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Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Goodbye, Columbus, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Relationships, Competition, and Power
Assimilation and Wealth
Self-Delusion and Fantasy vs. Self-Examination and Reality
Nostalgia vs. Progress
Summary
Analysis
The next morning, Neil drives to his job at the library. He is there twenty minutes early and takes a walk in a nearby park. From the park, he looks out at the Newark Museum and a bank building where he had taken some classes in college. He reminisces about his time in college, which he finished three years earlier, and the friends he had, all of whom worked at night to be able to afford school. He looks back at a bookstore, a luncheonette, and an art theater—all of which he had known intimately. He feels a deep affection for Newark.
Even though Neil previously thought of the suburbs as a kind of “heaven,” it is clear from Roth’s descriptions that he doesn’t have negative feelings towards his home city. Instead, the distinction is that Neil’s view of the suburbs is a fantasy in which he doesn’t fully belong, while Neil’s view of Newark is a reality in which he feels more comfortable.
Themes
At 9:00 a.m., Neil heads into the library. As he does, he notices a small Black boy standing in front of the lions, growling at them. Neil sits behind the desk on the main floor, watching all of the people enter the building and thinking about Brenda. After lunch, Neil will take over the Information Desk upstairs. Neil had also heard from his boss, Mr. Scapello, that when Neil returned from his summer vacation, he would be put in charge of the Reference Room. Neil is often unsure how he got a job at the library, or why he has stayed. He feels as though he is becoming numb to life, and he is afraid of it.
Neil’s job at the library is another example of his inability to reflect and examine his own life. He knows that he doesn’t want to remain at the library forever because it is making him numb to life, as he points out here. And yet he doesn’t seem to be able to recognize or imagine what a life outside of the library might look like. The only thing he seems to be able to daydream about is Brenda, foreshadowing the fact that he will use Brenda as a way to imagine a life for himself outside of the library.
Themes
Just before lunch, the young Black boy comes into the library and approaches Neil, asking where the “heart section” is. Neil gradually determines that the boy means the “art” section. When Neil says that the books can be found in several places and asks which artist he’s interested in, the boy starts backing away, mumbling “all of them.” Neil assures him that it’s okay, and that the art section is in Stack Three. The boy leaves to find the section.
The discomfort that the young boy feels at the library and the difficulty that he faces in explaining what he’s interested in learning about illustrates how unequally resources are distributed. While Neil might not always feel comfortable in Brenda’s country club because of his socioeconomic status, the boy experiences similar discomfort—even at the public library, which is supposed to be for everyone—because of his race.
Themes
After lunch, Neil’s coworker John McKee approaches him. John asks Neil if he’s seen a little Black boy pass the desk. Neil says he saw the boy come in. John asks if Neil saw the boy go out. Neil says he probably has, telling John not to be nervous. John says that someone should check on him. John then launches into a speech, worrying about “the way they treat the housing projects we give them” and wondering “where did he ever find out about art?” Neil says that he has to go upstairs anyway, and that he can check on the boy.
Here Roth gives an example of casual and vitriolic racism. John suggests that African-Americans mistreat the housing projects that they are “given” by white Americans and that they do not have adequate education to know about art. In fact, it’s totally normal for any child to be interested in art, and housing projects are notoriously under-funded, which leads to deteriorating conditions. Jewish families—especially wealthy ones like Brenda’s—are more easily able to assimilate to white Protestant culture, which gives them more access to resources and allows them to face less constant prejudice as they go about their day-to-day lives.
Themes
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Neil finds the boy in Stack Three, delightedly looking through the art books. He is holding an edition of Gauguin reproductions, with three native women standing in a stream. When the boy asks where the pictures were taken, Neil explains that it’s a painting of Tahiti. The boy says he wishes he could live there, excited by the prospect of a peaceful, idyllic life. Neil agrees, then returns to the desk to assure John that everything is all right. Neil then continues thinking about Brenda, imagining Short Hills at dusk as though it is a Gauguin painting.
The boy’s obsession with the Gauguin paintings and the vision of a peaceful life in Tahiti is an example of a character fantasizing about something unrealistic and unattainable, as he expresses a desire to live in Tahiti with the women depicted in the painting. Roth echoes these unrealistic fantasies in Neil’s own thoughts, as he idealizes Brenda’s life in the suburbs later that same day.
Themes
When Neil arrives at the Patimkins’ house that evening, everyone is waiting for him. Brenda is wearing a dress for the first time, and Neil finds that it suits her. Brenda tells him that she and her parents will be right back—Carlota is off, and they have to take Ron to the airport. She asks him to sit with Julie while they drive Ron. Neil agrees, though he’s angry that he has to babysit. Brenda tries to ask how he likes her in a dress, but he doesn’t answer, and she departs with Mr. and Mrs. Patimkin and Ron.
Here Roth illustrates how Neil is treated as lower status than the Patimkins. He essentially takes the place of Carlota in being made to babysit, which echoes Brenda previously making Neil hold her glasses while she swam, reinforcing the idea that Neil is still being treated as a kind of servant rather than a guest of the family who is of equal worth.
Themes
Julie tries to get Neil to play with her, but he just tells her to watch TV. Neil then begins to look around the different rooms of the house. He notes pictures of Brenda, her siblings, and a young Mrs. Patimkin. Neil avoids the bedrooms and instead goes down to the basement. He finds bamboo furniture, a ping pong table, and a bar table stocked with every kind of glass but which seems completely untouched. Over the liquor shelves are newspaper articles about Ron playing basketball and another picture of Brenda on a horse with ribbons and medals clipped to it. Neil notes that he has not yet seen a photo of Mr. Patimkin.
Neil’s explorations of the Patimkin house touch on two of the story’s major themes. First, the bar reinforces the fact that the Patimkins are concerned with appearing just like everyone else. Mr. Patimkin has an extravagant bar, despite the fact that he clearly does not drink often, in order to fulfill some kind of vision of what an affluent American home should look like or have. Additionally, Neil’s noting that there are no photos of a young Mr. Patimkin illustrates that Mr. Patimkin wants to move beyond his poor Jewish childhood and instead focus on the progress and success that he and his children have had.
Themes
In the basement, there is a tall old refrigerator that reminds Neil of “the Patimkin roots in Newark.” The old refrigerator holds heaps of every kind of fruit. Neil grabs cherries and a nectarine, but then Julie interrupts him, telling him he should wash the nectarine—a hint that he shouldn’t be taking the fruit. Neil says he was just looking around, and he drops the cherries into his pocket, growing embarrassed.
It’s significant that the only sign of the Patimkins’ life in Newark (which means their poorer Jewish identity) is hidden away in the basement. This shows their desire to assimilate and project status. Additionally, Julie’s suspicion of Neil taking the fruit is similar to John’s suspicion of the boy looking at the Gauguin paintings—both are indicators that Neil and the boy don’t belong in their environments and don’t have the right to take what is available to them.
Themes
Neil asks where Ron is going, and Julie replies that he is seeing his girlfriend Harriet, who lives in Milwaukee. Julie looks suspiciously at Neil’s hands to see if he’s taken any more fruit, then suggests playing ping pong. Neil agrees, to placate her, and he starts to beat Julie, relishing in the revenge from their basketball game the day prior. Whenever she asks to redo a point, Neil refuses, and Julie grows more and more upset. When he is about to beat her handily, she screams that she hates him and accuses him of stealing fruit before storming off.
Neil’s game of ping pong with Julie contrasts with their game of basketball the previous day, reinforcing the idea that competitions and games can reflect power dynamics. Whereas in the basketball game, Julie had the upper hand because Mr. Patimkin was dictating the rules and letting her retake shots, here Neil holds the power and is therefore able to beat her easily.
Themes
That night, Neil and Brenda make love for the first time. They sit on the sofa watching TV until they know that everyone else has gone to sleep. Neil begins to unbutton Brenda’s dress. She resists at first, but gradually lets him. To Neil, it was as sweet as if he had scored the twenty-first point in the ping pong game. Neil returns home and calls Brenda at one o’clock in the morning. Brenda tells him that their sex was really nice. Neil agrees and tells her to go to sleep, pretending that he’s there in bed with her.
Neil comparing sex with winning the ping pong game illustrates how Neil, too, puts their relationship in the context of a competition. Whereas in other scenarios, Brenda is able to have the upper hand, here Neil is able to get Brenda to relent to having sex with him, and therefore he is winning that game.
Themes
