(Singer Centennial, 2004)

Singer's family was quite poor, despite its religiously and socially prominent status. He later said that his early life was a constant education in the rough texture of humanity, as well as the struggle of common Jews. Gimpel, for instance, is "a gullible man who responds to a lifetime of betrayal, heckling, and deception with childlike acceptance and complete faith." "Though aware of his own suffering," Gimpel "is never cynical or resentful. No matter what mishap may befall him, "he retains a steadfast belief in human goodness. He accepts life as it unfolds, with all its paradoxes, "even enduring the constant and flagrant infidelities" of his wife. "Her deathbed confession that none of her children were fathered by him does not alter his love for the children. Gimpel is able to resist the Devil's temptations to take revenge against his deceivers only after Elka's ghost materializes, urging...
[ View Full Essay]