Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories by Philip Roth

The first quarrel leading to a breakup between the two “lovers” results from Brenda’s parent’s discovery of her diaphragm they express their disappointment and contempt for Neil (Roth, p. He describes his first sexual encounter with Brenda with a competitive game metaphor to display a sense of achievement Neil’s relationship with Brenda is a form of social-economic uplifting. Neil perceives his sexual encounters with Brenda as a form of accomplishment. A significant aspect of love, sex, and relationship is displayed by the numerous sex encounters between Neil and Brenda all of which take place at Brenda’s home such as in the family’s Television Room and Brenda’s bedroom (Roth, p. Though dejected by her girlfriend’s rejection, he leaves the hotel has acquired a new sense of self-knowledge this is exhibited by the commencement of the Jewish New year as Neil enters Newark.Īmong the values that are explored in the novel include: class variations among the Jewish society, spiritual conflicts over Judaism, the uniqueness of the Jews, love, sex, and relationship, and the struggles underwent in acquiring self-knowledge by young Jewish men. During a planned meeting between the two “lovers” in a hotel room, Brenda informs Neil that she can no longer continue with the relationship since her parents had learned and disapproved of it.

The summer end coincides with Brenda’s brother’s wedding and she returns to college. Through the relationship, Neil is able to display the bleak socio-economic contrast that existed between the lower and upper-middle-class Jews. Over the summer, Neil is engaged in a relationship with Brenda Patimkin, an Upper-Middle class Jew who is attending college and lives with her parents in the suburbs. Goodbye Columbus is recounted from Neil Klugman’s perspective, a middle-aged man who lived with his relatives in the ghettos of Newark, New Jersey, and worked in a public library.

Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories by Philip Roth