Academic essay about linguistic aspects in Bernard Malamud's short story. Written during my MA studies in English literature.
Xenophobia and Self-Hatred in “The Jewbird” by Bernard Malamud
“The Jewbird” by Bernard Malamud has several ways of conveying multilingualism. The usage of Yiddish phrases by the main characters of the story, the Jewbird (Schwartz) and Harry Cohen, is one way of portraying the existence of more than one language and culture within the story. This representation of multilingualism shows that there are two different cultures in the story: the Jewish American and the Christian American (or the mass culture). Both Schwartz and Cohen are part of the Jewish American one, while Cohen can also be seen as part of the Christian American one due to his assimilation into it. Another way of conveying multilingualism in the story is by using diglossia, or in other words, by defining Schwartz and Cohen as different parts of the same culture, which is the Jewish American one. Hana Wirth-Nesher uses diglossia in her article not only in its linguistic sense, but also in its broader cultural meaning (298). This paper will examine the phenomenon of diglossia as it is manifested through the Jewish society in the story, and specifically through Schwartz, Cohen and their relationship. It will show how it is related to the notion of xenophobia and self-hatred in the Jewish American society.
Wirth-Nesher defines diglossia as “the existence of complementary varieties of language for intragroup purposes”, and claims that for that reason “it does not necessitate bilingualism” (289). This claim does not suggest that there are no usages of different languages within a multilingual text, but rather that the phenomenon of diglossia does not necessarily require such usage. Wirth-Nesher’s definition of diglosssia works within the framework of Malamud’s story. Both Schwartz and Cohen use English and some Yiddish expressions. Schwartz, who is an embodiment of the recent wave of immigration to America, uses more Yiddish than Cohen, who perhaps immigrated at an early age, or is a descendent from immigrants. However, when Schwartz uses Yiddish expressions that Cohen does not use, it seems that the latter still understands them, e.g. when Schwartz calls him a “grubber yung” during one of their arguments, Cohen almost kills him. Therefore, Schwartz and Cohen communicate within the same framework of language and culture, and thus the phenomenon of diglossia can be a suitable perspective for observing the characters’ multilingual function in the story.
The culture which is portrayed by Malamud in “The Jewbird” is located between two traditions, the English and the Yiddish, the Christian and the Jewish (Wirth-Nesher 299). Both main characters are located within this fusion of traditions, which is a new tradition and culture. However, each of the characters plays a different role in the new culture. Cohen is a partly assimilated American Jew, a frozen-foods salesman who has a family and his own house near the lower East River. Schwartz is a migrating Jewbird with no home. He is running from anti-Semites who want to hurt him. The life situation of each of the two characters within the same culture, the Jewish American one, renders them different from one another. Cohen had established his place in this new tradition, and, most of the time, acts as if he has no connection to the Jewish immigrant experience (except when he uses Yiddish/Hebrew words such as “chutzpa” (Malamud 147), which slightly indicate his relation to the Jewish immigration, and more so the mere fact that he is Jewish). Schwartz, on the other hand, experiences the difficulties of both the immigration to America and his migration as a bird. He is struggling to find food and a shelter in order to survive. The Jewbird represents the wandering Jew in the story, and that is a notion which Cohen, unconsciously, and in his dreams, finds intimidating.
The relationship between Cohen and Schwartz is complicated from the moment Schwartz flies into Cohen’s house. Both Edie and Maurie welcome the bird into the house. Edie understands the bird’s difficulties as a small, helpless creature in a new world, but Cohen claims that the bird can be “some kind of a ghost or a dybbuk” (Malamud 146). It is possible that Cohen is frightened, at the beginning of the story, by the fact that a bird speaks to him. However, as the story progresses, Cohen only becomes more aggressive towards Schwartz, claiming it is because the bird stinks. He looks for ways to get rid of him, and finally manages to do so by killing him. In their fight, when Edie and Maurie are away from home, Cohen claims that the bird haunts him in his sleep. This specific claim raises a significant question in the story, which is what is it in the existence of the bird that is haunting Cohen. Unfortunately, this question remains unanswered when one finishes the story, since Malamud does not provide the readers with a clarification regarding Cohen’s behavior. We, the audience, do not know much about his past.
However, and although there is no clear answer to Cohen’s behavior, raising this question in the framework of the Jewish American society is of great value. It opens a door to a multilingual discourse within the Jewish American culture. It shows the complex relationships people have one with the other within the same society. Cohen, ironically, treats Schwartz as an unwanted guest in his house and his community, although he himself had probably experienced immigration through a personal experience, or as a descendent from immigrants. On the one hand, he had forgotten this experience and lives his daily life as if he has no connection to the Jewish immigration to America. On the other hand, this experience haunts him from the moment Schwartz, with his Yiddish talk, black appearance and fear of “anti-Semeetes”, walks into his life (Malamud 145). The focus on the multilingual discourse in this society is valuable because it reveals a sense of both xenophobia and self-hatred within the culture. Cohen hates the Jewbird as much as he hates the fact that he has a connection to the Jewish immigration, and, perhaps, due to that he is unwilling to deal with this experience consciously.
“The Jewbird” conveys multilingualism through the usage of diglossia in the Jewish American society. This society, as many other societies in America, is one which consists of new and old immigrants. The perspective of diglossia manages to reveal the self-destructive phenomenon in this society. When Cohen “flung[s] [Schwartz] into the night” (Malamud 154), and kills him, he also tries to get rid of a part of himself, to bury his own immigrant experience. In the last lines of the story Edie says “Anti-Semeets” as a reply to Maurie’s question, in the same way Schwartz mispronounced the word “Semites” (154). At his point, it seems as if she is not only mourning on Schwartz’s death, but also express the fear Jews have from themselves, since Schwartz expressed the exact same words when he was asked who is running after him. The notion of Jews hurting other Jews, when living in the same society, is brought into its climax in the death of Schwartz and in Edie’s last words. It symbolizes the great danger such hatred, and consequently, violence, have on the existence of individuals in cultural groups.
Works Cited
Malamud, Bernard. 1963. “The Jewbird”. pp. 144-145.
Wirth-Nesher, Hana. 1990. “Between Mother Tongue and Native Language”. pp. 297-311