Examples Of Foolishness In Singer's Gimpel The Fool

Foolishness in Isaac Bashevis Singer's "Gimpel the Fool"

In Isaac Bashevis Singer's story, "Gimpel the Fool!" it is noticeable that Gimpel is made and thought to be a fool. There are definitely things that a reasonable amount of people could find extremely foolish in Gimpel yet in ways; he seems to be somewhat of a saint, not just a simple minded fool. It even seems that with everyone else in his head telling him he is a fool, he starts to even look at himself as one. This process gives a lower level of self-esteem to him than what he really should have. All throughout the story, are examples of why someshould think of Gimpel as a fool as well. When, in all honesty, everyone looks at the story closely. Gimpel is not as big of a fool as he is made out to be. Throughout, the whole story,Gimpel is understood to be convinced by everyone else that he is thelargest fool in the village. The truth of the matter is that the only fools in that village are the ones who feel they need to feed off of his humiliation and to also convince Gimpel that he is less important and ignorant.
This is the part of the story that is the most interesting to many. Gimpel can be expressed as an ignorant fool for his whole life when anyone can clearly see where the ignorance is really coming from. A man like this is not just a fool; he
is a man who has the most respect and the largest heart in the village. This characteristic is not found to be foolishness, but instead a kind man with a loving heart, open mind, and a sense that releases his trust out a little too easily.In Gimpel's childhood, people find him to be more foolish.They start to give him the name of being a fool. There areplenty of scenes where Gimpel is pointed out and proved to be afool: "Gimpel you know the Rabbi's wife has been brought to childbed," (3) or "Gimpel the moon fell down in Turbeen," (3). Another example would be, "Gimpel, the Hodel Furpiece found atreasure beklind the bathhouse" (3). Later in the story, Gimpel was teased (4)"Gimpel, a cow flew ovdr the roof and laid brass eggs" (3). Those all show a major percent of fiction. Many people would ask for an unbelievable event such as theones in the examples to be proven to them; oddly enough, Gimpel does not do so. In odd ways, he does not even try to acknowledge the times when events sounded odd. For example, the children tell him that the Rabbi's wife is brought to childbed. He then misses school assuming that people would not lie to him. A regular, rational person would find out for sure what was really going on. Gimpel seems to take trust gently and does not understand the concept of lying. He does not understand why he should not trust people even though some lies take big effects on him. Some of the events are not realistic. For example, he is told that the moon had fallen and landed on Earth. This would be a time when he would be considered foolish. Gimpel is portrayed as an easy target to be fooled, so even the ladies of Frampol take their shots to fool him. At this point in the story, Gimpel is told that the cow had jumped over the roof and laid brass eggs. The ladies, as well as the rest of the community, feed off of his embarrassment. Throughout the story, Gimpel is completely clueless that the people around him are intentionally humiliating him. The story progresses and more examples come up where people from the community try to dig at him by hurting his feelings."Gimpel, there's a fair in Heaven"(3), the women would tease. Some notice a number of times he is made out to be ludicrous fool. With all of the village folks having a good time with his foolishness, he ends up falling into a fool, yet he does not notice himself doing it. He even starts to look at the fool that he really is not; the man that no one ever gets a chance to see. He gives in to the villagers when a student comes in and says, "You, Gimpel, while you stand here scraping with your baker's shovel the Messiah has come.
The dead have arisen" (4). Being as unbelievable as it already was, a woman next door, by the name of Reitze, over-hears their talk and later jumps in with, "Gimpel, your father and mother have stood up from the grave. They're looking for you" (4). The cruelest prank has hit Gimpel and the issue blinds him. He mentions in the story that he knows it is all a scam, yet he throws on his jacket and goes to check and see if his parents were really
alive. At this point in the story Gimpel proclaims that this would be, the last time he will be fooled. The hardest part for him is that everything he knows is the lies that are told to him by the villagers. All of the people in the village have taken advantage of him for so long that all they will ever know him as is a fool. Later in the story we see Gimpel forced to wed, as the matchmaker is the one who is making the choice, to Elka. As Elka comes into the picture, Gimpel starts to portray the figure of being a saint. Elka is obviously not the best match for Gimpel. Elka has a bastard son that they have fooled Gimpel into thinking that he is her brother. She also tells him that she is still a virgin. Gimpel never has the opportunity to have a child with her. Although she will not let him sleep with her, four months later, she happens to end up in a childbed. This is where Gimpel's saint-like structure kicks in. Instead of calling her out on the issue, he does not get upset and assume that she might be lying. He does not call her a liar or a whore, but he takes another man's baby and makes it look and feel as if it were his own blood. He thinks to himself, "I saw the newborn child's face and loved it as soon as I saw it ---immediately--- each tiny bone” (11) Gimpel’s saint-like nature is also shown when he almost gives into the spirit of evil. Gimpel says he sees the spirit of evil and it tells him it is his turn to get revenge on the people of Frampol who have done wrong to him. The spirit of evil says ”The whole world deceives you, and you ought to deceive the world in your turn” (12). After Gimpel has made the bread with the urine in it, he says Elka’s spirit came to him as well. Elka’s spirit gives him this advice: “You fool! Because I was false is everything false too?” (13). As he thinks about what he did wrong he goes out with the bread and starts burying it in the back of the bakery. This would make it so no soul would be able to eat it. This is saint-like because it’s hard to go back on something that once felt so right. It takes a big person to put up with the ignorance of others without trying to avenge payback in spite. The story is not about a foolish man who tries to beak his habit of foolishness, but about finding his way through life even when no one thinks he can. Gimpel is not an ignorant man or a fool for that matter, but he is a kind man. He would not want a single soul to feel or be treated the way he was treated. Gimpel is an individual with an interest in pleasing people. He makes sure that everyone’s best interests were always in mind. Although he had cruel names, pain, and more cruelty was still directed towards him. The treatment that no man deserved was the same treatment that kind man received. Gimpel was clearly not the fool out of the story. Gimpel was more of a saint than anyone could ever wish upon themselves. He ends up no fool, but yet a saint in many individual minds.