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

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 Malamuds 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 Malamuds 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; Rembrandts Hat (1973), another collection of stories; Dubins Lives (1979), a novel about a writer at midlife; Gods Grace (1982), a novel; The Stories of Bernard Malamud (1983), another collection; and a host of stories published separately in prestigious magazines. NOVELS

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"

The Natural (1952) The Assistant (1957) A New Life (1961) The Fixer (1966) The Tenants (1971) Dubin's Lives (1979) God's Grace (1982)

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.
2

- After Axels 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 Evas efforts, the store didnt get any better and she was again in trouble. - She asked for a loan from Rosens 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 couldnt 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 Davidovs visit to Rosen. He wants to find out the reason of Rosens 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.
3

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 1930s 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), nonparticipating narrator who see events throughout of a single character. In the story, the readers just see the events throughout Rosens eyes and know just his feelings and thoughts, not other characters. May (2004) indicates that Take Pity is the first of Malamuds 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 didnt 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.
4

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 Rosens 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 doesnt 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 doesnt 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 Evas 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 Evas 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 Axels 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 Evas refusal to accept Rosens repeated offers, and in Rosens persistent efforts to extend them, each one insults and injures the other. Rosens 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
5

PROTAGONIST Rosen Pity Unusual softness Rosens persistent efforts to help Eva American culture

ANTAGONIST Eva Pride Unusual stiffness Evas refusal to Rosens repeated offers Polish culture

Table 2: Conflict between protagonist and antagonist

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 Evas 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 Rosens 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 Davidovs 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).

Traditionally and symbolically, the bereaved (someone whose close friend or family member has recently died) sits on lower stools or a ground (Theres 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 Davidovs question, Rosen narrates Axel and Evas 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: Rosens plea to Eva to accept his pity. Rosens plea to Eva to pity him by accepting his aid. Evas plea to Rosen to be left alone. It can also be added: Evas 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 recipients hatred and endure personal anguish and humiliation. Even worse, with the Holocaust still painfully remembered in Jewish memories, Rosen dies by gas.
7

 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 Rosens 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, Davidovs real identity and Rosens 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 worldsa device that Malamud often employedwithout 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 Davidovs 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 womens 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
8

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 dont 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 doesnt lend her ears to Rosen and she fails in keeping the store. 2.11 MAIN IDEAS Life is hard. Do not ignore experienced peoples 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 bodys patience.

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 http://fouziamalik.blogspot.com/ (01.12.2013) Punjab University. Retrieved from

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-bymaulamud/ (01.12.2013) Sarlzburg, J. (1986). Irremediable Suffering: A Reading of Malamuds 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.

10