Eli the fanatic

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Photo of an Orthodox Ashkenazi rabbi

Eli, the Fanatic (German Eli, der Fanatiker ) is a short story by the Jewish-American writer Philip Roth , which, after its first publication in 1959 in Commentary, along with a short novel and four other stories in the same year in the anthology Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories in 1959 at the Boston Houghton Mifflin Verlag.

The German first edition was published in 1962 in a translation by Herta Haas under the title Eli, the Fanatiker in the Goodbye, Columbus collection . A short novel and five stories in the Rowohlt publishing house , Reinbek.

Table of contents

Drawing of a caftan robe

This short story Roth plays 1949 in the Jewish suburban community of Woodenton, 30 miles outside of New York City , where the Jews in the aftermath of the Holocaust is allowed since the war to acquire land. Feeling that they are finally living safely and are no longer persecuted as they were in the Old World , the Jewish citizens of Woodenton have assimilated into American society and have given up their most striking Jewish or Hasidic traditions and customs in order to be on good terms " to live with Christians as friends and neighbors . "

It is even believed that the Jews would not have been persecuted had they adapted to the particular society in which they settled.

The peace of the Jewish citizens of Woodenton is disturbed, however, when Tzuref, an Orthodox rabbi from Eastern Europe, purchases a property on the outskirts of the city as a DP ( " Displaced Person " ) and founds a strictly Orthodox Talmudic school. Tzuref and his pupils are Holocaust survivors . A particular nuisance for the assimilated Jewish citizens of Woodenton is the factotum of the school, which is dressed in a caftan and a huge wide-brimmed black Talmud hat, i. H. Dressed in the costume of the Askenazi Jews , appears in town to do the shopping for school in the shops.

The title character Eli Peck, a young lawyer, is then commissioned by his fellow Jewish citizens to ask Tzuref to relocate his Talmudic school to another city or at least another district, since the building he and his students used was in a purely residential area Neighborhood of Woodenton is located. It is feared that the conspicuous display of otherness would jeopardize the hard-won recognition of the Jewish community in Woodenton.

The protagonist Eli Peck, however, does not succeed in breaking Tzuref's resistance to the relocation of his yeshiva either through personal conversations or letters . However, Eli is able to persuade the servant to wear a tweed suit and new shoes from his own inventory instead of the black caftan robe. Eli believes that this will help preserve the reputation of the city's Jewish residents.

In return, Peck, to his surprise, found a parcel with the discarded black clothes from the factotum on his doorstep. He cannot resist the temptation to put them on and show himself in these clothes in the streets of the city and finally even in front of his wife and their just-born son in the clinic.

When Eli meets the factotum in the worn clothes of the factotum in the city, he thinks he will see each other again divided into two people in two suits. The townspeople, who see Eli in the servant's discarded garb, declare him crazy. Eli's wife also believes when he visits the clinic that he has lost his mind.

One of his Jewish acquaintances manages to give Eli a tranquilizer during his visit to the clinic. The story ends with the final sentence: "The drug calmed his soul, but it did not get into the depth that blackness had penetrated." This ironic and at the same time comical closing punchline leaves the further course of the plot completely open.

Interpretative approach

Eli the Fanatiker varied in many ways the subject matter of the Jewish identity awareness in the confrontation of the matched Judens Eli with the past his people representing Tzuref that the knowledge of the identity loss of the protagonists leads and - at least apparent - definitive loss of identity of the title character in insanity to Consequence. The comedy with which the event is portrayed becomes grotesque at the end of the story .

The contradiction between the homeless and the resident does not only appear as the main structural form of the narrative, in which the stranger forms an interesting contrasting figure, but also becomes a contradiction in this short story by Roth, which in turn triggers contradictions, with terms and ideas increasing in proportion become incompatible with each other.

The figure of the stranger in the form of the orthodox Tzuref is introduced abruptly in the opening passage, as if he had come from another distant world into the American environment, alien or unknown to him, without any ties or connections to the new environment. His presence as an outsider, intruder or outsider has the catalytic effect that the assimilated Jewish residents of Woodenton become aware of their ideas and their situation and at the same time articulate their convictions as well as their prejudices and the stereotypes on which they are based . In this way, with the non-binding nature of the norms and ways of life that they naively adopted, the price they paid for their assimilation into American society becomes clear.

The union of the adapted Jewish citizens to defend themselves against Tzuref, the homeless stranger, reveals in this short story by Roth at the same time the social adaptation mechanisms and their structures in the Jewish assimilation process of the American post-war society. In their endeavor to define their own social position, the Jewish residents of Woodenton articulate their own values ​​and conceptions in an increasingly clear and pointed form, which increasingly turns out to be completely incompatible with the conceptual world of Tzuref, the foreign.

The mandate to cause Elis, Tzuref for departure or to the closure of his yeshiva, they justify from certain preconceived notions of progressivism, modernism and science that turn out but Tzurefs existentially reasonable argument against as how Hellweg writes, "meaningless and empty phrase sleeves" .

“Tell this Tzuref how far we've come, Eli. We're a modern church, Eli, we have families, we pay taxes. [...] We live in the age of science, Eli. [...] We won't have any pogroms . Right? Because there are no fanatics here, no crazy people [...] The [ ie Tzuref and his students ] do not allow themselves to be guided by reason. Speaking a dead language - is that reasonable? To exaggerate one's suffering in such a way that one always complains oi-oi-oi - does that testify to common sense? "

Eli takes up these arguments in his letter to Tzuref:

“It seems to me that it is mainly the city visits of the gentleman in the black hat, black suit, etc. that disturb my fellow citizens. Woodenton is a progressive community whose residents, Jews and Christians alike, care to bring their families the highest levels of beauty, comfort and joy. After all, we live in the twentieth century, and so we can expect our members to dress to suit the time and place. [...] In order to make this adjustment possible, both Jews and Christians had to give up some of their most striking habits ”.

According to Hellweg, this is "a part of the liberal assimilation vocabulary that can be understood as the ideological toolbox of a progressive society programmed for the ' pursuit of happiness ' and conforming to tolerance ". The two conspicuous terms of progressivity and modernism , however, receive a logical-manipulative change in meaning in the letter, since only a few connotations associated with them are recognized as valid and both terms are used exclusively to delimit a certain group and their interests to preserve. The claim contained in both terms limits one group while excluding another. A “stranger” who does not know or recognize progressivity and modernism as positive values ​​is seen as an enemy of this order, as an excluded or “ outcast ”.

The attempt of the Jewish citizens to define their own position in American post-war society and to differentiate themselves from those who they experience as not belonging to it, however, at the same time reflects the insecurity of the assimilated Jews in their social affiliation and their social values. At the end of the letter, Eli said that the good understanding with the American Christians had only recently been established. The Jewish residents of Woodenton are now convinced that they have finally found a real new home, and believe in the fulfillment of the American Dream that the minorities will be accepted into the majority or will grow up.

Roth's narrative addresses the problem of the identity consciousness of Woodenton's Jewish community, which is based on views that are clichéd and are based on mere assumptions or prejudices. The short story Eli the Fanatic reveals the " complex " of assimilated Jews and accordingly reflects their own uncertainty as to whether the majority of Americans really and finally accept them as equals. The stronger their own insecurity, the more they push for self-affirmation and recognition of the new values ​​that have been adopted with assimilation. These also form the basis of the reality in which they live, and their self-understanding, which they in reality this project . They have only achieved their new identity by adopting the (stereotypical) views as desirable forms of behavior. As “modern” Jews, they demonstrate their willingness to cooperate and conform and see themselves as a progressive part of American society.

The self-understanding and self-awareness of the assimilated Jewish community, aiming for a balance, is impaired or startled in Roth's narrative by the appearance of a stranger who "lives from an unbroken tradition of faith, which for them still exists as a convention ". From Tzuref's point of view, the “gentiles” (i.e. the non-Jews) are simply “ goyims ” ; For him, the 20th century, with all its progressive or enlightening moments, is simply the 58th century of the Jewish calendar and the civil law, accordingly, ultimately only "shame", "pliable", but ultimately meaningless.

For the Jewish residents of Woodenton, however, it is not primarily Tzuref's verbal views that are offensive. Even the concern that the disciples of his yeshiva might chase after their daughters in the future is not nearly as daunting as the appearance and appearance of the factotum, which for them represents the embodiment of a "religious fanatic". According to Hellweg's interpretation, the house servant reflects "fears and obsessions [...] which his American co-religionists carry and want to keep hidden: that the image that the servant presents to the public corresponds to the archetype or likeness of themselves and that the majority could adopt this image of the minority. As Hellweg explains, they feel frightened out of their “dream of being and allowed to be like the 'others'” and forced to defend themselves. Their longing to be able to choose and determine their own identity is endangered by the identification with the Eastern European model that may then be forced upon them; the further consequences of strict observance of Jewish law and faith would possibly push them back into a kind of ghetto existence . As advocates of the modern age of science and enlightenment, however, they are largely indifferent to questions of Jewish religion and belief.

For example, Ted Heller sends his daughter to religious instruction in the neighboring community; However, the biblical story of Abraham's God's sacrifice of his own son, about which she learns there, leads to nightmares; for Ted Heller, religion is mere superstition and a refuge for people who cannot endure modern reality and who fail in life. Accordingly, for him and for the rest of Woodenton's Jewish residents, the successful completion of their assimilation process is the result of their own ability to live and their own sense of reality.

Through their laboriously achieved assimilation they have acquired the good fortune to be able to live fearlessly in peace, security and material prosperity:

“What an incredible peace. Had the children ever been so safe in their beds? Have parents ever eaten this full? So naturally enjoying your warm bath? No way. [...] The walled cities had never had it so well either. No wonder the people of Woodenton wanted everything to be kept as it was. There was peace and security here. That was what civilization had been working towards for centuries. "

It is precisely these thoughts that occupy Eli when he tries to bring the package with the new suit for the house servant to Tzuref. The hard-won new happiness could be destroyed if the Jewish community were again forced to change their identity. The urgent warnings addressed to him by his fellow Jewish citizens to do everything possible to persuade Tzuref and his Talmudic school to leave Woodenton are based on this concern or fear.

The fear of a possible loss of this happiness also strains Eli's relationship with his wife Miriam:

“Whenever everything has been peaceful for a long time, whenever we are living nicely and comfortably and hope to become even happier. Like right now. It's like you think we don't deserve to be happy. "

The identity obtained through adaptation is experienced here “internalized” and is called into doubt by the feeling of guilt for not really having earned this happiness; both Eli and his wife seem to suffer from this guilt; the repeated allusions in the narrative to Eli's previous nervous breakdowns likewise suggest this.

Eli is asked by Tzuref if he and his wife even recognize the word "suffering". Both of their sufferings are completely different from what Tzuref understands by it: Eli suffers from the notion of not being able to fully meet the demands of the legal profession and life in general; his wife has “a kind of Oedipus experience” with the still unborn baby. Miriam finds help in overcoming her problems or complexes in her psychoanalytic therapy ; She had already brought her interest in psychoanalysis into the marriage, as well as a deck chair and a three-month subscription to the New Yorker  - Roth's ironically used sign of an enlightened and progressive attitude Miriam.

She continually seeks analysts and also recommends treatment to Eli so that he can get over his inner conflicts and feelings of guilt . In their opinion, it is the task of psychoanalysis to correct disturbances in the adaptation to the social environment and the personal instability caused by them . In this way, psychoanalysis becomes a “stabilizing factor for failures in the assimilation process” that make “domestic happiness”, “order and love in your personal world” and thus the essential points of reference in your experience of reality compulsive .

Eli's previous self-confidence is changed and endangered by the encounter with Tzuref and his factotum. The mandate of his fellow citizens makes him their representative and includes his partisanship for their concerns and interests. As a lawyer, however, he has often felt the desire to be able to represent the other side as well:

“Too often he wished he had to represent the opposing party; but if that had been the case, he would have wished nothing more than to return to the other side. "

In Eli the duplication, the wish or the desire to be oneself and someone else at the same time, is personalized. This desire is latently also present in the group of Jewish residents of Woodenton, of which Eli sees himself as an exponent. For Eli this leads to the conclusion that it must also be possible to get other people to identify with this group; H. to initiate a conversion, as it were, in the double meaning of the word as incorporation or adaptation and also conversion, as his conversation with his friend Ted Heller shows.

Its own conversion, i. H. his wish to become someone else in order to escape the constraints is grotesquely linked to a disguise which, from the outside perspective, expresses his desire to change roles. The sight of the black clothing given to him by the factotum is for him as fascinating as it is overwhelming and represents an irresistible, compelling temptation to which he gives in without thinking about it. His other self, his reflection, appears in the costumes. At the same time he takes on the behavior of the previous wearer with the other clothes and now greets his friends and acquaintances with “ shalom ”. He falls under the spell of the worn black cloth; the boundaries of his own identity are becoming increasingly blurred.

When he confronts the factotum in person, his confused state of consciousness manifests itself:

“Suddenly he got the strange feeling that he was made up of two people. Or he is a person in two suits. "

This knowledge, which is similar to a revelation, urges him to show himself in public in his new, changed identity in order to see himself confirmed. For his friends and Jewish acquaintances, however, Eli's appearance and behavior is extremely uncomfortable and annoying; they dismiss it as another “nervous breakdown” of Elis and try to suppress it through such a rational classification. Eli's assumption that he has become someone else comes up against the realization that he has actually become someone else, namely father.

During the visit of his wife and his just-born son to the clinic, at the end of the story his friends and fellow citizens try in a paradoxical way, as it were , to give Eli - who wants to escape the constraints of the modern age - back his original identity with the coercive means of modern medicine.

Narrative form, motifs, symbols and their meaning

At first glance, the structure and subject matter of Roth's short story appear to be "simple, targeted and designed for the final point" and thus contain all the typical characteristics of the short story that is classic for this literary genre . The event is presented from the personal narrative situation "skillfully, quickly and smoothly". The art of Roth's narrative is particularly evident in the depiction of the process, which changes from Eli's encounters with Tzuref to those with his wife Miriam or to the phone calls with his clients and friends.

The atmosphere of the event is symbolically charged, as Woodenton are characterized by glaring light, but the school building is characterized by darkness.

Numerous elements, motifs and ciphers , which seem to be easily handwritten, are interwoven in the story , the resolution of which reveals a “peculiar, multifaceted and deeper-reaching pattern of meaning”. The figures appearing are largely typified and not drawn as individuals ; they each represent a group with their specific way of thinking; the moments of action contain symbolic references and references.

The intertwined elements and motifs create a specific world of fictional reality in which “ allusions , allusions and associations with projected stereotypical ideas” come together. Elie, the Fanatic gains an independent profile and an underlying meaning in the abbreviation necessary for a short story .

The name "Eli" refers to the old Jewish history and tradition. Thus the book of Samuel tells of Eli, the temple priest , the judge of the people of Israel and teacher of the prophet Samuel , who as such is considered to be the keeper and continuer of the Jewish faith. At the same time, the name refers to the cry for help from Psalm 22 , 2: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me ...", which is also handed down as the last word of Christ on the cross .

"Eli Zion" is also the beginning of lamentations that are recited in the synagogue on the day of mourning , so that the title name is determined by various meaningful allusions. The name "Tzuref" also contains obvious hints. In Yiddish Tzuref means after translation by Allen Guttman "trouble" (dt. About "difficulties, problems, anger, sorrow"). In addition, the name can be associated with the Russian word chur , which is considered out of date and denotes the closing words of a prayer, read aloud by a priest, intended to dispel unclean forces. Accordingly, this interpretation of the name would also refer to the family names that the Tsarist regime had forcibly assigned to the Jews, with the Tzuref family ironically named in such an interpretation using a term from the liturgy of one of the Christian Eastern European churches . The name would thus establish a relationship with the history of Judaism in the dispersion .

Tzuref is also hard to imagine without the tradition of Hasidism ; He is thus a spiritual descendant of the Hasidim, the pious, who tried to renew the faith of the Jewish communities in Eastern Europe in the 18th century. Therefore, for Tzuref, everyday reality, as it shows itself in his meeting with Eli Peck, is of secondary importance; the observance of civil laws and the adjustment to the modern norms or values ​​of the normal everyday life of the American society play no role for him, since they only serve the maintenance of this very social order, but not the authority of God.

The name of the suburb Woodenton is also symbolically charged: it refers to the quiet location in the forest and evokes associations of a peaceful, harmonious life in a rural area. Woodenton is one of the newer suburbs that are so far away from the nearest major city that Eli needs three hours a day to drive to his office, for example. Likewise, the name could symbolically refer to the "verholzte" ( "wood "), d. H. interpret stubborn or narrow-minded way of thinking or attitude of residents. In this way , the representation of the events in Eli, the Fanatic takes on a deeper meaning in many ways.

Impact history

The problems raised by the title of what actually shapes Eli's fanaticism and what actually triggered his change of identity or mind can only be clarified due to the openness of the final passage if Roth considers this narrative in a more comprehensive analysis in the context of his entire work. Likewise, the question of whether Eli really lost his identity in the end and went mad, or whether he found his true identity at this point, can only be answered within the framework of an interpretation of Roth's oeuvre.

In Eli, the Fanatic , as in his other novels and stories, Roth is primarily concerned with the question of today's Jewish identity in the balance between the acceptance of the traditional, i.e. H. the conformity and the assertion of the individuality, d. H. his individuality. Just like z. B. Neil Klugman in Goodbye, Columbus or Alexander Portnoy in Portnoy's complaints ponder the question of adapting to the non-Jewish environment and identifying with one's own origin and history, Roth poses in this short story the question of the identity of people and theirs possible loss, according to the “real” or “true” of Jewish life in modern (American) society. The tension between the poles of assimilation and the preservation of Jewish tradition and tradition borders on the grotesque and can deprive individuals of common sense.

In the literary analysis and interpretation of Eli, the fanatic , the fictional reality that Roth creates in this story is seen as a “brilliant picture” that - without being without “stringency and internal consistency” - is based on the basic pattern of the contrast between the stranger and a closed society and the resulting contradictions.

Roth tries to grasp the “reality” of this contradiction more precisely and to clarify it by “bringing the ideas and assumptions of those involved into play and thus building up a world characterized by prejudices, stereotypes and cliché ideas”, the “ fantasy of all of us experienced facts-reality in no way ”. In this way, Roth succeeds in creating the "impression of the narrowness and spiritual emptiness [...] of Woodenton's upper middle class".

Accordingly, many Jewish circles (mis) understood Roth's portrayal as a mimesis of their own social reality and accused Roth of "polluting the nest" of the Jewish community.

Current issues

  • Eli, the Fanatic . In: Philip Roth: Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories . Houghton Mifflin Verlag, Boston 1989, ISBN 0-395-51850-4 . (original English text)
  • Eli the fanatic . In: Philip Roth: Goodbye, Columbus. A short novel and five stories. German by Herta Haas. Hanser, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-446-23065-1 . (German translation)

Secondary literature

  • Heiner Bus: Philip Roth · Jewish tradition as irritation and a way out of the crisis . In: Hubert Zapf (ed.): American literary history. 2nd act. Edition, Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-476-02036-3 , pp. 448-451, here especially pp. 148f.
  • Thomas David: Philip Roth . Rowohlt's monographs. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2013, ISBN 978-3-499-50578-2 , pp. 60ff.
  • Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , pp. 215-225.
  • Gottfried Krieger: Philip Roth . In: Martin Christadler (Ed.): American literature of the present in single representations (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 412). Kröner, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-520-41201-2 , pp. 129–154, here especially pp. 132f.
  • Franz Link: “Eli, the Fanatic”, 1959 . In: Franz Link: American storytellers since 1950 · Topics · Contents · Forms . Schöningh, Paderborn 1993, ISBN 3-506-70822-8 , pp. 139f.
  • Hannah Spector: The Cosmopolitan Imagination in Philip Roth's "Eli, the Fanatic" . In: Journal of Curriculum Theorizing . Volume 27, Number 3, 2011, pp. 224-238. (in English; available online, see weblink below)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the information in Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 215. The Goodbye, Columbus collection has since been reprinted several times in various editions and publishers.
  2. ↑ The German edition was reprinted in 2004 and 2012 by Rowohlt Verlag and also published in 2010 by Hanser Verlag . See the information in the catalog of the German National Library under [1] .
  3. ↑ Cf. the German text p. 322 in the edition by Hanser Verlag 2010 (see below: "Current edition"). See also the table of contents in Franz Link: “Eli, the Fanatic”, 1959 . In: Franz Link: American storytellers since 1950 · Topics · Contents · Forms . Schöningh, Paderborn 1993, ISBN 3-506-70822-8 , p. 139.
  4. ↑ See text p. 311f. See also the table of contents in Franz Link: “Eli, the Fanatic”, 1959 . In: Franz Link: American storytellers since 1950 · Topics · Contents · Forms . Schöningh, Paderborn 1993, ISBN 3-506-70822-8 , p. 139.
  5. ↑ See text pp. 337, 339ff., 346f., 350ff., 358f., 362ff. See also the table of contents in Franz Link: “Eli, the Fanatic”, 1959 . In: Franz Link: American storytellers since 1950 · Topics · Contents · Forms . Schöningh, Paderborn 1993, ISBN 3-506-70822-8 , p. 139, and Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 216f.
  6. ↑ See text on p. 353 and 355
  7. ↑ See text p. 366. See also Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 217.
  8. ↑ See Franz Link: “Eli, the Fanatic”, 1959 . In: Franz Link: American storytellers since 1950 · Topics · Contents · Forms . Schöningh, Paderborn 1993, ISBN 3-506-70822-8 , p. 140.
  9. ↑ See Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 218f.
  10. ↑ Text pp. 307, 340f. See Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , pp. 219f.
  11. ↑ Text p. 321f.
  12. ↑ See Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , pp. 219f.
  13. ↑ See text p. 322f. See also Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 220f.
  14. ↑ See Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 220f.
  15. ↑ See text p. 309f. and in particular p. 326f. For this interpretation, see also Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 220f.
  16. ↑ See text pp. 339–342. See also the interpretation by Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 220f.
  17. ↑ See text p. 343. See also the interpretation by Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 221 f.
  18. ↑ See text p. 333. See also the interpretation by Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 222.
  19. ↑ See text e.g. BS 313, 332 f., 353 and 359. See also the interpretation by Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 222.
  20. ↑ See text e.g. BS 312 f. and p. 320.
  21. ↑ See text, e.g. BS 319 and 321 and Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 222.
  22. ↑ Text p. 312f.
  23. ↑ See text on p. 341 f. See also Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 222 f.
  24. ↑ See text pp. 351-354. See also Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 223.
  25. ↑ See text on p. 355
  26. ↑ See text p. 359 and 363. See also Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 223.
  27. ↑ See text p. 364 ff. Cf. also Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 223.
  28. ↑ See detailed Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , pp. 215f. and Franz Link: “Eli, the Fanatic”, 1959 . In: Franz Link: American storytellers since 1950 · Topics · Contents · Forms . Schöningh, Paderborn 1993, ISBN 3-506-70822-8 , p. 140.
  29. ↑ See text pp. 307f., 326f., 329f. See also Franz Link: “Eli, the Fanatic”, 1959 . In: Franz Link: American storytellers since 1950 · Topics · Contents · Forms . Schöningh, Paderborn 1993, ISBN 3-506-70822-8 , p. 140.
  30. ↑ See more detailed Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 216f.
  31. ↑ See more detailed Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 217.
  32. ↑ See the detailed explanations and evidence in Martin Hellweg on the name symbolism presented so far: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , pp. 217f.
  33. ^ Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, "Eli, the Fanatic" (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , pp. 217f.
  34. ↑ See detailed Franz Link: “Eli, the Fanatic”, 1959 . In: Franz Link: American storytellers since 1950 · Topics · Contents · Forms . Schöningh, Paderborn 1993, ISBN 3-506-70822-8 , p. 140, and Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 216.
  35. ↑ See in more detail the presentation and evidence in Martin Hellweg: Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (1959) . In: Peter Freese (ed.): The American Short Story of the Present: Interpretations . Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-503-01225-7 , p. 223f. See also Gottfried Krieger: Philip Roth . In: Martin Christadler (ed.): American literature of the present in individual representations. Kröner, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-520-41201-2 , pp. 132ff.