Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth
"Goodbye, Columbus" is Philip Roth's first published volume, which won the National Book Award in 1960. The novella, along with its accompanying stories, explores the complexities of Jewish American identity, often through the lens of humor and irony. At the center of the narrative is Neil Klugman, whose love affair with Brenda Patimkin highlights the tension between his cultural heritage and the materialism of suburban life. Brenda embodies the American Dream, contrasting with Neil's ambivalence towards her family's wealth and their desire to assimilate into mainstream American culture. This internal conflict is mirrored in other stories within the collection, where characters grapple with their Jewish identity in relation to broader American values. Roth's work addresses themes of self-definition, the pressures of assimilation, and the struggle to maintain cultural heritage. By presenting these issues without offering clear resolutions, Roth encourages readers to reflect on the nuanced experiences of Jewish Americans in a changing society. Overall, "Goodbye, Columbus" serves as a significant exploration of identity that resonates with diverse perspectives on cultural belonging.
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Subject Terms
Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth
First published: 1959
The Work
Philip Roth’s first published volume, Goodbye, Columbus, won for the young writer not only the National Book Award in 1960 but also accusations, as a result of the book’s comically piercing portraits of middle-class American Jews, of Roth’s harboring self-hatred. The ambivalent exploration of Jewish American life in Goodbye, Columbus, and its mixed reception among Jewish readers who were sensitive to the public image of Jews established two of the central themes of Roth’s fiction: a frank and often ironic look at Jewish American identity, and an intense but playful examination of the relationship between art and life.
In the novella “Goodbye, Columbus,” Neil Klugman’s confrontation with his Jewish American identity is represented by his love affair with Brenda Patimkin. Brenda signifies the American Dream, her parents’ suburban prosperity symbolized by a refrigerator in the basement overflowing with fresh fruit. Neil’s ambivalence toward the Patimkins’ conspicuous consumption and their eager assimilation into American culture is expressed by the guilt he feels when he helps himself to fruit from the refrigerator. Although Neil finally rejects Brenda, the novella closes without offering Neil a clear sense of where he might belong.
Roth poses other choices in the book’s subsequent stories. Ozzie Freedman in “The Conversion of the Jews” believes he must choose between Jewish authority and the American notion of personal freedom. In outrage at his rabbi’s denial that an omnipotent God could indeed have caused Mary to conceive without intercourse, Ozzie threatens to leap from the roof of the synagogue, and demands that the rabbi, his mother, and the assembled crowd kneel and affirm belief that God can do anything he wants, with the clear implication that God could have created Jesus in the manner that Christians believe. When Ozzie experiences the power of self-definition at this ironic climax, Roth suggests that Judaism, personified by the rabbi, must confront the shaping forces of the American context if it is not to lose its adherents.
In “Defender of the Faith,” Sergeant Nathan Marx questions whether Jews are obligated to define themselves in relation to other Jews. After a Jewish recruit repeatedly manipulates Nathan for favors during basic training, he realizes that his greater responsibility to his fellow Jews lies in refusing to let them be different, despite the dangers that assimilation poses. As if Roth is in dialogue with himself, however, the final story in the collection reverses Nathan’s decision. Eli of “Eli, the Fanatic” dons, as a challenge to his “progressive suburban community,” the stale black clothes of a recent Jewish immigrant, and, with them, an identity that refuses assimilation into American life. Goodbye, Columbus, then, represents Roth’s first and notable attempt to explore the problem of Jewish American identity from a variety of angles and without resolution.
Bibliography
Baumgarten, Murray, and Barbara Gottfried. Understanding Philip Roth. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1990.
Halio, Jay L. Philip Roth Revisited. New York: Twayne, 1992.
Milbauer, Asher Z., and Donald G. Watson, eds. Reading Philip Roth. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988.