1. Take Pity
Bernard
Malamud
Summary
Take Pity is
a dismal account of a kind hearted man’s futile efforts to rescue a poor family
from abject poverty and death. The man,
Rosen, is a coffee salesman. The poor family is a widow, Eva, and her two
daughters. Eva fails to make a living from her husband’s shop. She and her two
daughters are starving. Rosen tries to help them in many ways. But Eva refuses
to live on charity. Rosen asks her to marry him. But she rejects the offer.
Then he sends her some money. He sends the money through a friend who says it was repayment of a loan given by her husband. Eva refuses to take the money.
Then he sends her some money. He sends the money through a friend who says it was repayment of a loan given by her husband. Eva refuses to take the money.
She is determined to live an independent life. She is very willful. But Rosen
knows that she will lose her foolish war against Fate. He becomes desperate. He
tries to kill himself, leaving all his property to her. But he fails even in
this last attempt. Eva is moved. She comes to him to accept his offer of
marriage. But Rosen has had enough. He refuses to do anything for her, although
it goes against his nature to reject a request.
The story
reveals some surprising secrets of human nature. It gives us a better
understanding of human psychology and emotions.
What does Rosen advises Eva; why does she not act upon it?
Why does Eva refuse offers of help from Rosen?
Rosen is an
ex-coffee sales man and has a good deal of experience about business. From his
experience, he knows that Eva’s business would not flourish there.
He advises
Eva to take the money and her children and run away from there. However, Eva
refuses to act upon his advice because she thinks that with the insurance money
she can establish her business. She says that with the insurance money she will
stock up and fix the store. She believes that she will be able to attract the customers
by decorating the store. Therefore, she rejects this advice because of her
optimistic approach.
Secondly, he
advises to marry someone, but she again refuses. She believes that nobody will
marry her because she is a widow with two daughters. She believes that she
cannot have happiness because all her life she has been suffering. Here she
refuses because of her pessimistic point of view. (153)
Why does Rosen want to help Eva?
Rosen wants
to help Eva out of pity. The title of the story also suggests that.
After her
husband’s death, Eva gets insurance money. She decides to invest the money in
her husband’s failing business. The business fails and things worsen. She and
her daughters starve. Out of pity, Rosen bear their sufferings. That is why he
tries to give something to eat to Eva’s daughters. He is even ready to marry
her out of pity. He tells her that he wants to marry her because he wants to
take care of her daughters. It is because of this pity that Eva rejects the
offer. She wants love not pity.
When we read
the story carefully, we find that he wants to help them because he cannot stand
their misery. His heart bleeds for them. Moreover, he is sick and knows that he
will not live long. That is why he wants to help Eva even with his whole money
and with his life. (164 word)
Eva was responsible
for her tragic failure. Elaborate
Eva was a
self-esteemed and optimist woman. She believed that after investing the
insurance money her business will flourish. So, she was not ready to listen to
any advice from Rosen. But she was unable to see the things from rational
angle.
When her
husband died, Rosen advised her to take the money and the children and run away
from there. Eva said that she had no place to go. At this, he offered her to
shift in his two-family house. She was too foolish to accept this handsome
offer.
Eva also
rejected Rose’s proposal for marriage. Rosen had promised her that after the
marriage he would take care of her and her daughters. It was a good chance but
she refuses it too. It was a great mistake.
Therefore,
we can conclude that Eva was responsible for her suffering after the death of
her husband. She should have realized that she could not live on her own with
her two starving daughters. She was too optimistic and too obstinate. (170 words)
Write a character sketch of Eva.
Eva is a
self-esteemed and optimist woman. She believed that after investing the
insurance money her business will flourish. So, she was not ready to listen to
any advice from Rosen. But she was unable to see the things from rational
angle.
It
is due to her too much optimism that when Rosen advised her not to invest the
insurance money, she does not listen to him. She thinks that her business would
flourish some day. She keeps on believing that until the end of the story.
She
has also been presented as a stubborn woman. Some offers mad by Rosen were
quite reasonable, but she ignored every offer very stubbornly.
She
was a woman of great self-respect. To accept anything in charity was disgrace
to her. She rejected Rosen’s proposal of marriage because it was also based on
pity. She wanted love not pity. At the end to the story, when Rosen tried to
commit suicide, she misunderstood him. She through that Rosen had done that out
of love of hers. That is why she went to Rosen at the end of the story with
raised arms. (188 words)
Why does Eva come to Rosen with haunted, beseeching eyes, and
raised arms at the end of the story?
Why does Rosen refuse to help Eva in the end of the story?
Eva
is a young widow with two daughters. She is determined to make her own living.
So she rejects every offer of help from the kind-hearted coffee salesman,
Rosen. She counts on her courage. Her
courage is rather pride that nobody can admire. It breaks Rosen’s heart and
changes his whole character.
In the end, she repents. She feels sorry for
her stiffness towards the sincere and kind-hearted man. Her character too is
entirely changed. Her resolution to live her own independent life breaks down.
She is moved to pity for the brokenhearted man. She decides to accept his offer
of marriage although it is against her nature. But she repents too late. It is
too late to make amends for the harm she has done to Rosen.
She comes to him
with hunted, beseeching eyes, and raised arms and expresses her feelings. But
now he is sick of her. He has already gone too far in his sincere efforts to
help her. He is frustrated. So he refuses to forgive her.
Give your comments on Rosen’s behavior
Why is Rosen angry with Eva at the end of the story and why does
he abuse her?
Character Sketch of Rosen
Rosen
is a kind hearted man. He has a human nature. He has been trying to help Eva
out of pity. He does everything to help her. He advises her not to invest the
money but she does not listen to him. He gives her loan out of his own pocket.
He proposes her out of pity but she rejects this proposal. He tries to send
money to Eva with a fake name. He tries everything, but Eva rejects his every
offer.
He
is a sick man and he knows that he will not live long. Therefore, as a last
attempt, he tries to commit suicide leaving everything to Eva and to her
daughters. Fortunately, he is saved. However, still he does not have any
interest in life. It appears that he again wants to commit suicide.
When
Eva comes to him, he misunderstands her. He thinks that she has come to reject
his will. He gets angry. He has tried everything to help her and she is still
the same stubborn woman. Therefore, he loses his temper, abuses her, and asks
her to go back to her children. (189 words)
Describe Eva’s life before her husband’s death.
Eva
led a very hard life even before the death of her husband. Her native country
was Poland and she belonged to Jewish family. However, she had to leave Poland
because of Hitler’s invasion of Poland. Therefore, to save the lives of his
family and for better career, her husband took her and their two daughters to
America.
However,
the condition of her life did not get better.
Her husband worked very hard and
started a grocery store with his savings, but the store did not flourish and
their condition became worse. Now they did not have anything to eat. After two
months, he tried to sell the store but nobody bought. Now they were starving.
They did not have anything to spend. They got poorer. Because of hunger and
starvation, they became so weak that no one could look at their faces. He
decided to go in auction but because of continuous worries, tension and failures
he died of heart attack. (162)
Discuss Eva’s life after the death of her husband.
After
the death of her husband, Eva took over the charge of everything. Although
Rosen advised her not to invest the money in the store, yet she did that. She
invested the insurance money in the store. She bought all kinds of goods on
cash. It took her a week to arrange things in the store. She worked very hard.
She packed things on the shelves. She mopped the floors. She mad decorations
with tissue paper. In short, she arranged and decorated the store very well.
However
no customer came. They used to come only when the main shops were close. They
used to buy only minor things. Therefore, her store failed miserably. She did
not make any profit. She had no money. She and her daughters at up the food
present in the store. After that, they were starving again. Once more, they had
become so weak that no one could look at their faces. (156 words)
Back ground of economic recession .
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