Introduction 8

 

1.1. General Background 8

 

1.2. Statement of the Problem 12

 

1.3. Objectives and Significance of the Study 14

 

1.3.1. Hypothesis 14

 

1.3.2. Purpose of the Study 17

 

1.3.3. Research Questions 17

 

1.4. Materials and Methodology 18

 

1.5. Definition of Key Terms 20

 

1.6. Motivation and Delimitation 23

 

1.7. Organization of the Study 25

 

Chapter II

 

Ethnocentrism and Jew-Black Discriminations 26

 

2.1. Black’s Anti-Semitism and Jew’s Anti-Black Racism 28

 

2.1.1. History of Jew-Black Confrontation 29

 

2.1.2. The Role of Religion in Jew-Black Antagonism 32

 

2.1.3. The Civil Rights Movement and Transitory Alliance 35

 

2.2. Jew-Black Social Life in America and the Conceptions 39

 

2.2.1. Jews-Blacks and White Christian Society 40

 

2.2.2. Jewish Nationalism 44

 

2.2.3. Black Nationalism 47

 

2.2.4. Blacks Conceptions of Jews and vice versa 51

 

2.2.5. Blacks Conceptions of Blacks 54

 

2.2.6. Jews Conceptions of Jews 56

 

Chapter III

 

The Tenants and Ethnocentrism 60

 

3.1. Jews Social Life 63

 

3.1.1. Lesser as a Jew 65

 

3.1.2. Lesser as a Writer 69

 

3.1.3. Lesser as a White 74

 

3.1.4. Lesser as a Boyfriend 76

 

3.2. Blacks Social Life 78

 

3.2.1. Willie as a Black 80

 

3.2.2. Willie as a Writer 84

 

3.2.3. Willie as a Boyfriend 89

 

 

Chapter IV

 

The Tenants and Jew-Black Communication 91

 

4.1. Jew-Black Conflicts and The Tenants 91

 

4.2. Jew-Black Alliances and The Tenants 95

 

4.3. Happy Ending and Alliance 102

 

4.4. Sad Ending and Assassinations 106

 

Chapter V

 

Conclusion 113

 

5.1. Summing Up 113

 

5.2. Findings 115

 

5.3. Suggestions for Further Research 121

 

 

 

Works Cited 123

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter I

 

Introduction

 

 

 

1.1. General Background

 

Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986), a great prolific American Jewish writer of 20^th century, was born into a Russian-Jewish immigrant family. His major concern in most of his works is the problem of the Jews in world and the prevalent racial issues of his era. Professionally speaking, being a Pulitzer Prize for his novel against discriminations on Jews, The Fixer (1966) is one of his life time achievements.

 

His novels include the tragic-comic element and pessimism that Malamud uses with his unique style of writing, displaying the challenges of modern urban life with focus on marginalized characters who struggle to survive through love and forgiveness rooted in Judeo-Christian beliefs (Pinsker, 205-211). The Tenants (1971) is one of his famous novels which revolves around the Black-Jewish relationship in 20^th century USA.

 

Specifically speaking, The Tenants is the story of two writers, one Jewish and the other Black, about their conflicts and communication in a tenement located in New York with no appropriate conditions for living. The novel opens with Harry Lesser (Jewish writer) having spent nine and half years finishing his book and refusing to leave the tenement belonging to Mr. Levenspiel until his last chapter of the novel is completed.

 

Lesser is not the only character from a minority group settling that tenement. While he is following his routine life of writing his novel, second character from Black minority appears and from that point on their interaction triggers a latent fear and hatred which come to its zenith in a tragic scene in one of the endings of the novel. In this pathetic scene both writers become victims of each other’s hatred ending up, in one of the endings of the book, killed by one another and Lesser’s ten year manuscript burned by Willie (The black character). And in the other ending, which is a happy one and where multiracial marriages take place, a more detailed consideration is required.

 

Though created by Malamud’s creative and imaginative mind, the dramatic frictions of two main characters throughout the story were the direct reflection of the social and political current salient and challenging in Malamud’s life time. The concepts that are worth consideration in The Tenants are Black Anti-Semitism and Jewish Anti-Black Racism in American Society with its multicultural setting and how the construction of American identity in the modern era for Jews and Blacks is affected by ethnocentrism, religion and the history behind the two cultures. To grasp the inner atmosphere of the story and what had occupied Malamud’s mind, a cursory glance at racism history seems helpful.