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Chapter 1
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 day, Neil returns to the club with Brenda. He holds her glasses once more as she jumps in the pool. When she asks him to join her and dismisses his fretting over her glasses, he wonders why she doesn’t have her eyes fixed, which irks Brenda. Neil gives her glasses to Doris to hold, who isn’t pleased about being treated like Brenda’s servant.
Neil continues to indirectly express discomfort about Brenda’s wealth, inadvertently teasing her about why she wouldn’t get her eyes fixed since she already got her nose fixed. Roth also reinforces the idea that Brenda thinks of Neil as lower status in making him hold her glasses, as Doris views doing the same task as being treated like a servant.
Themes
Neil jumps into the pool, and he and Brenda play and kiss in the water. He thinks, in that moment, that he doesn’t care for anything but Brenda. Afterward, they sit under an umbrella together and talk. Brenda says that it feels like they’re going very fast—that she feels “pursued.” When Neil argues that Brenda invited him to the club, she notes again that he sounds nasty. When he says sorry, she tells him to stop apologizing, because he’s so automatic about it. He points out that she’s being nasty to him. Brenda tells Neil not to argue.
Here Roth establishes the unequal power dynamics between Neil and Brenda. Brenda believes that she’s being “pursued” by Neil, feeling obligated to relent to his advances. But at the same time, the way in which Brenda speaks to Neil makes Neil feel as though she has all the power and control in the relationship, because she can criticize him while he cannot do the same.
Themes
Brenda says that she likes Neil —particularly the way he looks. She says he has nice shoulders, and asks if he plays a sport, but he doesn’t. When she asks if he likes her body, he jokes that he doesn’t. After they sit together for a while, he notes that she hasn’t asked him anything about himself. When she asks him how he feels, he says that he wants to swim. They spend the rest of the afternoon in the water, taking occasional breaks and talking about their feelings toward each other. Neil notes that he didn’t really have the feelings until he talked about them.
Brenda hints at the priority she places on competition in talking about his shoulders and asking if he plays a sport. Neil also exhibits a lack of self-examination here. Even though he wants Brenda to ask him about himself, as soon as she does so he immediately deflects and asks Brenda to swim in the pool with him. Even the feelings he professes toward Brenda appear insincere, since he seems to be telling Brenda what she wants to hear rather than genuinely expressing how he feels.
Themes
Around 4:00 p.m., Brenda’s older brother Ron arrives and begins to hang out with Brenda and Neil. Ron is very large and athletic and he is particularly pleased because the Yankees won their most recent game. Brenda explains that when the Yankees win, their family sets a place for Mickey Mantle at the dinner table. Brenda then introduces Ron and Neil to each other. Brenda tells Ron and Neil to race while she calls home to say that Neil is joining for dinner. Realizing that Brenda has invited him, he backs out of the race so he can call Aunt Gladys to say that he would not be home for dinner. She simply says, “fancy-shmancy.”
This exchange provides more evidence for the fact that the Patimkins have assimilated. Setting an extra place at the table during Passover is a Jewish tradition honoring the prophet Elijah; here, however, that tradition has been repurposed as a way to honor Mickey Mantle instead—a representative of the classic American sport of baseball. Roth also reinforces the fact that by turning towards the Patimkins’ wealth, Neil is turning away from his own family. Aunt Gladys’s comment of “fancy-shmancy” makes fun of Neil for mingling with people whom she views as above his social status.
Themes
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That night, Neil eats with Brenda, Ron, Mr. and Mrs. Patimkin, and Brenda’s 10-year-old sister Julie. Neil thinks Julie is very bright, that Mr. Patimkin reminds Neil of his father, and that Mrs. Patimkin is very polite and very beautiful. Neil explains that the Patimkins also have a black maid named Carlota. Neil feels very intimidated eating there. There is not much conversation over dinner, and Neil delivers what little there is in short statements: Ron and Mr. Patimkin asking for more and more food, Neil refusing more food and being told that he eats like a bird, Julie and Ron discussing Mickey Mantle’s batting average, and Mrs. Patimkin attempting to get to know Neil and being constantly interrupted.
The dinner at the Patimkins’ contrasts with Neil’s dinner at home. Whereas Neil’s family doesn’t eat together because Aunt Gladys struggles to prepare so many dishes at once, the Patimkins have a maid who helps with dinner and they share their meals together. Their personalities also differ: rather than the complaining banter that Neil and Aunt Gladys share, Mrs. Patimkin is polite. However, Neil also notes their shared roots in thinking that Mr. Patimkin reminds him of his father—it’s just that the Patimkins have moved beyond those roots. They are also able to eat heaps of food, whereas Neil is used to eating less and not wasting food.
Themes
As the family waits for dessert to be served, the phone rings, setting off a cacophony. Ron jumps up to answer it, as it is his girlfriend Harriet calling. Mrs. Patimkin instructs Carlota not to mix the milk silverware and the meat silverware, and Brenda is teasing Neil’s calf with her fingers. After dessert, they sit under an oak tree and watch Mr. Patimkin play basketball with Julie.
It is notable that the Patimkins keep their meat and milk silverware separated, meaning that they follow the Jewish practice of keeping kosher. It draws a distinction between the fact that the Patimkins still maintain aspects of their Jewish heritage through private practices, while at the same time relinquishing outward indicators of their Jewish culture and identity.
Themes
Neil and Brenda discuss Brenda’s family. Neil says he likes Julie, and Brenda agrees. Brenda also says Mrs. Patimkin hates her, because she’s jealous of Brenda’s youth and athleticism. Brenda’s mom was once the best tennis player in the state, and Brenda wanted to have a photograph blown up of her mom when she was a girl, but her mom didn’t want her to spend the money. Brenda says that her mother doesn’t know how to enjoy the money they have, and that she “still thinks [they] live in Newark.” Neil is silent, unsure of what to say.
Brenda touches on the idea of nostalgia—that Mrs. Patimkin longs for her past as a beautiful, athletic young woman. This desire for the past only makes her more resentful of her present situation, which she takes out on Brenda. Additionally, Brenda highlights the disparity between herself and Neil once again. In mocking her mother for thinking that they still live in Newark (and thereby implying that people in Newark don’t have money), Brenda inadvertently disparages Neil’s socioeconomic status, his family, and his community.
Themes
Mr. Patimkin grows tired playing with Julie and asks Neil to finish the game. Neil and Julie begin to play, and Neil observes Mr. Patimkin as he sits and watches them. He notes that Mr. Patimkin’s nose does have a bump in it, but that it suits him well. He thinks that Mr. Patimkin would never bother to fix his nose, but had paid “with joy and pride” to have Brenda’s fixed.
Here Roth introduces the idea of progress as the inverse of nostalgia. Mr. Patimkin isn’t ashamed of his past, but he is proud of the fact that he has been able to achieve success and earn a better future for his family. Neil also notes that a large part of that better future (enabled by this accumulation of wealth) is assimilation into the upper classes.
Themes
Julie and Neil play, and every time she misses a shot Mr. Patimkin tells her to take it over. Neil tries to play his hardest to catch up to Julie. As the game goes on, he notices Mrs. Patimkin and Carlota watching. When he misses a shot, he jokingly asks to take it again, and Julie says no. He thinks that this is how the game is played: Mr. Patimkin taught his daughters to ask for free throws, but others can’t have the same. When they finish and Julie wins, Julie thanks Neil for the game.
Neil’s game with Julie serves as another example of competitions reflecting power dynamics. Even though Julie is much younger and Neil should win the game, Mr. Patimkin’s status allow him to tip the scales in Julie’s favor—while Neil isn’t afforded the same opportunity. This reflects the class divisions between them, as wealth inherently often affords greater opportunity and future success.
Themes
