Fractured Heroes in Roth'sGoodbye, Columbusand "Eli, the Fanatic"

Abstract

This research work has analyzed Roth's use of dedoublement irony to show Prufrockian characteristics of the protagonist. Neil and Eli, the protagonists of Goodbye, Columbusand "Eli, the Fanatic" respectively are the operators of the irony. They suffer from religious and cultural crisis. Due to this, Neil and Eli cannot reconcile their thought and understanding with their feeling and will.Because of insensivity and cowardice the heroes cannot fulfill their dreams and their life becomes aimless and confused. Both of them are deeply ambivalent about their history and identity due to which their life gets fractured. Thusthe heroes work as the operators of irony and reveal the double movement of Jews living in America in which irony also redounds to the heroes themselves conditioning them to laugh at their own miserable conditions.