Isaac Bashevis Singer was born on November 21, 1904, in Leoncin, Poland. His parents were Pinchas Mendel Singer and Bathsheba Zylberman, who had a Polish-Jewish past (Kresh 16). Isaac Singer was the third child; he has an older sister named Ester Kreitman and an older brother named Israel Joshua Singer. All the Singer siblings became writers as well. When Joshua was moving out, he “gave Isaac a copy of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment in a Yiddish translation” (Kresh 61). Even though he could only understand some parts of what he was reading, this sparked a fascination for reading even more. He went to the library to ask the librarians about other authors similar to Dostoevsky that he had heard Joshua speaking about in the past. Soon enough, Singer was “struck by the theories of the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza” (Kresh 62) as he continued reading about more theories. Other than Spinoza, he was influenced by many other philosophers like Gogol, Talmud, and Kabbala.
Singer’s writing style was developed by “the conflictions between the rational and the irrational, the innocent and the worldly, the demonic and the cherubic, the real and the fantastic, the romantic and the conservative” (Kresh 16). He was mainly influenced by the marriage of his parents and the legacy of a Polish-Jewish past. Moreover, Singer believed that a story should be written in a way which anyone could read it and interpret it in his or her own ways. “In literature as in life, the facts should speak for themselves” (Gilman & Singer 30). No author should have to explain to the readers what they are writing about. Readers should have the ability to understand the story based on their own experiences and create interpretations.
When he started writing Singer said, “critics always complained that I was not writing in the Yiddish tradition and I told them ‘Where is it written that a writer must write in a tradition? A real writer should create his own tradition, his own style’” (Gilman & Singer 31). Due to the fact that he did not follow Yiddish traditions has allowed him to create paths for himself and leave behind some kind of legacy for later writers to follow. This allows Singer to be the best writer he can and to share his ideas in any way he possibly wants.
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Furthermore, “Yiddish readers reject the works of Singer, branding them not only as ‘worthless,’ but as ‘pornographic’ and even ‘degenerate’” (Allentuck 14). His use of language while writing his stories are seen to be too explicit to Yiddish readers. Singer also says that “In my works the question of man’s position in society also exists. He does not live in a vacuum. He is a part” (Gilman & Singer 32). All the protagonists of the story reflect a problem in the society that we live in. It allows us to make real life connects and connect to the story on a different level.
One of Isaac Singer’s most popular short story fiction is “Gimpel The Fool.” In the story, “Singer develops his picture of the fool’s progress by allusions to biblical images and the Kabbala, focusing in the end on wisdom so luminous that it is incommunicable” (Clasby 90). The way that the world works is made so that no one can truly understand how one thing can lead to another. Everything that is done and happens is what “God” made or created to happen at any specific time or location. The fact that Gimpel at the end becomes a prophet was set from when he was born.
Isaac Bashevis Singer is a non-traditional Yiddish writer who similar his brother “broke the simple patterns of narrative and introduced a sense of historical epic” (Gilman & Singer 30). Singer created this new non-traditional way of writing that allowed either Yiddish readers or English readers to understand what they are reading and to connect to it. His stories are easy to comprehend and dissect. Singer’s writing style can be described as a blend of religious morality and social awareness with an investigational twist of personal desires.
Two stories read in class that was personally enjoyable was “Gimpel the Fool” and “Taibele and Her Demon.” “Taibele and Her Demon” was a short story which could have been considered confusing in the first half of the story but clarifies itself by the end. This short story was able to show that many women are gullible when at their most vulnerable stages of life. Likewise, men are pigs who would take advantage of women but at the end gets “karma.” After completing all this research about Isaac Bashevis Singer, it is clear why he became a writer and how his writing has created a new style of writing for future writers. His stories use explicit language and aren’t like the traditional stories which make him unique and urgent in a Jewish literature class.
