#8-1. Reflective Essay: The Conversion of the Jews

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 11b3

Mr. Richard Menard

American Literature

September 22 2012 

Reflective Essay: The Conversion of the Jews

Parents, when their child reaches the age of four or five, suffer from those entire "Why?" questions the child asks. "Why?" questions are tolerant for a young child, but unacceptable when a questioner is old enough. Oscar Freedman, a thirteen-years-old protagonist of The Conversion of the Jews (Philip Roth, 1959), is considered as an irritable boy who keeps asking trifling questions about God – for example, "... why couldn't He let a woman have a baby without having intercourse?" or "How Rabbi Binder (his teacher) could call the Jews "The Chosen People" if the Declaration of Independence claimed all men to be created equal?", etc. People who Oscar expects to give him answers to the questions – Rabbi, his mother, and other adults – all consider his questions as profane and nit-picking; so instead of giving answers, they "hit Ozzie (Oscar) across the face" or "flicked out at Ozzie's cheek".

Oscar is, however, not asking these questions to resist to the religious doctrines or screw over the adults. Actually, he respects "his mother lit the candles" – rituals on the Sabbath – by "pressing the phone to his breast" and making no sound. The sole intention of Oscar asking questions is pure curiosity. However, people disregards his curiosity, just as a firefighter asks the Rabbi "What, is the kid nuts or something?". People do not understand why Oscar cannot "accept" religious precepts. Instead of embracing of social consensus recklessly, Oscar tries to understand things logically. Maybe this is why his surname is "Freedman" – a "freed man", not fettered by conformity to his community.

Reading The Conversion of the Jews, I reminded of someone who resembled Oscar Freedman a lot. Colin Beavan, the author of No Impact Man (2010), is a New Yorker who, over a year, lived in NYC, affecting the environment as least as possible. From the very basic step – stop using disposable diapers or tissue – Beavan practiced inconvenient, sophisticated acts, such as giving up reading newspaper (a thick collection of dead trees), staying away from fast food and eating only local food, not using transportations, elevators, and even electricity, etc. When Beaven first started to carry on this plan, which he entitled "No Impact Man Project", his co-workers, friends, family, virtually everybody, dissuaded him, arguing that his acts would not stop the Earth from being contaminated. The community's belief, in short, was to relish all the conveniences modern society provides; there was no reason for Colin Beavan to "question" about the harmful effects people are giving to the Earth. To NYC residents, Beavan was an Oscar Freedman boy who nit-picked about their uses of modern technology and did not conform to the general belief of staying inattentive to the Earth.

Beavan’s "No Impact Man Project", conclusively, was not a meaningless struggle; his book called forth majority's attention, he was introduced as a noticeable environmentalist by New York Times, and a lot of impressed readers make attempts to practice the project, at least partially.

As a person who has conformed to the community and enjoyed environmental-harming technologies without any guilt for seventeen years, I highly value struggles of Oscar Freedman and Colin Beavan. I did hear that excessive use of air conditioner results in global warming; still I did not stop myself from setting the temperature 19℃. I did hear that dozens of trees were being logged to produce white, fresh papers; still I did not stop myself from dumping one-sided paper without second use. It was too irritating and bothering to question the impacts of my acts; the easiest way to live was to passively accept the general paradigm and follow what others do. What Oscar and Beavan tell me right now, however, is that such an irksome questioning can bring out positive outcomes to society; Oscar offered his community opportunity to reconsider about its indiscreet religious fervor, and Beavan helped his community to recognize the decay of the Earth due to the community’s thoughtless consumption of conveniences. Healthy skepticism of questioning a majority opinion is what I and my community need right now – not rash recalcitrance but mere curiosity, which would help the community to find out its fault and resolve, thereby improve.