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TAKE PITY BY BERNARD MALAMUD

1. THE BIOGRAPHY OF BERNARD MALAMUD

1.1. THE PERSONAL BACKGROUND

Bernard Malamud was born on April 26, 1914, in Brooklyn, New York. The older of

two sons of Max and Bertha (Fidelman) Malamud, who had emigrated from Russia in the early

twentieth century and ran a grocery store. Malamud’s early years were spent going to the

Yiddish theater and reading novels by such favorites as Horatio Alger. Malamud entered

adolescence at the start of the Great Depression. His mother died when he was an adolescent.

After graduating from Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, he earned a Bachelor’s degree

from City College of New York in 1936. He then attended Columbia University and earned the

Master’s degree that enabled him to teach, writing a thesis on Thomas Hardy. He taught

immigrants in evening school in Brooklyn then in Harlem for eight years, while writing short

stories, before getting a job at Oregon State College in Cascadia, Oregon.

In 1945, Malamud married Ann de Chiara. His father was quite upset by Malamud’s

marrying a gentile but was later reconciled. Ann typed his manuscripts and reviewed his

writing. Ann and Bernard had two children, Paul and Janna. Janna Malamud Smith is the author

of a memoir about her father, titled My Father is a Book.

Despite being raised Jewish, Malamud was an agnostic humanist. Malamud died in

Manhattan in 1986, at the age of 71.

1.2. THE LITERARY BACKGROUND

Bernard Malamud is one of the top Jewish-American writers, and the best-known

spokesman of the Jewish experience in American literature. Although Malamud focuses on the

Jewish experience in the United States, especially the ghetto experience, the Jew in his fiction

is more an embodiment of the complex moral experience of universal human suffering,

responsibility, and love than a realistic representative of a particular ethnic and social situation.

In Malamud’s stories, readers are confronted with characters who either try to give

sympathy and fail or make demands for sympathy that cannot be easily met. Also, His short

stories move inevitably toward a conclusion in which complex moral dilemmas are not so much

resolved as they are frozen in a final symbolic and ironic tableau. His award-winning works are

noted for their exploration of the Jewish-American experience, often in ways that mix realistic

and fantastic elements.

Malamud’s writings were deeply rooted in social problems of this century such as

rootlessness, infidelity, abuse, divorce, and more. He frequently created characters that are poor,

sad, benighted, and living on the margin.

He cites American authors, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James, as guides to moral

and spiritual struggles. Like them, Malamud holds individuals responsible for their behavior.

He also admires Russian writers, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Anton Chekhov, for their vibrant

portrayal of the self-versus society.

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In 1952 his first novel, The Natural, appeared to mixed reviews. Some critics were put

off by what they saw as an obscure use of symbolism, while others applauded its masterful use

of fable and its art of ancient storytelling in a modern voice.

In 1958, thirteen of Malamud’s previously published short stories appeared in his first

collection, The Magic Barrel. Thematically, it links tragedy with comedy; technically, it

combines fantasy and realism. Including such short stories as “The Magic Barrel,” “Angel

Levine,” “Take Pity,” and “The Last Mohican,” the collection strengthened Malamud’s position

as a major Jewish voice in American letters. The Magic Barrel won a National Book Award in

1959.

In 1963, he published another collection of short stories, Idiots First, followed by his

fourth novel, The Fixer, in 1966. The Fixer, which won him a second National Book Award

and a Pulitzer Prize in 1967, was researched by a trip to Russia and six months of uninterrupted

study.

From 1969 until his death in 1986, Malamud continued to publish both novels and short

stories. His works include Pictures of Fidelman: An Exhibition (1969), a collection of stories

about one character; The Tenants (1971), a novel about the conflicts between an old Jewish

writer and a young black one; Rembrandt’s Hat (1973), another collection of stories; Dubin’s

Lives (1979), a novel about a writer at midlife; God’s Grace (1982), a novel; The Stories of

Bernard Malamud (1983), another collection; and a host of stories published separately in

prestigious magazines.

NOVELS

The Natural (1952)

The Assistant (1957)

A New Life (1961)

The Fixer (1966)

The Tenants (1971)

Dubin's Lives (1979)

God's Grace (1982)

STORY COLLECTIONS

The Magic Barrel (1958)

Idiots First (1963)

Pictures of Fidelman (1969)

Rembrandt's Hat (1974)

SHORT STORIES

"The Mourners" (1955)

"The Jewbird" (1963)

"The Prison" (1950)

"A Summer's Reading"

"Armistice"

Table 1: All Works of Bernard Malamud

2. ANALYSIS OF “TAKE PITY”

2.1 PLOT

- Davidov, described only as a census-taker visits an elderly ex-coffee salesman, Rosen, in a

drab room. Davidov is interested to learn of the details of Rosen's relationship with a woman

called Eva, the widow of Axel, a grocer whom Rosen knew. And Rosen tells the story:

- Axel Kalish was a Polish refugee. When he got to America, he worked very hard and buys a

grocery store, but it failed. He asked for credit from a company. The company sent Rosen to

analyze the business. He recommended okay out of pity.

- Rosen told Axel that his business would fail. He advised him to get rid of it and find a job.

First Axel did not listen to him but then decided to act upon his advice. However, all of a sudden

he died of heart attack.

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- After Axel’s death, Eva intended to stick to that place. Rosen insisted that Eva should go away

from that place but she told him that she would not go anywhere. Also, he advised her to marry

someone. She replied that no one would have her with two children.

- Moreover she was determined to stock up her store again with the insurance money. Rosen

again tried to stop her but she did not listen and invested the insurance money in the business.

In spite of Eva’s efforts, the store didn’t get any better and she was again in trouble.

- She asked for a loan from Rosen’s company, which she got, because Rosen had paid out of

his own pocket that she did not know.

- The little daughters were starving and their health was going from bad to worse (But Eva was

determined not to get any help from Rosen or anyone else.) Once Rosen saw the little girls in

the street, their bones could be seen in their cheeks. He gave some cake to the little girls but

their mother told them that they couldn’t take anything because that was a fast day. Then one

day he brought a piece of meat to her home that she did not welcome either.

- Rosen advised her again to declare the store bankrupt and leave that place to creditors. He

asked her to shift into the upper portion of his two-family apartment and find a job. He also

assured her that he would pay the lady downstairs to look after her two little daughters until she

came home. However, she refused it.

- When Rosen realized that she was insecure about his intentions, he thought of asking her to

marry him, as he was a sick man and did not expect to live long. When he talked to her about

marriage, she got extremely furious and asked him to leave and never come back.

- Later on, Rosen also tried to send some money as repayment of the loan taken from her late

husband every month. For this, he wrote a letter that he was a friend of Axel who had borrowed

some money from Axel before his marriage and wanted to pay it in small amounts. He placed

twenty dollars in a letter and managed to get it posted from another city to avoid suspicion.

Nevertheless, as Eva knew that it was not true, she refused the amount and sent all the letters

back without opening them.

- At last, Rosen went to his lawyer, prepared his will. According to his will, everything he had

(his money, investments, car, houses and insurance) was to go to Eva and her daughters. Then,

he went home and put his head in his oven (Rosen tried to kill himself by turning on the gas.)

- This is the bit of the story that Davidov, apparently, already knows. Davidov raises the window

shade. After Rosen has finished telling his story, at twilight, he suddenly sees Eva standing in

front of his window, raising her arms toward him. But he, being in rage, swears at her and tells

her to go back.

2.2 PLOT STRUCTURE

“Take Pity” has a nonlinear plot structure employing the flashback technique. The story

begins with Davidov’s visit to Rosen. He wants to find out the reason of Rosen’s attempt to

commit suicide, which is not known at the beginning, and Rosen starts telling the story. As soon

as he finishes it (after the flashback), the story resumes and ends a little later.

2.3 SETTING

Setting is the place and time in which a story takes place. The place is America. It is

unknown until Axel is identified by Rosen as a recent refugee from Poland to America.

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Specifically, Rosen tells the story in a drab room and most of the actions take place in the

grocery store.

As to the time in “Take Pity”, Malamud does not place the action within a clearly

defined time period, but the Nazi destruction of European Jewry and the poverty associated

with the 1930’s Depression have influences on the story. In1930, Americans faced the worst

depression and fought with each other for a piece of bread and Polish refugees in America also

struggled to survive. "Take Pity" is the story of such a Polish family who tried to earn their

living with hard work. Also, When Rosen advised Eva to run away from the grocery store and

go to her relatives, Eva replies: “My relatives Hitler took away from me”. So it can be concluded

that the time of the story is 1930.

2.4 POINT OF VIEW

Point of View is the limited omniscient narrator (of the third person omniscient), non-

participating narrator who see events throughout of a single character. In the story, the readers

just see the events throughout Rosen’s eyes and know just his feelings and thoughts, not other

characters.

May (2004) indicates that “Take Pity” is the first of Malamud’s stories to be written

from an omniscient point of view and this device more readily evokes a gothic mood, one

characterized, that is, by desolate settings and macabre, mysterious, and violent events.

2.5 CHARACTERIZATION and CHARACTERS

Major characters of the story are Rosen and Eva, the others are minor characters.

While Rosen is protagonist, Eva is antagonist because she refuses every offers and advises

from Rosen. They both are round characters as Rosen is desperate to help, but Eva does not

want it; then, at the end, when she appears remorseful and reaches out to him in her turn, he

repudiates her.

2.5.1. ROSEN

Rosen is the hero of the story "Take Pity". He is middle-aged and a sick man with only

one kidney so his physical condition did not expect to live much longer. At this age he was still

a bachelor.

He is an ex-coffee salesman and financially secure because of his properties and

investments. Also, Rosen is mature, experienced and wise businessman who understands the

ins and outs at least retail and wholesale business.

Rosen is a kind hearted man. The story shows him as a man of almost complete human

sympathy through his efforts to rescue a poor family from poverty and death. He tries to help

Eva escape her old life and attain a new one. He looks at the small daughters of Eva as his own

and is all the time concerned about their future. He wants to have some future arrangements for

them. He is even ready to look after them firstly by providing them his house and then by

marrying their mother. His following speeches shows that he is too sensitive to human misery.

“I have a heart and I am human” (here he wept).

In speaking of her daughters, “I didn’t want them to suffer”, he explains.

He can be said to have a great patience. He goes on hearing and tolerating the harsh and

bitter talk of Eva and her rejections of his proposals and offers.

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2.5.2. EVA

Eva is thirty-eight years old and the mother of two young girls. She is also the recent

widow of a bankrupt immigrant Jewish grocer who died at Rosen’s feet. According to Rosen,

she is a "nice-looking young woman"

The story shows that Eva is a very noble, hardworking lady. She bears all difficulties

with patience and courage. Even when she faces starvation, she never debases herself nor begs

anything from anyone. She has also taught and trained her daughters to be patient and peaceful

in hardships.

She doesn’t want to become a dependent upon Rosen or anyone else. She is determined

to live an independent life. She is very willful. She tries to work harder in order to improve her

business. She takes pains in keeping the store neat and tidy. She wants to look after her children

herself and does not get married to avoid any problem for her children. She does not like to be

pitied by other people and tries her best to live an independent and honorable life. As a result,

the readers see a woman of self-respect in the story. To accept anything in charity from anybody

is disgrace to her. She just cannot accept it. She would rather die.

She is also a stubborn woman. She doesn’t not listen to any advice from Rosen.

Although some offers made by Rosen are quite reasonable, she ignores every offer very

stubbornly.

2.5.3. DAVIDOV

Davidov is a census taker. He has come to find out the reason of his attempt to commit

suicide.

2.5.4. AXEL

Axel is a Polish refugee who is about forty and Eva’s husband. In America, he works a

lot and buys a grocery. But he suddenly dies of heart attack.

2.5.5 FEGA AND SURALE

They are Axel and Eva’s daughters who are five and three years old.

2.6 CONFLICT

The struggle between the protagonist and the antagonist forms the main conflict of the

story. In “Take Pity”, after Axel’s death, Rosen attempts to give the widow, Eva, both advice

and direct aid but Eva is not willing to take any help from Rosen. He again and again tried to

help her in different ways but she again and again refused to take any help. This is the main

conflict of the story.

Some critics concur that thematically “Take Pity” is about the conflict between pity and

pride. In Eva’s refusal to accept Rosen’s repeated offers, and in Rosen’s persistent efforts to

extend them, each one insults and injures the other. Rosen’s determination to help Eva is so

fierce that he commits suicide in order to leave all his money and property to Eva and her

children (Salzberg, 1986:19).

In a broader sense, two cultures are at conflict in the story. These cultures are the Polish

and the American. While Eva represents the Polish culture, Rosen represents American culture.

Because of different cultures, Eva and her husband are not ready to trust anyone

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The themes of the story also include the social struggle of small businessmen and

women in a large city, and more particularly, the struggle of Jewish immigrants to establish

themselves in America in the mid-twentieth century. (Man vs Society Conflict)

2.7. CLIMAX

Death looms large at the end of the story when it seems, from Rosen's words, that he

committed suicide. This is an unexpected twist; it now appears that Rosen was dead all along

and that Davidov is some kind of angel sent to record the details surrounding his suicide (It is

not explicitly stated that he did succeed in killing himself.)

2.8. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

2.8.1. SYMBOLS

“Eva’s Name is in allusion to the exile and suffering of her namesake, Eve, the mother

of mankind.” (Salzberg, 1986:20)

Eva is a representative character that shows how Polish refugees struggled hard to

survive in a strange country.

2.8.2. METAPHORS

The grocery store, is likened explicitly to a graveyard, symbolizing the death of its

owner's dreams and hopes.

Davidov, a census taker, is an angel sent to record Rosen’s charities.

2.8.3. IMAGERY

2.8.3.1 FUNERAL IMAGERY

“The square, clean but cold room, lit by a dim globe, was sparsely

furnished: the cot, a folding chair, small table, unpainted chests– no closets

but who needed them?– and a small sink with a rough piece of green,

institutional soap on its holder– you could smell it across the room. The

worn black shade over the single window was drawn to the ledge,

surprising Davidov.” (emphasis added)

The story starts with Davidov’s visit to Rosen and description of a room. The room is

described like a funeral home. In the description, some elements/symbols showing Jewish

funeral traditions are remarkable:

Candles are lit next to the body of a dead person (The room is lit by a dim globe).

PROTAGONIST ANTAGONIST

Rosen Eva

Pity Pride

Unusual softness Unusual stiffness

Rosen’s persistent efforts to help Eva Eva’s refusal to Rosen’s repeated offers

American culture Polish culture

Table 2: Conflict between protagonist and antagonist

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Traditionally and symbolically, the bereaved (someone whose close friend or family

member has recently died) sits on lower stools or a ground (There’s a folding chair in the room).

Traditional and Orthodox Jews use a plain wooden coffin (unpainted chest).

People who have been in the presence of a body wash their hands before entering a

home. (a sink and a soap )

Curtains are tightly drawn at the funeral home. (Worn black shade is drawn)

2.8.3.2. DEATH IMAGERY

Death imagery is connected with Axel's failing grocery store in a 'dead neighborhood'.

Rosen urges Axel to give the store up 'before everybody is a skeleton', and later entreats Eva to

do the same:

“Believe me, I know from such stores. After thirty-five years' experience

I know a graveyard when I smell it.”

2.8.4. FLASHBACK

The story begins with the coming of Davidov to Rosen. On Davidov’s question, Rosen

narrates Axel and Eva’s story as a flashback of events leading up to the discovery of his attempt

to commit suicide.

2.8.5. AMBIGUITY

The title of the story is ambiguous and Salzburg (1986) interpret in three ways:

Rosen’s plea to Eva to accept his pity.

Rosen’s plea to Eva to pity him by accepting his aid.

Eva’s plea to Rosen to be left alone.

It can also be added:

Eva’s pity on Rosen because of his attempt to suicide at the end of the story – “It was

Eva staring him with haunted, beseeching eyes. She raised her arms to him”

At the same time, it is not explicitly stated that he did succeed in killing himself. Thus,

the story uses ambiguity, allowing for more than one interpretation of events.

2.8.6. IRONY

Malamud fills the story with ironies (May, 2004):

The angel, Davidov, like the people he scrutinizes, is shabby, poorly equipped,

somewhat frazzled, and bored.

Axel saddles Rosen with his burdens as he dies at the feet of the old, sick, lonely coffee

sales representative.

Although Rosen is a skeptical and experienced person, he is willing to leave all of his

money and goods to a widow whom he scarcely knows.

Woven throughout the story is the crowning irony that those who are eager to savor the

joy of giving unselfishly must suffer from the would-be recipient’s hatred and endure personal

anguish and humiliation.

Even worse, with the Holocaust still painfully remembered in Jewish memories, Rosen

dies by gas.

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When Rosen is stripped of everything with nothing remaining to give, proud Eva

appears, repentant and importuning.

2.9. STYLE AND TECHNIQUE

Eberhardt (2003) cites that there are two main directions for the interpretation of “Take

Pity”. One possible interpretation is to assume that “Take Pity” is a fantastic story that deals

with one realistic level, the relationship of Rosen and Eva before Rosen’s ultimate action of

putting his head in the stove and one unreal level, the conversation of Rosen and Davidov. The

other way is to assume that it is a realistic story containing realistic threads, connected with

each other, interspersed fantastic elements.

May (2004) also states that Malamud masterfully blends the banal and commonplace with

the mystical and the spiritual. For example; Rosen speaks with an angel whose appearance,

speech, and behavior are anything but angelic. Rosen also speaks and acts as if, despite his

death, he were alive. The reader accepts these characterizations until Malamud reveals,

smoothly and without explicit explanations, Davidov’s real identity and Rosen’s true condition.

In “Take Pity,” Malamud facilitates this merger of the real and the unreal by using a spare

setting and employing almost cryptic prose. This allows his characters to move easily between

worlds—a device that Malamud often employed—without things seeming in the least out of

the ordinary.

2.10. THEMES

2.10.1. SUFFERING

Eva, in “Take Pity,” will go as far as destroying Davidov´s life instead of accepting his

charity that was aimed to put an end to her predicament. Davidov, in turn, destroys himself for

not succeeding at completing his “task.”

Characters undergo pain because they do not understand the true nature and drives of

the people with whom they associate. Pain comes to Rosen because he misjudges Eva. He fails

to understand that if she refused a small gift of money once, she would also refuse Rosen's

ultimate attempt to help her, the giving of his life fail to understand the actions of their mates.

In fact, both of them could have had better lives if they'd genuinely connected with one another,

but they failed to.

In a broad sense, some can say that Rosen behaves like a masochist, one who enjoys

receiving pain, and Eva is like a sadist, giving pain (Sadism involves not only gaining pleasure

from seeing others undergo pain or discomfort but also taking enjoyment in committing sadistic

acts).

2.10.2. STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE / THE HARSHNESS OF LIFE

“Take pity” is the story of a women’s never ending struggle in the face of bitter social,

economic and emotional situation. She resisted every attempt that could weaken her struggle.

She aimed at becoming self-sufficient and self-reliant but the social and economic factors failed

her badly and she again and again came at zero. She struggled to have a good life for herself

and her two little orphan daughters but she always failed. She struggled only to preserve her

self-respect and did not want anyone to take pity on her but her circumstances again and again

landed her in to a pitiable condition

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2.10.3. CAPITULATION TO FATE

Salzberg (1986: 21) states that Eva has already capitulated to fate. That is, she has

accepted her inheritance, a life of suffering. Experience has taught her that her future will be no

different from her past: She tells Rosen: “‘in my whole life I never had anything. In my whole

life I always suffered. I don’t expect better. This is my life’ ”. Both European past (living in the

shadow of Holocaust suffering) and American present (being around poverty and suffering)

converge to create a woman sees herself as an outcast and beyond salvation.

2.10.4. HUMAN LOVE

Hero's love for mankind is his feeling of responsibility for mankind. The majority of

men around the hero do not and will not accept responsibility for their fellowman; their love

has not reached the depth of agape, love that is spiritual in nature. For this reason, they do not

suffer and they do not understand the hero's motives for certain of his actions.

2.10.5. EXCESSES OF PRIDE AND STUBBORNNESS

There is a man who wants to help Eva and her daughters, but she refuses repeatedly.

Rosen could be very helpful to them. Eva is so stubborn that she even refuses to allow her

children to take food Rosen although her daughters are hungry and getting thinner and thinner.

Some speeches of Rosen that show excesses of pride and stubbornness:

“The little girls I was afraid to look at. I could see in their faces their bones. They were

tired, they were weak”, describes Rosen.

He also ask: “Why should somebody that her two children were starving always say no

to a man that he wanted to help her?”

“I felt like to pick up a chair and break her head” (Rosen is about to lose his patience)

2.10.6. IGNORANCE

Axel Kalish, in 'Take Pity" buys a store which has no future, and he ignores the advice

of Rosen, a more experienced man in such matter so Rosen tells Axel, "'Kiddo, this is a mistake.

This place is a grave. Here they will bury you if you don't get out quick!'" But Axel refuses to

leave, and the store does kill him. Also, Eva doesn’t lend her ears to Rosen and she fails in

keeping the store.

2.11 MAIN IDEAS

Life is hard.

Do not ignore experienced people’s ideas/advice.

We should take pity because we have hearts and we are human beings.

We should not live on charity under any circumstances whatsoever, instead we should

try to live a life based on moral values.

We must not throw away our self-respect

To be truly “human” is to recognize the vulnerability of others.

There is a limit of every body’s patience.

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REFERENCES

BIOGRAPHY

Magill, F. N. (Ed.). (1997). Cyclopedia of World Authors, Fourth Revised Edition. Pasadena,

California: Salem Press, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/ (30.11.2013)

Kellman, S. G. (Ed.). (2006). Magill's Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition.

Pasadena, California: Salem Press, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/ (30.11.2013)

Peck, D. R &Howard E. (Eds.). (1997). Identities & Issues in Literature. Pasadena, California:

Salem Press, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/ (30.11.2013)

Milne, I. M. (Ed.). (2013). Short Stories For Students (Volume 20). Farmington Hills,

Michigan: Gale Cengage, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/ (30.11.2013)

www.wikipedia.com

ANALYSIS

Eberhardt, A. (2003). "Take Pity" by Bernard Malamud: Munich, GRIN Publishing GmbH,

Retrieved from http://www.grin.com/en/e-book/20285/take-pity-by-bernard-malamud (01.12.2013)

Malik, F. (2012). Notes for BA English Punjab University. Retrieved from

http://fouziamalik.blogspot.com/ (01.12.2013)

May, E. C. (2004). Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition. Pasadena, California:

Salem Press, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/ (30.11.2013)

NeoEnglish. (2010). An outline of the short story "TAKE PITY" by Malamud. Retrieved from

http://neoenglish.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/an-outline-of-the-short-story-take-pity-by-

maulamud/ (01.12.2013)

Sarlzburg, J. (1986). Irremediable Suffering: A Reading of Malamud’s “Take Pity”. Studies in

Short Fiction; Vol. 23-1, p19-24: Newberry College, Newberry. Retrieved from

http://connection.ebscohost.com/ (30.11.2013)

FURTHER READING

Lawrence, L. (Ed.) (1991). Conversations with Bernard Malamud: Univ. Press of Mississippi.