbate to a mediocre-looking couple have sexual relations through the window.
Furthermore, I found it very interesting that the narrator seemed to be interested in more than just watching the rabbi and his wife have sex. Although he was there to get pleasure out of watching the whole thing, he also seemed to be a bit more concerned with the more beautiful things in life. He says, “For a while I watched them. Then, I gazed beyond into shimmering nullity, gray, blue, and green murmuring over rooftops and towers. […] I could tantalize myself with this brief ocular perversion, the general cleansing nihil of a view. This was the beginning of philosophy.” (Pg. 96). I personally took that beautiful description of the city as the narrator’s way to explain to the reader his maturity beyond the other boys in the group. Although he was there with them for the childish yet gruesome gratification that is masturbating to a couple having sex, he seemed to be somewhat distracted by much bigger things going on in the world around him. I’m not exactly sure what Michaels was trying to achieve with this story, seeing as how it took me reading it a couple of times to really get a sense of what was going on, but I feel as though there has to be a deeper meaning to it all that parallels with some of the Jewish themes discussed in class. I’m very eager to read it several more times in order to explore what that deeper meaning is.
Danielle Kaufman I agree with Stephanie in respects that it took me a couple of times to read “Murderers” to really understand what was going on. Even now I am still confused as to what the deeper meaning is behind this story about juvenile boys. I found it strange and kind of funny that the style of writing is so descriptive and well-written but at the same time it is a story to a bunch of kids masturbating to a couple having sex. I also was somewhat confused as to how Uncle Moe’s death plays into the incident that occurs with the boys and the rabbi. Obviously it wasn’t just a random thought that the narrator had but I am not sure how it ties into the story. I also agree with Stephanie that it seems the narrator is more mature than the other boys. Even though he finds pleasure in the childish and perverted activities that the other boys engage in, his mind wanders to a more “philosophical” place. I found the last sentence to be moving and interesting. “I'd never before heard that sound, the sound of darkness, blooming, opening inside you like a mouth.” I am not sure exactly what this means but it seems like the narrator is coming to terms with himself. As much as this story is strange, I think there is a lot of hidden themes behind it.
I also had a difficult time understanding the thematic issues of the story. I believe he may be trying to express the idea that dark situations lead to problems. The story starts in a very depressing way with the death of Uncle Moe. From that point it shifted focus onto the young men and descriptively tells the audience the route they take in order to gain the best view of the rabbi having sex. Initially, I expected a much darker story, the speaker states that he learned from his Uncles death that he did not want to waste away his time on earth and rather spend it in dark places. I immediately assumed foreshadowing and expected for him to be either killed, in jail, or face some type of serious dilemma. Never would I assume that the story would follow these boys as they spy on the couple. It is a very strange tale that certainly surprised all those who read it. The final portion of the story shows the narrator in shock of his current situation. He is fascinated by the fact that he yearned to be in a "dark place" and he now is at the camp, alone. In all, strange story, but it's the "weirdness" that makes it a story.
Justin Huntman Murderers by Leonard Michaels is a very disturbing but interesting piece of reading. The story starts off by us being told about Uncle Moe’s death and the background life our narrator. We go on to learn a little bit his life in New York and how he has started to ride the Subways more. We learn that he Jewish and his entire family came to the United States from Poland. And then we are introduced to his friends Melvin, Arnold Bloom and Harold Cohen. Harold mention that the Rabbi is home and they head up to watch the Rabbi. At this point we aren’t very sure what the Rabbi does that they go and watch and it does seem a bit weird that they are going to randomly go watch the Rabbi. Then we get an insight to how old these boys are by one of them only being the age of 11. Then when are about to go up the building we are told no one thinks of about the morality of what they are about to do which really make you question what is about to go on. Next thing we know we are on the top of the building looking into the Rabbis apartment and being described the Rabbis wife and all the different color wigs and styles she has. But, then the music comes on and before you know the Rabbi and his wife are having sex and one of the boys is playing with him self. The boys know what they are doing is wrong because of the mentions of how much trouble they would get in if they get caught, but then the rabbi and run away finally catch them. But the Rabbi gets them sent off to summer camp and after this incident they aren’t really friends anymore. I feel this story is similar to the Jewish story of Joseph and his multi colored dream coat. The things that seem to be similar in both stories is the color. In the dream coat and in the wigs of the Rabbis wife. Another thing that is similar is the separation. They boys are separated at the end of the story just like in the story of Joseph and how he was separated from his family and the problems that arrived. The detail of color makes me feel that these two tails are similar and trying to relate to the same story.
I agree with you Justin. This story was dark and heart breaking. This young kid is not only dealing with the death of his uncle, but also with the struggles of coming to a new place. He is Jewish and is from Poland. Once in America he is forced to have to beg. Despite his bleak circumstance he is able to find the bright side and beauty in things. I also agree that the scene where the boys are watching the rabbi and his wife was disturbing, but what I did find interesting was that the narrator looks away from this to look at the skyline. This made me think that he may have not really wanted to go see the rabbi have sex, but just went along because he really does not have anyone to guide him. I also felt bad that he was sent away because it is clear that he loves New York, despite all the hardships that it has brought him. I thought it was interesting that you made the connection to Joseph, who like you said was seperated from his family. I thought that this story was dark and sad.
This story was by far the most interesting read so far for me, but not in a good way. I had to re-read it to make sure that I was fully understanding what was actually taking place. Any while other stories contained clear depth to them, I'm still having a hard taking any meaning away from the events told in the story "Murderers". Some people have mentioned that this story started out gloomy but later became much more lighthearted. I feel that this is only true on the syntax level of the story, but the events keep the gloomy mood in the story throughout. After losing his Uncle and starting over in a strange place, he finally finds some happiness in the city. This makes things worse when he becomes involved in such a vulgar act and has to leave a place he's connected to once again. I think that this story might demonstrate the problems that Jewish Immigrants may have trying to connect to new places. I think it might also demonstrate how, especially younger jews, could feel lost and blindly acceptable guidance from wherever that could receive it.
Murderers was a short story filled with intricate details that encompass many elements portrayed throughout Jewish American Literature. The young boy lived in New York City where most Jews who came to America lived and prospered. He told the readers how his family came from Poland but had all died including his uncle who we were told passed in the first line. This young boy was begging for money living on the streets of New York. His struggle to survive parallels other Jewish stories where the protagonist was stressed and struggling to prosper in America. What I found noteworthy was the boy’s sense of detail and his realization in beauty in many things. Where as the older generation characters did not even notice them. This parallels In Dreams Begin Responsibilities where the younger generation has appreciation for art and the beauty of nature while the older is focused on working and their old ways. The author gave the boy a positive outlook life’s details where as his experiences so far in his young life set him up for a negative perspective. “The Rabbi and his wife never took it, but the light and air of summer afternoon, in the eye of gull and pigeon, they were joyous” (96). He has nothing to be positive about, being homeless and all, and yet he looked at something as simple as the light and the sky and found beauty in it. He also paid a great amount of attention to details when he watched the Rabbi’s wife. His fascination with her wigs and her actions was profound for his young age. The author portrayed him to be young by his actions but his descriptions where that of an older soul.
ReplyDeleteAnother reoccurring element in Jewish American Literature is the topic of sex. These young boys were climbing up to the Rabbi’s apartment to watch him and his wife have sex. They were so young and yet he made comparisons to the action of the cocktail mixer with that of masturbating. The author went into great details as to how the Rabbi’s body parts moved while the music played. I found it interesting and entertaining how the author added the element into the story while having young boys play main roles.
Lastly an element of race and how it was used in this piece stood out to me. The boy described the Rabbi’s wife by using different races for the readers to related to. “Aryan yellow slipped through pins about her ears. An olive complexion mediated yellow hair and Arabic black eyes” (96). I found it interesting as to how he wasn’t racist in the least bit but yet he used race to describe her. Also the comparison of a Jew to an Aryan was interesting as well. I had seen it before in The Shawl, where Magda was compared to an Aryan. In my opinion he used the races to describe her because the way she wore wigs one couldn’t tell what race she was because it looked like it had changed as she changed her wig. The ending was confusing to me and I didn’t like how they were sent away to some strange camp. WWII veterans ran the camp and the concept of such camps existence was very vague to me.
Murderers was a very dark, beautiful short story about a boy’s recollection of one summer he had in New York City after his uncle died. The story starts off very unexpectedly with the boy, who is unnamed, telling us about how his Uncle Moe had just died of a heart attack and how that is how everyone in his family goes by stating, “My family came from Poland, then never went anyplace until they had heart attacks.” (Pg.1) I thought this was a very odd way for the author to start this story because it immediately sets the mood as very depressing and dark, which he then changes to very beautiful and descriptive later on.
ReplyDeleteAfter telling us how he travels all over New York City using the subway system, he runs into some of his friends who tell him that the Rabbi is home and that they should go on the roof to watch them. Initially, we are not told why they are going to go watch them, but later on we find out that they are going to watch the Rabbi and his wife have sex. During the time they are sitting on the rooftop watching all of this happen, we get little snippet of the boys outlook on the world. From the rooftop he describes everything they can see, “The Brooklyn Navy Yard with destroyers and aircraft carriers, the Statue of Liberty putting the sky to the torch, the dull remote skyscrapers of Wall Street, and the Empire State Building were among the wonders we dominated.” (Pg.2) He even stopped himself from watching the Rabbi and his wife in order to look more at the beauty of the world, which, for a young boy, really shows how much he enjoys the beauty of his surroundings.
The thing I found most intriguing about this story was the boy’s description of the Rabbi’s wife because it seemed that he was very careful with the words that he used so as to paint the perfect picture of her. In calling her the “world’s lesson” (Pg.2) you can tell that he really thinks she is beautiful, even though she is in fact bald. I found it interesting when he said, “Today she was a blonde. Not blonde. A blonde.” (Pg.3) This caught my eye because it showed the ever changing ways of the Rabbi’s wife because of her many different wigs. One day she could be “A blonde” and the next she could be a brunette.
All in all, I thought that even though the story changed moods very often and very quickly, that it still seemed to flow together really nicely.
Josh, I really agree with what you are saying here about how strange the beginning is because of how dark and gloomy the feeling is at the start of the piece and then how it suddenly changes to a slightly humorous and extremely descriptive introspective insight. And yes, Leonard Michaels makes it clear that the young boy, though he watches the rabbi and his wife have sex, is more interested in the larger, beautiful world around him. I feel as though this means Michaels is trying to show that there was much purity in Jewish children. The most interesting lines of the piece to me were the ones he had after saying that though he watched their sex he would stare off into the distance and find piece. The lines; “I could tantalize myself with this brief ocular perversion, the general cleansing nihil of a view. This was the beginning of philosophy. I indulged in ambience, in space like eons.” This is the narrator describing the feelings he gets with the two different views that he has while sitting in the same place. While he could be entranced by the rabbi and his beautifully described wife, he also felt much peace when he looked out upon his view of the city.
DeleteCristina Vallarino
DeleteIn the story Murderers we can see a lot of mood changes through the story as Josh says at the beginning I believed this was gonna be a depressing story, starting with the death of his uncle and that everyone in his family had died of a heart attach. The author finds a way to change this mood without us even noticing something rare going on it just came naturally. The narrator then starts talking about how he moved through New York City and how easy it was for him to move around in the subway system. I also found amusing how specific and how many details the narrator used to expressed the looks of the Rabbi wife. It really showed that he was amazed by her beauty and by her wigs, she was not a regular woman for him she was out of the ordinary. Also it was funny the ways he talked about the wife and the Rabbi having sex, he expressed himself with words that make the story more interesting and funnier. I believe this was a short story that had a good flow, it is a fast reading and the change of moods and feelings through the story were done in a way that they seem natural and smooth.
Murderers was a very interesting and weird story to say the least. With the way it began, I believed it to be a story about a kid who wanted to find something unbeknownst to himself to cope with the death of his Uncle Moe, but in turn, the story was about their friend falling off a roof while masturbating to the local rabbi’s wife.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the story, I was trying to figure out the overall purpose of the story. What was the meaning of all the graphic language and description of gorgeous scenery and how did it play into a boy falling off the roof to his death? What I believe the author was really trying to portray in this story is how great America is for the Jewish people. He describes the beautiful view of the New York skyline and how it strikes him until he returns back to reality with all his friends masturbating and his rabbi having sex with his wife while the kids watched from the roof. We learn that the wife is also innocent as well and has been affected by some sort of sickness, most likely cancer. She disguises the cancer with many different wigs and looks beautiful in the process.
I believe the author’s overall message was to say, “Take in the beauty of what we as a people now have. We are free to do what we want (shown by the kids sitting on the roof of the apartment) and no one can tell us otherwise. Do not indulge yourselves into a life riddled by impure things and impulses. Enjoy the beauty and freedom surrounding you.” While these kids partook in a sinful deed in the Jewish religion, masturbating, they did not notice the inherent beauty about them (and they’re overall surroundings) and in turn, died from it. I believe the rabbi’s wife was opposite because she noticed what she had in life and what a great life her husband and America gave her. I believe that’s why she is able to battle the disease that she had. As for the unlucky boy who died, he paid the price for looking away at what he had been given by this country and died for his negligence. He negligence also caused his friends to be punished and brought to a place that took their freedoms away as Hitler once did.
Isabel Willetts
DeleteInteresting points, but I interpreted a few things differently.
For one thing, the wife isn’t sick or battling cancer. As part of an Orthodox Jewish custom related to modesty, married women are required to cover their hair. Women have applied this religious law a few different ways, for instance, wearing scarves, hats, or wigs to cover their hair. In the case of the rabbi’s wife in the story, she has chosen to shave her head and wear wigs. This makes sense when you consider that if an Orthodox Jewish woman chose to wear wigs instead of other more traditional head coverings (in order to not stick out in secular American society) wearing a wig over a full head of hair everyday would be pretty uncomfortable.
Also, I did not really see evidence in the story to support your claim that the author’s main point is to promote how great America is for Jews. On the contrary, the rabbi’s wife has had to adopt a pretty dramatic reading of Jewish religious law to avoid being seen as “Other” by White Americans. If anything, I think the story shows that, for many Jews, America is an urban environment where parents are over-worked and less likely to keep up with their children, leading to dangerous misadventures like the unfortunate death of Arnold.
I also doubt that the author meant for the child’s death to be related to his lack of appreciation for his aesthetic surroundings.
As for the camp where the kids end up spending the summer in New Jersey, I highly doubt that there was any comparison in the author’s mind to Nazi Germany, or the concentration camps scattered across Poland. More likely, the author is re-iterating that the Lower East Side is a difficult place to grow up, especially as a discriminated-against minority.
The short story Murderers caught my attention from the very beginning. The story begins with an unnamed narrator, obviously a young boy, telling us about how his Uncle Moe has just died of a heart attack. He tells us that he “became an expert in the subway system,” which tells us that he doesn’t want to be around his family during this time. To the narrator, “family meant a punch in the chest, fire in the arm,” they bully him and he doesn’t want anything to do with them. He talks about how his family has come from Poland, but have all died without going anywhere with their lives. They have all dedicated their lives to working hard and trying to make a life for themselves in America, but have paid the ultimate price. The narrator, on the other hand, sees all the beauty in life and goes into elaborate descriptions of the city and the world he sees around him. For example, when the narrator describes the scene around him as he sits on the roof: “The Brooklyn Navy Yard with destroyers and aircraft carriers, the Statue of Liberty putting the sky to the torch, the dull remote skyscrapers of Wall Street, and the Empire State Building were among the wonders we dominated.” I believe this is a parallel between this story, and In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, as they both show the older generation as hard working and set in their ways while the younger generation engages in more Americanized activities and has a better appreciation for art and the beauty in the world around them.
ReplyDeleteThe description of the rabbi’s wife stood out to me as well, “Aryan yellow slipped through pins about her ears. An olive complexion mediated yellow hair and Arabic black eyes.” It was interesting how he used different races to describe her, making her almost racially ambiguous. He even went as far as to call her blonde wig “Aryan”, even though the woman is clearly Jewish. The rabbi’s wife is bald, obviously from some sort of illness, and must wear wigs in order to look normal. She has many wigs, but we never find out her true hair color. “Today she was a blonde. Not blonde. A blonde.” This illustrates that the rabbi’s wife can change her appearance as often as she changes her clothes. One day she can be a blonde, another day she could be a brunette, and so forth. This shows how Jewish people at this time were trying to fit into American society through assimilation. She is trying to change her appearance not only to look normal, but to fit into society norms.
I agree with you christen in that the short story murders really captures your attention right from the beginning. Although my attention was captured from the title murders to begin with, it's such a bold unambiguous word. I do agree with the thoughts of how this boy feels like his family immigrated here to live some sort of American dream, but the reality is they had to work endless hours to put food on the table. This is all juxtaposed with the narrators happiness and optimis, as the narrator sees tremendous beauty in America and perhaps meaning that he sees hope in the American dream. Whereas the boy seems lost and is tired of being bullied by his family, who which to him, have lived some meaningless life, then die.
DeleteAlso I could not agree more with your thought on the rabbis wife. When I read her description as well I thought this woman sounds like a melting pot of ethnicities. As well as I thought Jewish culture would revere the "aryan" look a sign of too much American assimilation and a loss of jewish culture. Where as the wife seems to be like the blonde wig. The wife is trying to blend into the American life which not only happens to the Jewish culture, but to most that immigrate over America. This is also a generation gap as each generation grows they become more Americanized, and the children feel that American is the culture not their Jewish heritage , while important , just not as strict on the laws as they parents and especially grandparents were.
I really like how you compared this story to In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, because throughout the story I couldn't help but to think of other passages we have read in class. The way in which Murderers only focused on a group of kids, it reminded me of I Stand Here Ironing, how all of these kids parents are probably working hard to make an income all day so that's why no one is there to watch them and they are just roaming the city. I also found the Rabbi's wife interesting, as he described her in a way that clearly stated, no matter which race or hair color you applied to her, she was in her own way beautiful (very deep for a 12 year old who would usually only be focusing on the physicality).
DeleteSomething I liked about this story was the way America was not just portrayed as a place of new beginnings, or generalized as awful and almost impossible to live in. At this point in time people have begun to have kids, and this story shows that lifestyle of Jews as they continue to assimilate into American culture. They way in which the boy describes his NYC surroundings, it seems as though he is so comfortable with them that he claims them as his own. This is no longer a country of people just swarming in, but now people are bearing down and trying to prosper.
ReplyDeleteAlex Dishman
To be completely honest, I didn’t enjoy or understand Murderers. I thought it was extremely dark and it seemed to have a depressing and gloomy tone to it. I got that it was about this unnamed boy’s recollection of a past summer and that his Uncle Moe had just died of a heart attack that summer, but I don’t understand the significance of mentioning that. I also understand that his family all accomplished nothing in their lives and died without anything to be remembered by, but did that have something to do with the title? I couldn’t make this connection between “murderers” and the story. I agree with Josh that the author immediately set the tone of the story as depressing but later it turns descriptive and less dark. I wasn’t sure if the author was describing the Rabbi and his wife literally dancing or having sex, but I was pretty sure it was having sex. I think he included that the boy and his friends went to watch that to show that parts of culture here were different then they used to be and now you see couples (even Rabbi’s) engaging in sexual activities. I think that the author described the Rabbi’s wife with the most description because he wanted her to stand out from the rest of the story. The fact that she was bald and had many wigs was symbolic (in my opinion) of how things were constantly changing for the Jews. She was always changing her wig and it represented how the people of the time were constantly changing. I also wanted to mention how the boy in the story appreciated and loved life. His admiration of the city and of the world was so beautiful and strong that it in a sense was symbolic of the Jews wanting to make the most of their lives. This is a common theme found in Jewish literature, Jews wanting to be successful, and I think that the author represented this through this boy’s admiration and personality and his character itself. One thing that really stood out to me was that I didn’t understand the significance of the Rabbi calling them “murderers”. I don’t understand the symbolism behind that word, but was it because they got caught watching them have sex? Again was this a connection to the title or just a coincidence? I thought the story was hard to follow and it wasn’t really engaging. There was no specific symbolism or theme or idea that I could truly elaborate on because it just didn’t jump out at me while I was reading this story both the first and second times.
I agree with you, Murderers confused me. One thing I can clear up for you is that there were originally four boys on the roof. As they were watching the Rabbi and his wife, one of the boys slipped and fell, presumably to his death which would be why the Rabbi calls the other boys Murderers. The narrator started as a young boy who enjoyed taking the subway around New York, exploring the city and seeing everything he could. With one stupid idea to go on the roof and watch the Rabbi, the narrator ends up participating in the death of one of his friends and is then sent to the camp in New Jersey. The lesson in that is to enjoy what you have, while you have it, instead of wanting things that aren't yours, or coveting your neighbors wife, or else you'll end up with neither the things you had to begin with or the things that you were coveting.
DeleteKendall Torres
Hailey Dolan
ReplyDeleteIf I could sum up Murderers in one word it would probably be “intriguing”. The last thing I expected when I read “Let’s go to our roof” was to find out that that roof was where these boys masturbated to their rabbi having sex with his wife! But that’s what kept me interested, what made me want to keep reading. If the story started out about a dead Uncle and somehow wound up with perverted Peeping Toms on a roof where one of them lost his finger, who knew where else this story would take me unless I kept reading?
And that was another point that sparked my interest: the fact that Leonard Michaels could have so many exciting incidents happen within just four pages without losing the reader, or he himself getting lost and off track.
I also noticed the very conversational tone of the story. The story involves these four boys just hanging out and that’s the feel one gets when they read it. However, for them being eleven year old boys, the speaker has a very high vocabulary which makes one forget almost that the story is being told by a boy. And because of that it takes away some of the creepiness of having someone spy on someone else during an intimate moment because they are just boys being kids.
However, even after rereading this story multiple times, I still seemed to miss some points Michaels was trying to make. Like with the music, for instance. Did he write out the beats of this rumba to put more emphasis on the sex scene between the wife and rabbi and the hasty get away of the boys? Or was there a deeper meaning for the onomatopoeias and song lyrics? Also, the speaker makes an effort to give a detailed description of the wife but none of the other characters. The audience has this vividly painted picture in their minds of the wife but there are only minor details pertaining to the others. And then there is the story of Uncle Moe. The audience is told right from the first sentence that he is dead but then halfway through the speaker asks, “So what if my uncle is dead?” Is this spectacular view of the city and the rabbi supposed to be his reason for not being upset? For he says, “I was philosophical and luxurious”. I know there is a purpose for Michaels to write this story, I just don’t quite see what it is.
Vanessa Previl
DeleteI had to read this story about three times to understand what was happening – Leonard Michaels was all over the place but in a good way, so intriguing would be one word that I would use to sum up this story. At first I from reading the title and the first sentence I thought the story was going to lead to a man trying to find out who killed his uncle because he didn’t believe that his uncle died by an heart attack – that’s not what happened. Reading on I realize I was misled but everything flowed not losing focus of what was going on. I didn’t expect the story to lead to a group of boys going on the roof to watch a rabbi and his wife have sexual intercourse with one of the boy falling of the roof and him with the others going to jail. But I think this story was told by an older man reminiscing on a critical time in his adolescence years of what happened to him after the death of his uncle and losing a friend. And I believe this story is also showing another shift – I doubt kids back them would have a thought of watching two people have sexual intercourse, especially not their rabbi and his wife. For the song, I thought he was trying to put us in the scene to actually view what was happing, to put us also on the roof.
Natalie Palmer
DeleteHailey, you bring up some good points. Honestly, if Leonard Michaels hadn't started in the middle of the "action" persay, this story wouldn't have grabbed me. It completely surprised me when the boys were on top of the roof, masturbating to the rabbi and his wife having sex. Talk about a crazy opener!
In four pages, he kept me interested about what was going on.I also agree with Vanessa's statement of how this story was most likely the author making the main character reflect on his youth.
I also noticed that the story's tone was very conversational, and it matched the piece quite well, in my opinion.
The song, however, threw me off completely. What was it supposed to emphasize? This was a point in the story that I didn't follow. I hope we can go over this part tomorrow in class.
As with every story, there's the question of "So what?" This is what I'm asking of this story. So what? What is the deeper meaning behind all of this?
One more note:
DeleteDid the song exist in this story to underline what the boys were doing?
Also, I felt that the author's tone of voice did not match a young boy's voice, so it felt like a self-reflection of a character's past. I found this very interesting. I love it when character's speak about their pasts on an adult level. It's how I look back on my younger childhood, and it helps me to relate to the story.
Kayleigh Koskan
ReplyDelete“Murderers” by Leonard Michaels is a kind of depressing, dark, yet beautiful story. It was a little confusing at first; I had to read it more than once to somewhat get an understanding of what it was saying. In the beginning it immediately sets a depressing mood because it starts off by telling that this little boys’ uncle died of a heart attack. It then went more in depth by stating that his entire family had died from heart attacks. The young boy, once his uncle had passed, started to notice the beauty of the world. I think with all the death he had seen in his life it helped him to realize that he should focus more on the beautiful things surrounding him rather than to dwell on the ugly that comes with dying. This story was very odd to me because these young boys were watching the Rabbi and his wife have sex. It is weird because that is not something I was expecting to read. It was, in a way, risky to write about in the time period where sex was more a conservative, keep to yourself human act, especially in the Orthodox Jewish community. In today’s way of life sex is a normal occurrence and reading about it or seeing it in movies is nothing out of the ordinary. I think that’s partly what this story was portraying. The world is always changing, the way people think is constantly changing. You can be super religious and the act of sex still will not be as personal as it used to be. Overall I did not like this story. I thought it was very weird and it had no entertainment factor for me. It was very confusing, the author was not very clear in his writing. I read it three times and I’m still not very sure of what Leonard Michaels is trying to say to his readers.
Stephanie Smith
DeleteWe had similar problems when reading "Murderers." After reading it through the first time I automatically liked it because it caught my attention and was interesting in a way that it was dark and slow story. But after I read it the first time I still wasn't sure on the exact story. After reading it through a second time I still was wondering what the authors theme intention he was trying to get through to the readers. It's almost like when you watch a movie and you liked it, but after watching it a few more times you like it more because little parts stick out to you and you understand some things better.
I like how the story started off. It automatically got my attention when it started off by him telling a story about the death of his Uncle. Then the story changes gears and goes into him and his friends and thats where the story takes off from there. This story was a little different from the stories we have read so it caught me a little off guard when his friends are watching a rabbi and his wife have sex. Sex was most definitely not a popular topic to write about at this time so I was not expecting to read something of this manner. I liked the voice on how the author wrote it but I did not like how at the end I was still not satisfied with the story or can't really put my finger on how it affected me. I would much rather read something that has a purpose or tells a life changing story, etc.
“Murderers” was a very interesting and confusing read. The story starts off with a boy who is unnamed- and is also the narrator. The story starts off in a stimulating fashion with the boy telling us how his uncle has died from a heart attack. He also goes on very soon after and says “My family came from Poland, then never went anyplace until they had heart attacks.” A bit confusing to understand this quote, but it definitely adds to the dark and gloomy setting of the story. It was strange that the narrator, a teenage Jewish boy living in New York City, is so unexpectedly talking about his dead family members in a very nonchalant way. It almost made me start to think of the numbness that had to be inflicted upon the Jewish community after an insurmountable amount of torture that they had to endure for so long- and the negative implications that it can cause to the psychology of the generations that had to go through these hardships.
ReplyDeleteSoon after the first couple of paragraphs of the story we start to see a different tone setting in. The narrator begins to get very descriptive in his use of imagery when describing the beautiful scenery that New York City has to offer. “The Brooklyn Navy Yard with destroyers and aircraft carriers, the Statue of Liberty putting the sky to the torch, the dull remote skyscrapers of Wall Street, and the Empire State Building were among the wonders we dominated.” This quote shows an enthusiastic interest in all that the City had to offer. However, soon after, the story begins to take another change and set in to different themes. It was somewhat disturbing when we come to understand that the children climbed up a ladder to spy on their rabbi while he had sex with his wife. The narrator also goes in great detail to describe the vast amounts of different wigs that the rabbi’s wife owns. It was interesting when he said “Today she was A blonde. Not blonde. A blonde” I began to think that maybe the different amount of wigs showed symbolism in the way that the Jewish community was constantly trying to assimilate into American society.
The ending threw me off guard when I found out that the boys were caught by the rabbi when one of them feel down the ladder as they were spying on the couple having sex. What threw me off the most is that the rabbi due to his “connections” sent them off to some school that was ran by WWII veterans. All in all, the story was interesting- just difficult to follow and find relative symbolism through the acts of the teenage boys.
Kyndall Herman
DeleteI would have to agree with Justin's post. I took notice how he started off very descriptive, even when they were up the ladder spying on the rabbi and his wife, he was describing pretty much all his senses at the moment- "we heard their phonograph. we watched them dancing. we couldn't hear...we smelled..we watched" a very rounded description of how he was feeling at the moment. I also took note of how the rabbi's wife changed her wigs often, and have to agree that maybe it's her way of trying to fit into society, putting on a persona of what she thinks she should be that day.He also said that "she was the world's lesson" which could be that whatever wig she took that day, it didn't really matter because her being was beautiful anyway. Maybe he meant it as he didn't think Jews should be criticized for what they looked like, what really counted was what kind of people they were. I was a little confused as to how the beginning of the story- the part about the heart attacks within his family linked to the rest of the story. Maybe when the rabbi mouthed the word "murderers" he was talking about them giving his wife a heart attack, from being sneaky little boys spying on their sex life.
Devin Harkins
ReplyDeleteMurderers
This story was a very interesting read because it constantly surprised me. At first I couldn't quite tell what direction the story was going to be taken. At the beginning the narrator talked about how many of his family members died of heart attacks. I feel like the way he spoke about his family members had a very matter-of-fact tone, practically emotion-less because it was such a regular occurrence. Death was such a common thing for this young boy that he didn't seem upset by the idea of his loved ones dying. The first line is so dramatically blunt that it shocked me and set the tone right away for the rest of the story. “When my uncle Moe dropped dead of a heart attack I became and expert in the subway system.” This statement was without any type of feelings and honestly took me by surprise. I had no idea what one thing had to do with the other. I could tell right from the start that the narrator had a very twisted way of looking at the world. Death was such a hum-drum part of life to this character that it had no effect on him. From death to sex the character seemed completely unfazed. As he watched the Rabbi and his wife have wild sex, Melvin just watched from a distance fascinated at what he saw. He watched every movement and analyzed it, mesmerized by the couple. He did not watch them for his own personal pleasure but simply because he was captivated by the event unfolding in front of him. Once he decided he had seen enough Melvin had his friends descended from the roof but got caught mid-escape by the wife. The Rabbi was so fuming and appalled that he yelled out of the window after the young boys screaming their names so that the boys knew they wouldn't get away with what they had just witnessed. For the boys punishment the Rabbi didn't waste any time and sent them straight off to a camp to be disciplined. While at the camp Melvin and the rest of the group had separated. Melvin again seemed indifferent by his friends turning on him. He seemed happy to be emotionally numb and not care about his loved ones. Melvin is an interesting character for which he seems unattached and emotionless until the narrator talks about the scene where we see the boys running from the roof feeling ashamed and frightened for their punishment.
I agree with you Devan this story was very interseting but also somewhat dark. He isn't bothered by his family dying. The narrator is more excited to have learned the subway than sad for his family member dying, one every year. He is almost jaded to death. I also agree with you when you wrote that the narrator was mesmerized by the couple. He wasn't up on the roof to masterbate like his friends, he was up there to see the sights and watch the rabbi have sex with his wife. All the while the rabbi has no problem with having all his windows wide open. What i was wondering is how many times had they gone up there before? there was a six inch ledge they crossed and no one seems to be afraid, and if the rabbi hadn't called out their names how many more times would the have gone up to the roof?
DeleteAlso at the beginning the narrator aslo writes that he likes to be close to the darkness, but he doesn't truly know darkness until he is laying in bed at the camp. Listening to the owl he realizes what true darkness really is, not a small dark tunnel, but wide open spaces where the darkness surrounds you.
"Murderers" by Leonard Michaels is a very dark and short tale about a boy reminiscing about the summer after his Uncle Moe died. He goes to explain on his family's Polish background and how every year he has at least one family member that dies in the same fashion that his Uncle did. Afterwards he tells how he spends his summer riding trains around New York and the surrounding areas. This is where the story really picks up. The narrator meets his friends and learns that the rabbi is back in town. The story gets sort of confusing here; the kids climb the building and begin watching the rabbi. The narrator and his friends begin watching the rabbi and his wife have sex. The interesting thing here is the narrator's description of the rabbi's wife. Now while he mentions and describes there intercourse, his description and details given about the rabbi's wife are very interesting. He mentions her wigs and how she can have many different styles and how beautiful she looks. The scene during sex is also interesting in how Michaels uses the music and lyrics the give the scene rhythm. In just a few short paragraphs, the boys go from watching the couple fornicate, and doing what teenage boys do when they see that to one falling from the roof and the others scrambling to help him.
ReplyDeleteWhat really got me with this story and made me re-read it was that one scene. Arnold’s ring caught the nail and he fell. Then all of a sudden all the boys are being sent to camps around the state. I felt like there should have been more, I wanted to know what happened to the boys. Did they drift apart, did Arnold lose an arm or sustain serious injury. However, just by reading what is there I think that Michaels wanted to show a boy’s story of growing up and living in the poor parts of New York. Almost a coming of age story, but the big realization is the boys watching his rabbi have sex and his friend fall off the roof and then get sent to camps around the state. One thing that really stood out to me was the boys descriptions of the rabbi’s wife. “Aryan yellow slipped through pins about her ears. An olive complexion mediated yellow hair and Arabic black eyes” (96). Comparing a Jew to an Aryan might have something to do with her wearing a wig and her race is undetermined.
The ending confused me though. The boys were sent off to camps ran by WWII vets. This ending almost seemed like a cop out to me, Michaels just didn’t wanna expand the story anymore and ended it. Maybe he had some reason for the camps, but I for one could not see the reason for them.
Leslie Oxford
DeleteI agree with the above author about "Murderers" by Leonard Michaels having hints of a coming-of-age story, what with Philip and his friends lifestyle in the lower income neighborhoods of New York city. However, I was intrigued by the incorporation of the title "Murderers" or lack thereof. Considering the story begins with the death of Philip's uncle, I expected that the rest of the story would be filled with deaths and possibly a murderer. However, the story instead transitions into a tale about adolescent boys witnessing their rabbi and his wife have sex. Philip's reaction is to grin, "out of terror, (he) twisted an encouraging face." (pg. 97). Consequently, the idea of murder is associated with the end of the boys' innocence and the murderer is the society and lifestyle which the boys lead. As the author above stated there appears to be a loose ending for tale. It appears as if Leonard Michaels wanted to end the story and simply rid himself of these characters. However, I believe that Leonard Michaels uses the ending to emphasize the boys loss of childhood innocence. By separating the boys from their familiar childhood homes and friends, it signifies the beginning of a new part of the boys' lives and the conclusion of their childhood.
City Boy by Leonard Michaels possesses an array of themes that only a great writer can incorporate into one short story successfully, (without losing their audience) as Michaels has done here. Some of these are: religion, class, philosophy, psychology, death, sex. For the sake of this blog, I will focus on one theme: sex. With this said, Freudian theories are definitely manifested throughout this story. To some extent, I believe Freudian theories are the backbone to the creation and interpretation of this short story. As if the story itself doesn’t do a wonderful job at delineating its parallelism with psychoanalysis points of view; Michael makes a direct reference to Freud; when he says, “Freud said things about fathers and daughters. It was too obvious, too hideous” I believe this line can be applied to the short story specifically, itself being a representation of such. Although unrelated, I must state, as soon as I finished reading this short story I thought; is the modern short story writer Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt the female version of Leonard Michaels? I truly enjoyed reading this short story for this reason; I praised Bender for her originality and guts with tackling the subject of sex (Sex with no attachments, sex with strangers, and sex as a method of relieving personal frustrations to name a few. You name it; sex was the topic in her writings) but after reading this I see that her writings are not as unique as I once thought. Actually she had pretty good mentors; Leonard Michaels being one of them, to pave the way for her. Now, returning to City Boy, the opening paragraph plunges right into it (no pun intended). Phillip’s description of him having sex with Veronica is definitely unique in its own way. When sex was a taboo (to some extent still is), here we have a narrator describing it openly and not in its common form; pure, desirable, intimate, affectionate, positive demeanor. Instead, he describes it with dark, intense undertones almost as it if was more of a battle than a treaty. “Her crinoline cracked like sticks. Our naked bellies clapped together. Air fired out like farts… A little voice against the grain and power. Not enough to stop me… Now in the foyer a flash of hair and claws.” Now, how does all this sex talk tie into Jewishness? I believe Leonard Michaels was paving the way for future generations to commence on their own journey and break away from the old thoughts and principles. The idea of the new world versus the old world: breaking away from tradition and creating a new perspective as a Jew, here in America. As an author, he facilitates a new way of thinking and exploring human thought and action and the expression of the self. I feel as if Michaels was thinking at the time of writing this; now that we are in America anything is possible. He proves this by writing short stories such as City Boy and receiving as much recognition as his contemporaries whom wrote with a less explosive style than he, to say the least.
ReplyDeleteLucy Macias
DeleteI have to agree with Miss Diaz in that Leonard Michael’s style is “explosive.” He definitely tackles topics that even in today’s sex infested society are difficult to swallow. The implement of the Freudian themes within this short story also added to the “controversial” style by making the Mom be such a strong, outspoken woman, in contrast to her feeble husband fit in a textbook perfect way to the Elektra complex described by Freud in his work. Furthermore Michael’s description of sex was exciting and erotic, but with a hint of disgust. The comparisons and metaphors Michaels used to depict the opening sex scene were rough and earthy, almost as if they were being compared to wild animals in heat. “The rug was warm, soft as mud, deep.” I was taken aback when I read this line because I typically do not associate sex or anything erotic having to do with mud (other than chicks in bikinis wrestling…but that’s far in my mind) especially when the scene was taking place in the living room of an upper class family, where I can imagine fine figurines atop of tables, and all other sorts of delicate objects that are far from comparison to mud. This aspect of Michael’s writing is what made it intriguing to read, and what made the twisted guilt of the two main characters translate onto the reader. The story ends, and it is assumed that they have sex again, and despite the horrible heart attack incident, despite the running down the street buck naked, and despite initially getting caught in the living room, causing all this, they do it again with just as much vigor, and with even less care and less guilt than in the beginning. Again this made me picture animals being purely driven by instinct rolling around in the mud and sticks and with insects, and as gross as it is, it is still totally sexy and desirable; and for the time and audience for which Michaels is writing it is revolutionary, fresh and controversial, all the qualities it still possesses today.
Desiree Amadeo
ReplyDeleteThe story ‘A Silver Dish’ was amazing to read. The text was so thematically filled and there was so much substance in it that I found it difficult to choose my main focus. I digress, however, here’s what I want to talk about first: Pop.
Besides Pop’s clear cunningness and manipulation, I see a definite struggle in Pop of identifying with the past and tradition, but wanting sin. First, throughout the story he guilt trips his son of his “duties as a son.” The protagonist even physically buries his father to perform said duties. This parental indebtedness relates right back to Jewish customs of respect for elders and doing what is right by your parents. For the liberal, sinning, free-thinking man Pop is, he still buys into these customary traditions of parental debt.
Second, the matter of the funeral itself comes into question. According to the text, “Pop had no more religion than you could find in the Yiddish paper” but he was demanding in regards to his desire to be buried among the Jews – to, in a way, find his ultimate resting place among the safety net of a community he knew so well. Sure, he enjoyed his deceitful, sinful life, but it seems he still knew, deep down, there was more than that, that was not his final destination. On one hand, I think maybe he didn’t see his actions at wrong, but he at least still knew who he was – a Jew. The plethora of sinful choices he acquired by death couldn’t change that. On the other hand, though, I think his desire to be buried with the Jews could also be his sort of apology to God, though. To me, it mimics the stereotypical prayer that “sets things straight with the big man upstairs” recited by those facing imminent death, so their life is ended in harmony with God, and they can insure that Heaven will be reached in the afterlife. This was his form of insurance, his last minute penance to God.
Also, Pop places such an emphasis on wisdom. He hates foolishness and riots against it through his actions. The love of wisdom has definitely been a previous theme in our class readings. A number of our stories have dealt with contempt for foolishness or character gaining wisdom from their mistakes. While Pop may go about things dishonestly, he still does it wisely. Pop may be highly immoral, but trouble does not come his way from acting out of ignorance.
These three different things really made me question Pop’s actual religious affiliation, or rather, what his previous affiliation was. Is he angry with God for seemingly making his life difficult? Does he hate God? Does he not care? Clearly he knows enough about the religion to have an informed opinion on it, so I’m left wondering what Pop’s history with religion actually is and how it informs his current decisions.
Desiree the points you bring up concerning the nature and history of Pop's religious beliefs also have me a bit puzzled. However for a man who has had such a troubled life as the one Pop has had I cannot blame the man for losing his faith. I had to ask myself, was his faith lost when he was abandoned in England by his parents, a reason I believe he is the cunning and deceitful man he was at the time of the story. I do agree with your point about his burial with Jews as being a safe haven for him, to buried with his people/community that is, and as a way a showing his devoutness to his religion as he is about to die. You also bring up Woody's duties as a son to serve his father. While I realize that this goes back to the principle of respecting ones elder, I just do not understand why Woody does the things he does for his father. Pop leaves his family and expects Woody to pay for his taxi, which is just unbelievable to me. For a father that hurt and tricked Woody as much as he did I cannot fathom why he even still talks to Pop.
DeleteI actually did not enjoy "A Silver Dish". First of all it was the longest of our short stories and I thought it was the most dry. It just seemed like a sad man's story. It was a pity party over a not so loving or morally correct Jewish father.
DeleteI found it interesting that you pointed out that you think Pop was buried with the Jews as an apology to God. I never thought of this because before I honestly thought he did it in spite of the people he screwed over. I thought it might be like an "In spite of everything I have done, I am still one of you and I will die with you" type burial.
Overall, I did not like this article and however I did like the overall themes you brought up like wisdom, losing faith, parenting, morality, and ethics. These are common themes in the readings we have done and overall important themes in the jewish culture.
Stephanie Jones
ReplyDeleteWhat struck me most about Leonard Michaels’ “Murderers” was the overall tone of the story. There seemed to be a very apparent element of dark humor in the way that the narrator tells the story. Even throughout all the weird, twisted events happening throughout the plot, I couldn’t help but laugh at it all. There was something in the descriptions of it all that made the situation a very awkward, tragic, and humorous one. One thing that really stuck out to me was the reality of the couple whom the main character and his friends were watching through the window; there was nothing glamorous about them. Even though the narrator very vividly describes the rabbi’s wife as being beautiful, she is still far from perfect. I found it humorous and very real that the kids got sexual gratification out of watching a rather unattractive couple have sex through the window. The rabbi is described as being hairy and bearded (although I personally find beards very attractive, they are not always used to describe what the “ideal” handsome man should look like) while his wife is described as being bald. I personally found it hilarious and a bit disgusting that these kids had nothing better to do than to sit on the roof and masturbate to a mediocre-looking couple have sexual relations through the window.
Furthermore, I found it very interesting that the narrator seemed to be interested in more than just watching the rabbi and his wife have sex. Although he was there to get pleasure out of watching the whole thing, he also seemed to be a bit more concerned with the more beautiful things in life. He says, “For a while I watched them. Then, I gazed beyond into shimmering nullity, gray, blue, and green murmuring over rooftops and towers. […] I could tantalize myself with this brief ocular perversion, the general cleansing nihil of a view. This was the beginning of philosophy.” (Pg. 96). I personally took that beautiful description of the city as the narrator’s way to explain to the reader his maturity beyond the other boys in the group. Although he was there with them for the childish yet gruesome gratification that is masturbating to a couple having sex, he seemed to be somewhat distracted by much bigger things going on in the world around him. I’m not exactly sure what Michaels was trying to achieve with this story, seeing as how it took me reading it a couple of times to really get a sense of what was going on, but I feel as though there has to be a deeper meaning to it all that parallels with some of the Jewish themes discussed in class. I’m very eager to read it several more times in order to explore what that deeper meaning is.
Danielle Kaufman
DeleteI agree with Stephanie in respects that it took me a couple of times to read “Murderers” to really understand what was going on. Even now I am still confused as to what the deeper meaning is behind this story about juvenile boys. I found it strange and kind of funny that the style of writing is so descriptive and well-written but at the same time it is a story to a bunch of kids masturbating to a couple having sex. I also was somewhat confused as to how Uncle Moe’s death plays into the incident that occurs with the boys and the rabbi. Obviously it wasn’t just a random thought that the narrator had but I am not sure how it ties into the story. I also agree with Stephanie that it seems the narrator is more mature than the other boys. Even though he finds pleasure in the childish and perverted activities that the other boys engage in, his mind wanders to a more “philosophical” place. I found the last sentence to be moving and interesting. “I'd never before heard that sound, the sound of darkness, blooming, opening inside you like a mouth.” I am not sure exactly what this means but it seems like the narrator is coming to terms with himself. As much as this story is strange, I think there is a lot of hidden themes behind it.
I also had a difficult time understanding the thematic issues of the story. I believe he may be trying to express the idea that dark situations lead to problems. The story starts in a very depressing way with the death of Uncle Moe. From that point it shifted focus onto the young men and descriptively tells the audience the route they take in order to gain the best view of the rabbi having sex. Initially, I expected a much darker story, the speaker states that he learned from his Uncles death that he did not want to waste away his time on earth and rather spend it in dark places. I immediately assumed foreshadowing and expected for him to be either killed, in jail, or face some type of serious dilemma. Never would I assume that the story would follow these boys as they spy on the couple. It is a very strange tale that certainly surprised all those who read it. The final portion of the story shows the narrator in shock of his current situation. He is fascinated by the fact that he yearned to be in a "dark place" and he now is at the camp, alone. In all, strange story, but it's the "weirdness" that makes it a story.
DeleteJustin Huntman
ReplyDeleteMurderers by Leonard Michaels is a very disturbing but interesting piece of reading. The story starts off by us being told about Uncle Moe’s death and the background life our narrator. We go on to learn a little bit his life in New York and how he has started to ride the Subways more. We learn that he Jewish and his entire family came to the United States from Poland. And then we are introduced to his friends Melvin, Arnold Bloom and Harold Cohen. Harold mention that the Rabbi is home and they head up to watch the Rabbi. At this point we aren’t very sure what the Rabbi does that they go and watch and it does seem a bit weird that they are going to randomly go watch the Rabbi. Then we get an insight to how old these boys are by one of them only being the age of 11. Then when are about to go up the building we are told no one thinks of about the morality of what they are about to do which really make you question what is about to go on. Next thing we know we are on the top of the building looking into the Rabbis apartment and being described the Rabbis wife and all the different color wigs and styles she has. But, then the music comes on and before you know the Rabbi and his wife are having sex and one of the boys is playing with him self. The boys know what they are doing is wrong because of the mentions of how much trouble they would get in if they get caught, but then the rabbi and run away finally catch them. But the Rabbi gets them sent off to summer camp and after this incident they aren’t really friends anymore. I feel this story is similar to the Jewish story of Joseph and his multi colored dream coat. The things that seem to be similar in both stories is the color. In the dream coat and in the wigs of the Rabbis wife. Another thing that is similar is the separation. They boys are separated at the end of the story just like in the story of Joseph and how he was separated from his family and the problems that arrived. The detail of color makes me feel that these two tails are similar and trying to relate to the same story.
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I agree with you Justin. This story was dark and heart breaking. This young kid is not only dealing with the death of his uncle, but also with the struggles of coming to a new place. He is Jewish and is from Poland. Once in America he is forced to have to beg. Despite his bleak circumstance he is able to find the bright side and beauty in things. I also agree that the scene where the boys are watching the rabbi and his wife was disturbing, but what I did find interesting was that the narrator looks away from this to look at the skyline. This made me think that he may have not really wanted to go see the rabbi have sex, but just went along because he really does not have anyone to guide him. I also felt bad that he was sent away because it is clear that he loves New York, despite all the hardships that it has brought him. I thought it was interesting that you made the connection to Joseph, who like you said was seperated from his family. I thought that this story was dark and sad.
DeleteThis story was by far the most interesting read so far for me, but not in a good way. I had to re-read it to make sure that I was fully understanding what was actually taking place. Any while other stories contained clear depth to them, I'm still having a hard taking any meaning away from the events told in the story "Murderers". Some people have mentioned that this story started out gloomy but later became much more lighthearted. I feel that this is only true on the syntax level of the story, but the events keep the gloomy mood in the story throughout. After losing his Uncle and starting over in a strange place, he finally finds some happiness in the city. This makes things worse when he becomes involved in such a vulgar act and has to leave a place he's connected to once again. I think that this story might demonstrate the problems that Jewish Immigrants may have trying to connect to new places. I think it might also demonstrate how, especially younger jews, could feel lost and blindly acceptable guidance from wherever that could receive it.
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