In the novel, The Fixer, the writer, Bernard Malamud, nowadayss to us a hapless Judaic jack of all trades life in Russia during the early 1900 ’ s, before the Russian revolution had begun. Destroyed by his married woman ’ s disclaimer, Yakov Shepsovitch Bok leaves his shtetl in hunt of chances for a better life. After a few months of despairing searching, Yakov sneaks out of the ghetto to look for work among the gentile. As he hunts the streets, he stumbles upon a adult male who lay rummy on the floor. Yakov instantly recognizes a pin on the adult male ’ s coat as belonging to the racist organisation called the Black Hundreds.
Puting his uncertainties behind him, Yakov decides to assist the fat Russian. Not cognizant of Yakov ’ s beginnings, the Russian offers him a occupation as a wages. The occupation, nevertheless, requires him to populate in a territory prohibited to Jews. Out of despair, Yakov agrees. Merely a few months subsequently, honest, hard-working Yakov, is caught. Governments had found out he is a Jew. Less than a hebdomad before that, nevertheless, an atrocious slaying had been committed and they accuse Yakov of being the liquidator, when in fact the true slayer is the immature male child ’ s own female parent. Yakov is charged with slaying for spiritual intents.
They believe the Jewish community needed the blood to bake into the matzah for Passover as a symbol of the recollection of the crucifixion of Jesus. Yakov Bok is Judaic adult male in his early mid-thirtiess. He describes himself as “ a influence peddler by trade, it ’ s a poorer trade than most, and once for a short clip I was a soldier in the Imperial Army. In fact, to state you the truth, I ’ m non a spiritual adult male, I ’ m a freethinker. ” He believes he has had such bad fortune, that it is useless to pray to G ’ vitamin D, and hence he is more of an atheist, or a deist, than he is a Jew. He states he is a Jew merely “ by birth and nationality, ” though cipher understands what is meant by that. To the Russians he is lawfully a mere Jew.
At one point Yakov says to himself “ I ’ m Yakov Fixer … the sort of adult male who finds it parlous to be alive. One thing I must larn is to state less-much lupus erythematosus, or I ’ ll destroy myself. As it is I ’ m already ruined. ” During his first few months in prison, Yakov does non seem to acquire accustomed to the adversities. As clip base on ballss him by, nevertheless, he grows used to life in a prison cell, but it merely gets worst. As the novel unfolds, Yakov becomes highly weak and thin and he looses the piddling religion that was still left in him.
It is Yakov falsely accused of the slaying of a immature male child in order to run out his blood for the baking of the Passover matzah. The subject of antisemitism in Russia during the clip of pogroms and of Tsar Nicholas the 2nd is a cosmopolitan subject presented to us as the book unravels. It is apparent that if Yakov had non been born of the Judaic religion, he would non hold been charged with the slaying of Zhenia Golov. He was being used merely as an illustration to the three million Judaic occupants of Russia. He was being used as a warning.
The significance of the rubric The Fixer, chosen by Malamud, has a really actual significance, nevertheless it typify a much more profound idea. Literally, the rubric merely refers to the chief character of the novel, who makes a life as a influence peddler, or jack of all trades. It is a really simple rubric of a book about a really simple adult male who has been falsely accused of a really complicated slaying. He was merely “ Yakov the influence peddler from a little town in Pale, an orphan male child who had married Raisl Shmuel and had been deserted by her. ”
Not a prevaricator and a liquidator of immature kids. He made the “ stupid misrepresentation ” of lying that his name was Yakov Ivanovitch Dologushev, alternatively of Yakov Shepsovitch Bok. This minute prevarication led him to set down a occupation which in bend forced him to populate in the Luskianovsky territory which was prohibited to Jews. He unsuccessfully tries to convince the Prosecuting Attorney of his artlessness sing the slaying “ I swear to you, I am guiltless of any serious offense.
The worst I am guilty of is stupidity-of life in the Luskianovsky without permission … but surely, non of any serious crimes. ” And for a little unsophisticated prevarication he is charged with a immense, really complicated slaying, therefore turn outing to us how the rubric has a more profound significance than is literally intended. The rubric is besides really dry. The adult male is a influence peddler, and yet he is non be able to repair anything sing his luckless life.
The book The Fixer, by Bernard Malamud, is a powerful novel depicting the antisemitism felt throughout Russia during the pre-revolution epoch. It is a historical novel which teaches us what it was like to be a Jew life in Russia. It is of import non merely to better understand Russian history but to seek to better understand antisemitism, which led to the killing of many guiltless lives. It is the antisemitism that caused World War two and the decease of six million Jews. Anti-semitism was besides a major cause of the Zionist motion which resulted in the formation of the province of Israel in 1948.
