The Loudest Voice by Grace Paley
"The Loudest Voice" by Grace Paley is a short story centered around a young girl named Shirley Abramowitz who lives in a predominantly Jewish community. Renowned for her exceptionally loud voice, Shirley's unique vocal strength draws attention in both her neighborhood and school. As she prepares for a Christmas play at school, tensions arise due to cultural differences and the presence of Christmas in her Jewish upbringing. Her father supports her participation, viewing it as a way for her to engage with a broader cultural experience, while her mother voices concern about the potential impact on Shirley's Jewish identity.
Throughout the rehearsal process, Shirley’s confidence grows, and she becomes an essential part of the production, further showcasing her talent. The performance culminates in her narrating the story of Jesus, bridging her Jewish background with the Christian narrative in a way that highlights shared cultural history. The story concludes with Shirley feeling a deep connection to both her faith and the diverse community around her, as she embraces her identity while acknowledging the different perspectives of others. Overall, "The Loudest Voice" explores themes of identity, cultural intersectionality, and the power of individual expression within the context of community dynamics.
On this Page
The Loudest Voice by Grace Paley
First published: 1959
Type of plot: Domestic realism
Time of work: A December during the 1930's
Locale: New York City
Principal Characters:
Shirley Abramowitz , a young Jewish girlMrs. Abramowitz , her motherMr. Abramowitz , her father
The Story
Shirley Abramowitz lives in a predominantly Jewish community where everyone slams doors and mothers yell out of windows. Shirley has such a loud voice that the neighborhood grocer accuses her of shouting the labels off his cans. Shirley's papa defends her. He says that all will be quiet in the grave.
A happy child, Shirley goes to school in an old red-brick building where the children must stand in straight lines. Because her last name begins with an "A," she is always first in line. One day, the monitor tells her to go quickly upstairs to the sixth-grade room. When she gets there, the teacher, Mr. Hilton, offers her a major part in the Christmas play because she has such a strong voice. He makes her promise that she will work harder than she has ever worked before, and that she will never be tardy or disobedient, because absolutely everything will depend on her.
That afternoon, teachers have the children take down Thanksgiving decorations and put up the Christmas decorations before learning carols. When Shirley's mother hears this, she complains to Mr. Abramowitz, who reminds her that she wanted to come to the United States. After listing all the things that have happened to Jews in other countries, he tells her that the problem they face here is Christmas. He makes it sound like a joke, but his wife does not see the humor in it. She is afraid that Shirley will lose her Jewish faith.
The neighbors are all proud of the good parts that their children have been given in the play. Only one mother will not let her son participate. The rabbi's wife thinks that the whole thing is disgusting, but no one pays any attention to her because she herself wears a strawberry-blond wig.
The days of rehearsal are noisy ones, full of new experiences for Shirley. She is so helpful that Mr. Hilton calls her his right-hand man, says that he could not get along without her, and tells her that her parents should get down on their knees and thank God for a child such as she.
Shirley's father wonders why she stays so late at school that she cannot even set the table for dinner. Her mother answers with one word: Christmas. Mr. Abramowitz says that Christmas and the Jewish festival of lights, Hanukkah, are both descendants of pagan winter celebrations, which makes them historical. Because history belongs to everyone, Shirley will not be pulled away from her religion by the play. Being in it will help her learn to speak up and, perhaps, to have a better life than they.
A Christmas tree decorated by the city for their neighborhood offends most of the adults, but Shirley throws it a kiss with both hands every day, because it is like a stranger in Egypt. The night before the play, Shirley's father kisses her and comments that tomorrow is her big day. Her mother closes all the windows to prevent tonsillitis.
Shirley and everyone else at school work frantically on last-minute preparations for the performance, to which parents, including Shirley's mother, come early. At last, the children are ready. A first-grader parts the curtain and says a poem that tells the audience that the play will be narrated by one person and illustrated by others using pantomime. Shirley begins the long story in a loud voice. As Jesus, she recounts her life from birth to crucifixion, while Jesus is pantomimed by two boys. The twelve friends of Jesus are fourth-grade boys, one of whom, Abie Stock, causes Jesus to be crucified. At the end of the play, everyone gets everlasting life.
Later that evening, Mrs. Kornbluh visits the Abramowitz kitchen for a glass of tea. Shirley's father asks her about the Virgin, whom Mrs. Kornbluh's daughter played in the play's stable scene. She tells him that he has a fresh mouth, so he offers her some lemon to sweeten her disposition. They talk in Yiddish before falling into Russian and Polish. They finally say it was a beautiful affair that taught the children about a different culture. Mrs. Kornbluh says that it is in bad taste that some of the Christian children did not get parts when it was their religion. Shirley's mother tells her that they had small voices and should not be expected to holler. She says that they own the whole thing—the language and the religion. They even look like angels.
Shirley is in bed. She listens to the talk, gets up, kneels, makes a church with her hands, and says "Hear, O Israel. . . . " She prays for the lonesome Christians, her family, cousins, and passersby, and then she calls out in Yiddish to her father. Shirley is sure that God has heard her prayer, because her voice is the loudest.
Bibliography
Cevoli, Cathy. "These Four Women Could Save Your Life." Mademoiselle 89 (January, 1983): 104-107.
DeKoven, Marianne. "Mrs. Hegel-Shtein's Tears." Partisan Review 48, no. 2 (1981): 217-223.
Gelfant, Blanche H. "Grace Paley: Fragments for a Portrait in Collage." New England Review 3, no. 2 (Winter, 1980): 276-293.
Harrington, Stephanie. "The Passionate Rebels." Vogue 153 (May, 1969): 151.
Iannone, Carol. "A Dissent on Grace Paley." Commentary 80 (August, 1985): 54-58.
Klinkowitz, Jerome. "Grace Paley: The Sociology of Metafiction." In Literary Subversions. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985.
McMurran, Kristin. "Even Admiring Peers Worry That Grace Paley Writes Too Little and Protests Too Much." People 11 (February 26, 1979): 22-23.
Paley, Grace. "The Seneca Stories: Tales from the Women's Peace Encampment." Ms. 12 (December, 1983): 54-58.
Park, Clara Claiborne. "Faith, Grace, and Love." The Hudson Review 38, no. 3 (Autumn, 1985): 481-488.
Scheifer, Ronald. "Grace Paley: Chaste Compactness." In Contemporary American Women Writers: Narrative Strategies, edited by Catherine Rainwater and William J. Scheik. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1985.
Smith, Wendy. "Grace Paley." Publishers Weekly 227 (April 5, 1985): 71-72.
Sorkin, Adam J. "Grace Paley." In Twentieth-Century American-Jewish Writers, edited by Daniel Walden. Vol. 28 in Dictionary of Literary Biography. Detroit: Gale Research, 1984.
Sorkin, Adam J. "What Are We, Animals? Grace Paley's World of Talk and Laughter." Studies in American Jewish Literature 2 (1982): 144-154.