58 pages • 1 hour read
Goodbye Columbus
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“Eli, the Fanatic”Chapter Summaries & Analyses
“Eli, the Fanatic” Summary
On behalf of the townspeople of Woodenton, New York, lawyer Eli Peck meets with Leo Tzuref to notify him that he and his family must leave the town. He tells him that his plan to turn his home into a yeshivah for his 18 children violates multiple town zoning laws, as it will constitute a boarding school in a residential area. Leo challenges Eli, questioning if the laws must be followed so strictly, but Eli stands firm. He is startled by Leo’s yarmulka and the traditional dress of his children and another man identified only as the man in the black suit. This man works as an assistant to Leo, running into town for supplies or groceries and startling the townspeople with his dress. As he leaves Leo’s office, Eli sees the man in the black suit sleeping on a bench. Though he is meant to tell the man to wear different clothes, he does not wake him, and upon closer examination, he is startled by their similar age.
Eli returns home to a note from his pregnant wife, Miriam, saying that she has gone to bed. He is relieved that he does not have to discuss his current case against Leo. The townspeople often complain to Eli about the man in the black suit, saying that the yeshivah’s arrival is like the city moving in. Miriam appears in the doorway to the kitchen, and they argue over whether she can truly understand the stress of this case. Their bickering is interrupted by a call from Ted, the spokesperson for the local Jewish community, inquiring about the meeting. Eli assures him that despite the resistance from Leo, he will resolve the issue.
In bed, Miriam suggests that Eli go to therapy again to avoid another nervous breakdown. Eli, angered, goes downstairs to write a letter to Leo. In his letter, Eli explains the coexistence between the Jewish and Protestant communities of the town, suggesting that this coexistence depends on the forsaking of visible religious clothing or practices. Eli also acknowledges the struggle Leo’s family faced escaping the Holocaust and hopes that their compliance will lead to a better life. He tells Leo that his family can stay in town if they keep the yeshivah activities to the grounds of their home and wear modern clothing in town. Two days later, Leo responds, telling Eli that the black suit and hat are the only clothes the man owns.
Eli goes to Leo’s house again to meet and discuss the man in the black suit. Leo repeatedly tells Eli that the suit and hat are all the man has in the world, and after some confusion, it dawns on Eli that Leo is telling him the man has no family and no hope for one after the Nazis sterilized him. Despite this, Eli stands firm on the town’s demands that the man wear modern clothing and even offers to buy a new suit for him. Leo does not take the deal, and Eli warns him that if another lawyer takes the case, such a compromise may not arise. Before Eli departs, Leo asks about his baby, explaining that the man in the black suit often shops in town and runs into Miriam.
Eli comes home and grabs a green suit, explaining to Miriam that the clothes are for the man in the black suit. Miriam switches the green suit with another, saying how much she likes it on Eli and wondering why he must be the one to give it up. Eli retrieves the green suit and puts both suits in the box. As he packs it all up, Miriam tells him that the baby is coming, and Eli experiences conflicting emotions of love and distrust for her. He wonders if she will use her labor to manipulate him for information about the yeshivah case, though he quickly feels disappointment in himself for even thinking such a thought.
Eli and Miriam spend the night at the hospital, where Eli writes another letter to Leo. He affirms that the townspeople will not change their mind and says that, in hopes of convincing him, he is offering clothes for the man. He attaches the letter to the box and then calls Ted. Ted wants Leo and his yeshivah gone, worried that they will upend the balance of the town. Eli wants to convert Leo and his yeshivah to modernity and help them integrate into the town. He promises Ted that if the donated suit does not work, he will file for an injunction with the goal of forcing them to leave town. Ted sees the yeshivah as a bunch of fanatics and is worried about the attention they are drawing.
Eli hangs up and leaves the hospital to go home and get some sleep. Once in his car, he instead drives to the yeshivah to deliver the clothes. As he drives, he thinks of how everyone in the town just wants safety and peace and hopes that Leo won’t be stubborn. When he reaches the lawn, he sees the man in the black suit sitting in the grass, beating his chest and moaning. Eli watches, and the sight and sounds of the man soon overwhelm him with a deep pain. He leaves the box but flees back to the comfort of his home.
The next day, Eli’s son is born at one o’clock in the afternoon, though Eli misses it with the drama of the morning. The narrative flashes back to 9:30 am, when Ted calls Eli at home to tell him that the man is walking around town in Eli’s green suit, showing off his new look to the town. He tells him that he is heading toward Eli’s house, and when Eli steps outside, he sees the man. Their eyes meet, and the man silently asks if he is now acceptable. Later, Eli hears a bang at his back door and opens it to find the box in which he delivered the suit. He at first believes this means the man has given up wearing Eli’s suit and is returning it. When he does not see him fleeing naked, he goes inside and opens the box to find the man’s black suit, his hat, and what seems to be a white pair of undergarments. Eli tries on the hat and notices how it changes his face, giving him bags under his eyes. He then strips naked, keeping the hat on, and is startled by his appearance. Eli puts the entire black suit on and, after some hesitation, runs across town, heading for the yeshivah.
When he reaches the house, he finds the man, now wearing his green suit, painting the porch of the house. Eli feels as though he has become two people, or perhaps one person in two clothes, but when he reaches out to fix a button on the man’s suit, the man resists and panics. The man speaks no English, and after much pleading and asking what he can do to help the man, Eli understands that he wants Eli to leave. Eli walks home through town, feeling the eyes of the townspeople on him. They know he is having another breakdown. The suit feels right to Eli, and when he gets home, he realizes that his son must have been born by now. He considers changing but decides to go to the hospital in the black suit anyway. He wonders whether he is choosing to be crazy by doing so but decides that his ability to choose means he is not crazy.
At the hospital, Miriam is at first mad and then forgiving of Eli’s appearance. She reassures him that he does not need to feel guilty for the pressure the town is forcing him to put on Leo and the yeshivah. Miriam begs Eli not to “flip,” but he ignores her pleas and goes to see his son. Ted appears at his side and asks if he can help Eli in any way. When Eli’s son is brought to him, Ted goes to speak with someone who will help Eli. Eli does not want to take the suit off, and as he looks at his son, he even considers cutting it to make a smaller one for the baby. Ted soon returns with orderlies in tow. They address Eli as a rabbi and forcefully take him away. As they carry him by the arms, Eli yells that he is the father of the child. They inject him with a sedative, but even the drugs, though calming, will not change what the suit now means to him.
“Eli, the Fanatic” Analysis
The final story of Goodbye, Columbus follows Eli Peck as he tries to stop a family of Jewish immigrants from disrupting the peace of his town. The Jewish and Protestant communities of Woodenton, New York, live in a precarious state of peace and stability because of each person’s commitment to not be too vocal or visible in their traditions. Eli is appointed as the man to convince Leo and the man in the black suit to change, though he often struggles to believe in his efforts as much as the rest of the town: “He was not feeling as professional as usual—the place was too dim, it was too late. But down in Woodenton they would be waiting, his clients and neighbors. He spoke for the Jews of Woodenton, not just himself and his wife” (251). Eli’s status in this matter is elevated by the town’s trust in him, and he feels the weight of their expectations. He recognizes how Class and Status as a Source of Conflict impact his approach to his meetings with Leo. He comes from a working professional community and must discuss important matters with a family of recent immigrants and Holocaust survivors. Their situations are radically different, and even the setting of Leo’s house highlights their differences. Throughout the story, Eli frequently notices how dark the house is, and their traditional dress and plans for a yeshivah highlight the differences between them and the rest of the town’s Jewish community.
The tension over the man in the black suit’s traditional style reaches a crisis when Eli gives an ultimatum to Leo, insisting that the man wear the modern suits he gifts him or else actual legal action will be taken. Their arguments are an example of the Pressures of Modernity on Tradition, as Eli and the rest of the community assert that it is the man’s appearance that is creating anxiety. Eli recognizes the optics of their demands and explains to Leo that their request is in fact normal:
I am not a Nazi who would drive eighteen children, who are probably frightened at the sight of a firefly, into homelessness. But if you want a home here, you must accept what we have to offer. The world is the world, Mr. Tzuref. As you would say, what is, is (274).
Eli knows that Leo and his family recently escaped persecution and tries to assure him that their request is not the same as that. He knows that the children are frightened of strangers. Eli highlights the fact that the community’s stability depends on universal acceptance of a modernity that shuns demonstrative religious practices. To the degree that this prohibition falls more heavily on the community’s Jewish residents, as even Eli begins to notice, it becomes difficult to distinguish from antisemitism. Eli tells Leo that this is how the world works now and that there is no point in fighting against it. He offers a way for Leo and his family to join the town, presenting it as a simple concession.
Leo, his family, and the man in the black suit are Holocaust survivors, and “Eli, the Fanatic” acknowledges the immense impact this experience has had on them. When Eli sees the man in the black suit sitting on the lawn, beating his chest and moaning, he finds the display of overwhelming emotion at once alien and deeply familiar. Having not been through the Holocaust himself, he cannot fully understand this man’s pain, and yet he feels that it is inextricably part of his own identity as a Jewish man. This sense of kinship becomes literalized later in the story, when Eli puts on the black suit and feels that he and its original owner are the same person.
The Strength of Relationships in Jewish Families is an essential theme in Goodbye, Columbus, and its importance is highlighted in the differences between Eli and the man in the black suit. Eli has a growing family, his first child on the way, and is a respected lawyer in his community. As Leo explains, the man in the black suit struggles because of what the Nazis took from him: “‘A mother and a father?’ Tzuref said. ‘No. A wife? No. A baby? A little ten-month-old baby? No! A village full of friends? A synagogue where you knew the feel of every seat under your pants?’” (264). The man in the black suit does not have a family, he lost his community, and he lost the place of his faith, leaving him with no connection to his former life outside of his traditional clothing. Leo tries to tell Eli that to make the man give up the suit is to make him give up himself, but Eli and the town do not listen. Additionally, the man has been sterilized by the Nazis and, as Leo asserts, does not have the opportunity to once again start a family. He is in many ways a foil to Eli, the man with a career, family, and opportunities in a well-established community. Eli recognizes the man as his foil: Their ages are the same, but history has dealt them very different life experiences.
Unlock all 58 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Philip Roth
