The Defender of the Faith Essay examples -- Essays Papers

The protector of the FaithIn Philip Roths, Defender of the Faith, Sergeant Nathan Marx is the Defender of whom the title speaks. Reluctant at first, Marx defended his trust on two fronts, one across the sea in atomic number 63 and the second in the United States. The battle in the states was of a contrasting type. Marx learned what it was like to defend his and the faith of his fellow Jews against prejudice and revilement by those who waged the war. Marx is not an orthodox Jew. He does not follow the philosophy as most of those in his religion would and did not realize until asked by Grossbart that he was still religious. Though Grossbart showed him he was not like others, Grossbart was not the central antagonism, The war was. It was not that Marx was religious anymore, the religion was sentimental to him. Marx a battle-tested soldier in the U.S. Army did not even recognize that he had already defeated an enemy set to wipe his heritage. PFC Grossbart and police captain Barrett were Marxs next opponents. Grossbart first introduced himself as Sheldon,(p.117) to try to get on a first name basis with Marx, for a familiarity that Marx did not want. Grossbart hazard Marx was Jewish by the spelling of his last name, which he spelled out as M-a-r-x.(p.117) Grossbart led Marx into believing he was interested in going to church building instead of cleaning the barracks. Marx knowing it was unfair that they were denied the chance to attend good told Grossbart he could attend shul(p.118). By call...