Feelings and Thoughts after reading it (aloud) for the first time
Our main character is an old man living with his wife and grandson in America. He and his wife moved from Russia to New York because their son was ill and he has no wife to take care of him and his son. Zelig worked in a store, made an only friend, and the pair was constantly mocked by their coworkers. He was known for saving money impossibly hard to sail back to Russia, where they as Jews could not be treated fair, as it was wartime. They were poor, and he was saving; then one day their son had an emergent attack, while they had no money to buy medicines, eventually died that night. The grandson became an no-parent kid. The grandson wanted to merge into America. He secretly planned to go to college, with his grandmother knowing and discussing with him. As the grandson grew up to meet the age, Zelig was near his goal, which had always been to save money and be buried back home. Zelig accidentally overheard his grandson talking to his wife on how to persuade Zelig to pay for his college, with a lot of complaints about his Russian styles. He was furious, and went to his grandson’s bedroom at that night, standing beside him, staring until he woke yet said nothing. He desperately asked his grandson if he thought grandpa is his enemy. With no answer heard, he continued to say that his going to pay the education fee.
It is a story about a Jewish family from Russia living in wartime New York, America. Zelig and his wife live in rural Russia for most of their lives and they look for a traditional destiny. Their son has been living in New York, but alone with his son. We don’t know what has happened to this man before he immigrated to America or before he started to raise his son alone. We know him from the point that he sent a letter to Zelig, saying he was seriously ill. It is rather a smell of tragedy on this man.
The storyline depicts Zelig first, as a rather comedic figure, stubborn and mocked by even his wife. Then we see their position, as kind of forced out of Russia and forced into work at such age, and we start to feel sorry for him. After that, we know that Zelig has made a friend, although still mocked by others as a pair. The climax comes when his son was having an attack but Zelig was murmuring that he had to beg for money. I was confused when I read this, because he was supposed to have some savings. The confusion made me feel sorry for him for it is possible that people thought he was saving hard yet he just was in poverty. Maybe he hadn’t hoped for sailing back from the beginning to the end. After his son died, the story starts to go down, and depicts for us that Zelig through years of hard saving, would soon be able to sail back. However, his dream was likely to be destroyed again, this time by his grandson’s dream to be an American — he will need money to go to college. When he overheard the conversation between the grandson and his wife, he probably felt betrayed and heart-broken, but what I am interested in was how he felt when he questioned his grandson if the kid took him as an enemy. I was once, or maybe for several times, questioned the same question, and I knew there should be an irreversible desperation in it. So it is a tragedy in wartime, between Russian, America, and Jewish people.
Narrative Structure figured out by myself after re-reading
First of all, I missed and misunderstood lots of facts in the writing above. Old Zelig was depicted as a tragedy character from the very beginning. His son had been a widow before immigrating and Zelig refused to go with him even he was desperately sad at this departure. Zelig wanted to go back home because he felt stupefied by the new world, after which he became this “barrel with a stave missing”. The paradox is between he and the city, rather than rural Russia and New York, America, although the latter gets reflected from within the former. It is even less, if not completely not, about religion, for he refused to get involved in the Jewish congregations in the society he lived in. He did plan and save for going back throughout the story, until he felt at last how dreadfully he had caused his family members to be. He touched his grandson’s face and that was what I had missed however with crucial importance a scene.
The first three paragraphs introduce Zelig, the main character to us, with how he was eyed by his brethren and why, then how he was treated by his coworkers and why, finally his appearance.
The following two paragraphs tell us about his life before settling down in New York. The first is about the backgrounds of his family issues, while the second provide information on how he transferred into the man he is now and why he set this goal of sailing back to Russia. The two add up together to clear the logic for paradoxes of the whole story and lead up to future happenings.
Then we have four paragraphs to depict his working life, about his only friend and how he has been mocked by people around him. The last paragraph of them tells us that Jews were being massacred in Russia at that time, and people in Manhattan were parading for them. Old Zelig wasn’t called upon to join the procession. He went on working, but was witnessed to be “wilder than ever”.
The eight paragraphs after that depict his family loss. His son died indirectly from his niggard. We know from it that he was poor, that he still dreamed to sail home, and that something changed to “bound him to the New World”.
“Age gained on him” and we are informed by the next paragraph. We know that after years of saving and even starving he is nearly to realize his back-to-homeland dream. Then his wife complaints about how dreadful he’s made of their life, especially their grandson. He tried to avoid thinking about it.
The first four paragraphs on page 5 constitute the real climax of the story (instead of what the death of their son, which I chose as the climax in the writing above). Zelig overheard a conversation between the kid and his wife after being sniffing for some time. Everything bursted out. His wife stood up in front of him, bringing up their passed son. Then the narration suddenly stopped.
The last five paragraphs show the resolution of the story. Zelig went to the grandson’s room and gazed him, touched him, wishing for his reply which, even he woke up, came out with nothing. The grandfather surrendered at last, giving up his dream, in a furious, honest, but strongly touching way.
Sorting out the functions of each part
Character (1-3)
Conflict in his life (4-5)
Conflict on workplace (6-9)
Conflict at home (10-17)
Incident (18-24)
Resolution (25-29)
Conclusions and Final Thoughts on this story
Zelig is the first story I have read in this reading-short-stories project and being exposed to the numerous rich techniques of the representative works selected by John Updike I was supposed to learn some story structures that’ll be helpful for my exercises. However, I learnt but a few.
The first one is on how to introduce the main character. The author doesn’t have to retrieve where he’s from and what he has been through from the very beginning. Since everyone knows everyone from a third person point of view, we can actually do that in depicting our hero, which is, depicting him from other people’s judge, even they’re biased. The readers get to know Zelig just like when they’re one of his neighbors or co-workers. They’re going to know that Zelig doesn’t fit in with his community and he is the kind of person who would go back to work during a strike.
The second important thing is about how to set up the paradox, or conflict, for an incident and further, the resolution, to happen. I didn’t pay much attention to the structure when all the years I read novels. So it’s fascinating for me to discover, or say, finally notice it. After the introduction from third person point of view, the readers get to know absurd the main character is and would think that if this person is in real life, he might be a little bit distasteful or, whatever. Yet what bomb lies in this life the readers tend to not know, but we know every life, especially in dramatical world, has a bomb behind it. That is the conflict. We are waiting for the fireworks. Therefore after three paragraphs of introduction the author leads us towards Zelig in his old village in wartime Russia, screening his unpleasant journey to New York which later transfer into a longing to go back home, and points right to the result, which is now, he working at this cloak-shop, irrelevant to people mocking at him and his only friend.
The lesson here is that before the particular incident, which serves as a climax and leads to a resolution, the author can utilize the main character’s history, and some national happenings, some family disasters, to set up conflicts for the incident to happen. Everything would seem reasonable after a long story of his hope and desperation, how his son dies and what his wife and grandson have been through, which is hinted, scattering among the narration. We even understand the tears on the grandson’s face after thinking up that when his father was dying and he asked for money to buy medicine, his grandfather just tossed the prescription away and refused to pay.
Our main character is an old man living with his wife and grandson in America. He and his wife moved from Russia to New York because their son was ill and he has no wife to take care of him and his son. Zelig worked in a store, made an only friend, and the pair was constantly mocked by their coworkers. He was known for saving money impossibly hard to sail back to Russia, where they as Jews could not be treated fair, as it was wartime. They were poor, and he was saving; then one day their son had an emergent attack, while they had no money to buy medicines, eventually died that night. The grandson became an no-parent kid. The grandson wanted to merge into America. He secretly planned to go to college, with his grandmother knowing and discussing with him. As the grandson grew up to meet the age, Zelig was near his goal, which had always been to save money and be buried back home. Zelig accidentally overheard his grandson talking to his wife on how to persuade Zelig to pay for his college, with a lot of complaints about his Russian styles. He was furious, and went to his grandson’s bedroom at that night, standing beside him, staring until he woke yet said nothing. He desperately asked his grandson if he thought grandpa is his enemy. With no answer heard, he continued to say that his going to pay the education fee.
It is a story about a Jewish family from Russia living in wartime New York, America. Zelig and his wife live in rural Russia for most of their lives and they look for a traditional destiny. Their son has been living in New York, but alone with his son. We don’t know what has happened to this man before he immigrated to America or before he started to raise his son alone. We know him from the point that he sent a letter to Zelig, saying he was seriously ill. It is rather a smell of tragedy on this man.
The storyline depicts Zelig first, as a rather comedic figure, stubborn and mocked by even his wife. Then we see their position, as kind of forced out of Russia and forced into work at such age, and we start to feel sorry for him. After that, we know that Zelig has made a friend, although still mocked by others as a pair. The climax comes when his son was having an attack but Zelig was murmuring that he had to beg for money. I was confused when I read this, because he was supposed to have some savings. The confusion made me feel sorry for him for it is possible that people thought he was saving hard yet he just was in poverty. Maybe he hadn’t hoped for sailing back from the beginning to the end. After his son died, the story starts to go down, and depicts for us that Zelig through years of hard saving, would soon be able to sail back. However, his dream was likely to be destroyed again, this time by his grandson’s dream to be an American — he will need money to go to college. When he overheard the conversation between the grandson and his wife, he probably felt betrayed and heart-broken, but what I am interested in was how he felt when he questioned his grandson if the kid took him as an enemy. I was once, or maybe for several times, questioned the same question, and I knew there should be an irreversible desperation in it. So it is a tragedy in wartime, between Russian, America, and Jewish people.
Narrative Structure figured out by myself after re-reading
First of all, I missed and misunderstood lots of facts in the writing above. Old Zelig was depicted as a tragedy character from the very beginning. His son had been a widow before immigrating and Zelig refused to go with him even he was desperately sad at this departure. Zelig wanted to go back home because he felt stupefied by the new world, after which he became this “barrel with a stave missing”. The paradox is between he and the city, rather than rural Russia and New York, America, although the latter gets reflected from within the former. It is even less, if not completely not, about religion, for he refused to get involved in the Jewish congregations in the society he lived in. He did plan and save for going back throughout the story, until he felt at last how dreadfully he had caused his family members to be. He touched his grandson’s face and that was what I had missed however with crucial importance a scene.
The first three paragraphs introduce Zelig, the main character to us, with how he was eyed by his brethren and why, then how he was treated by his coworkers and why, finally his appearance.
The following two paragraphs tell us about his life before settling down in New York. The first is about the backgrounds of his family issues, while the second provide information on how he transferred into the man he is now and why he set this goal of sailing back to Russia. The two add up together to clear the logic for paradoxes of the whole story and lead up to future happenings.
Then we have four paragraphs to depict his working life, about his only friend and how he has been mocked by people around him. The last paragraph of them tells us that Jews were being massacred in Russia at that time, and people in Manhattan were parading for them. Old Zelig wasn’t called upon to join the procession. He went on working, but was witnessed to be “wilder than ever”.
The eight paragraphs after that depict his family loss. His son died indirectly from his niggard. We know from it that he was poor, that he still dreamed to sail home, and that something changed to “bound him to the New World”.
“Age gained on him” and we are informed by the next paragraph. We know that after years of saving and even starving he is nearly to realize his back-to-homeland dream. Then his wife complaints about how dreadful he’s made of their life, especially their grandson. He tried to avoid thinking about it.
The first four paragraphs on page 5 constitute the real climax of the story (instead of what the death of their son, which I chose as the climax in the writing above). Zelig overheard a conversation between the kid and his wife after being sniffing for some time. Everything bursted out. His wife stood up in front of him, bringing up their passed son. Then the narration suddenly stopped.
The last five paragraphs show the resolution of the story. Zelig went to the grandson’s room and gazed him, touched him, wishing for his reply which, even he woke up, came out with nothing. The grandfather surrendered at last, giving up his dream, in a furious, honest, but strongly touching way.
Sorting out the functions of each part
Character (1-3)
Conflict in his life (4-5)
Conflict on workplace (6-9)
Conflict at home (10-17)
Incident (18-24)
Resolution (25-29)
Conclusions and Final Thoughts on this story
Zelig is the first story I have read in this reading-short-stories project and being exposed to the numerous rich techniques of the representative works selected by John Updike I was supposed to learn some story structures that’ll be helpful for my exercises. However, I learnt but a few.
The first one is on how to introduce the main character. The author doesn’t have to retrieve where he’s from and what he has been through from the very beginning. Since everyone knows everyone from a third person point of view, we can actually do that in depicting our hero, which is, depicting him from other people’s judge, even they’re biased. The readers get to know Zelig just like when they’re one of his neighbors or co-workers. They’re going to know that Zelig doesn’t fit in with his community and he is the kind of person who would go back to work during a strike.
The second important thing is about how to set up the paradox, or conflict, for an incident and further, the resolution, to happen. I didn’t pay much attention to the structure when all the years I read novels. So it’s fascinating for me to discover, or say, finally notice it. After the introduction from third person point of view, the readers get to know absurd the main character is and would think that if this person is in real life, he might be a little bit distasteful or, whatever. Yet what bomb lies in this life the readers tend to not know, but we know every life, especially in dramatical world, has a bomb behind it. That is the conflict. We are waiting for the fireworks. Therefore after three paragraphs of introduction the author leads us towards Zelig in his old village in wartime Russia, screening his unpleasant journey to New York which later transfer into a longing to go back home, and points right to the result, which is now, he working at this cloak-shop, irrelevant to people mocking at him and his only friend.
The lesson here is that before the particular incident, which serves as a climax and leads to a resolution, the author can utilize the main character’s history, and some national happenings, some family disasters, to set up conflicts for the incident to happen. Everything would seem reasonable after a long story of his hope and desperation, how his son dies and what his wife and grandson have been through, which is hinted, scattering among the narration. We even understand the tears on the grandson’s face after thinking up that when his father was dying and he asked for money to buy medicine, his grandfather just tossed the prescription away and refused to pay.
RSS Feed