Fractured Heroes in Roth'sGoodbye, Columbusand "Eli, the Fanatic"
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Department of English
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.