FAITH AND TRADITION , THE BURDEN

OF THE PRESENT IN PHILIP ROTH’S

Defender of the Faith

Talking about the Philip Roth’s literary work, Alfred Kazin said that the principal subject
of Rot’s book is the Jew aware of him, middle Jew, the Jew who has a problem to define his
identity.1
The Roth’s literary work can be organized to four major categories: childhood, youth,
maturity and old age. Roth presents us each of these “categories” with specific obsessions and
anxieties.2
The literary work “ DEFENDER OF THE FAITH” shows us two principal conflicts, and
those are:
 The general or social conflict – it is between the standard life from army and the
particular life of soldiers.
 The particular or specific conflict - it treats the influence of religion in the soldiers
life and certain the influence of Jewish tradition, how it is manifesting in the life
of those three soldiers and in the life of sergeant Nathan Marx. 3
The principal theme of literary work is the conflict between two characters, the sergeant
Nathan Marx and the soldier Sheldon Grossbart. The last one tried to manipulate his superior, the
sergeant Marx, he wanted to profit from both of them were Jews.
We meet in this literary work more characters:
 The capitan Paul Barrett
 The sergeant Nathan Marx
 The soldier Sheldon Grossbart
 The soldier Larry Fishbein

1
Site . V 3 philip Roth
2
Site / operele lui Roth’s fictive si ne
3
Idem 1
  The soldier Mickey Halpern
 The corporal C. Q. Robert LaHill
 The priest, major Leo Ben Ezra
The Jew sergeant Marx Nathan

After three years and two months in the army ( from which one year in war), sergeant
Nathan Marx gains an “ infantry heart ”, which “ comment on first pains ” as do the legs, but
which later get used to and learn to resist in any kind of moments.
Marx is an war veteran and in May 1945, when the war had finished in Europe, come
back to the United States, to Camp Crowder, Missouri.
When soldier Grossbart addresses him with “ sir ” ( in most cases to flatter him), Marx
carefully corrects him by telling that “ sir ” is only for the officers and that he is only a sergeant.
Even though he falls many times in the flattery of the manipulative Grossbart, sergeant Marx hate
to be flattered.
He proves to be a man worthy of praise due to his brave acts on the front, as captain
Barrett used to say: ” I admire you because of the ribbons on your chest. I judge a man on what
he shows me on the battlefield. ”
Marx is interested on an sensitive to the needs of those surrounding him, and as follows,
he goes to tell the captain the position of soldier Grossbart and his friends. Their need to go to
the synagogue on Friday evening. Marx encourages corporal C. Q. Robert LaHill to remind the
Jews that they are free to go adoration any time there is a mass in the synagogue.
Marx sings week-end permits for the three Jews in the absence of the captain, because he
is a sensitive guy.

Grossbart - defender of the tradition

Not seldom Marx makes approaches in favor of Grossbart, but this hold only until he
realizes that this one is just a manipulator, an unscrupulous guy, an “ extraordinary liar”, a “
painted grave” on whose label it is written: “ I am a Jew and I expect to be privileged for this. ”
 Because his superior, sergeant Marx, is also a Jew, Grossbart expects the sergeant to offer
him special favors, “ clean” Jewish food, informations regarding the orders and not the least
week-end permits.
Grossbart has some relations, this not because he cares for people, but because he likes to
use them to reach his selfish goals.
He uses two types of strategies:
- trough aggression – making pressure on those that can do “ something ” about the
injustices he is submitted to in the army.
- trough retrect – withdraws himself from Marx’s life, acting a fake adaptation
towards the conditions of the army.

Every time Marx gives up on pleasing him, the soldier fights back by reminding him that
he is also a Jew, accusing him of persecution, telling him that Hitler was also half Jew.

Put in antithesis, sergeant Nathan Marx is the prototype of the Jew who doesn’t respect
the Jewish tradition in all, but has character and shows a true love for those around him, while
soldier Sheldon Grossbart has only the Jewish tradition and nothing of what is the real essence of
Jewish worship.
Even through he always remembered his grandmother and and the fact that: “ mercy
overcomes justice. ”, Marx is aware that Grossbart is not a man with not connection to the
authentic Jewish belief, and so, he has nothing else to do but take a stad.

Marx – defender of the faith

At the Grossbart question “ You call this watching out for me – what you did?” the
Marx’s answers is “ No. For all of us” .