Identity Crises in Philip Roth’s “Eli, the
Fanatic” and “The Conversion of the
Jews”.
“Identity Crisis”
• Erik Erikson
• Defined as self analysis and
self exploration.
• Originated from childhood.
• Erikson’s hyphenated identity.
• Erikson is Danish-GermanAmerican.
Questions Roth Poses in GC Short
Stories
• What does Jewish identity mean in a Post-World War
II America?
• Have Jews achieved assimilation and American
status?
• Are they hyphenated Americans with a dual
nationalism and an inability to be classed as truly
American?
Victoria Aarons
• “The characters in the stories in Goodbye, Columbus,
however, are at the initial stages of attempting to
define themselves as Jews or not as Jews. And this
tension, this push and pull between “Jew or not”
makes projected Jewish identity the single most
uncompromising antagonist against which Roth’s
characters must contend.” (Aarons 10)
“Eli, the Fanatic”
• Suburb of Woodenton.
• Eli Peck is a suburban attorney.
• Assimilated Jews wish to eradicate Orthodox Jewsthe mementos of Jewish heterogeneity.
• Achieved assimilation by suppressing conspicuous
aspects of Jewish culture and tradition.
• Arrival of Orthodox Jews challenges the Jew-Gentile
peaceful coexistence.
• Leo Tzuref is the head of the Yeshiva.
• Assimilated Jews replicate Gentile impositions.
Eli’s Identity Crisis
•
“‘I am them, they are me, Mr. Tzuref.’/ ‘Aach! You are us, we
are you!’” (“Eli, the Fanatic” 192)
• Survivor’s guilt
• Empathises and Identifies with Yeshiva Jews.
• “Just give me the day-them the day” (201) – Freudian
parapraxis?
James Marcia
• Identity Status Theory
• Identity Moratorium
• Milowitz: “The changing of clothes suggests that Eli is trying
on alternative identities.” (20)
Eli’s Dual Identity
• Identities metaphorized in two suits:
– Green suit: Pseudo-American identity
– Black suit: Crypto-Jewish identity
• Doppelganger
Dissociative Identity Disorder
• Two Alter Egos:
1. Eli Peck
2. Eli, the Fanatic
• Intravenous Sedation
“The Conversion of The Jews”
• Ozzie Freedman: “Is it me? Is it me ME ME ME
ME ME! It has to be me-but is it! (106)
• Roth says: “I am not a Jewish writer; I am a
writer who is a Jew” (qtd. in Rabin 9)