21 pages • 42 minutes read
Philip RothDefender Of The Faith
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1959A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Sergeant Nathan Marx
Sergeant Nathan Marx, the narrator and protagonist of the short story, is originally from New York, and he now finds himself at Camp Crowder in Missouri after his combat experiences in Germany. The reader learns he is Jewish just as other characters in the story learn this detail, but it is unclear to both the reader and the other characters what being Jewish means to Marx. Buried underneath Marx’s toughened exterior—of a soldier who has seen and absorbed many horrors of war—is a kind man. Marx credits his grandmother with this tender side of his personality, a woman whose emotional sensitivity contrasts with the harsh tendencies of Marx’s mother. Marx is a reflective man capable of great empathy, committed to doing his duty but also cognizant of the situations of others. This compassionate side to his nature renders him vulnerable to the scheming of self-preservationist Private Sheldon Grossbart.
Captain Paul Barrett
A brusque, aggressive caricature of a military man, Captain Barrett holds a leadership role at the military base. He admires the personal qualities of bravery and competence, and his manner of speaking is direct. Captain Barrett has little patience for cultural nuances as evidenced by his impatience with Grossbart’s requests for special treatment and his quick adoption of cultural stereotypes that portray Jewish people in a negative light.
Private Sheldon Grossbart
Private Sheldon Grossbart is a 19-year-old trainee at Camp Crowder, and he, like his fellow trainees, are waiting to find out if they will see combat in the Pacific after they complete basic training. Grossbart is opportunistic, bold, and confident, and he is not easily intimidated by rank; he is also emotionally intelligent and does not shy away from flattery. These qualities enable him to manipulate Sergeant Marx into making his life at Camp Crowder easier for him and his friends.
Private Larry Fishbein
A friend and fellow trainee of Private Sheldon Grossbart, Fishbein is an eager participant in Grossbart’s shenanigans. He, like Grossbart, is passionately self-interested, but he is less charismatic, less intelligent, and less skillful than Grossbart. Content to follow Grossbart’s lead but clumsy, Fishbein at times inadvertently reveals Grossbart’s true intentions when Grossbart tries to paint a picture of himself as pious and genuine.
Private Michael “Mickey” Halpern
Private Mickey Halpern is a truly devout young Jewish man. He appears to pal around with Grossbart and Fishbein out a sense of duty and obligation; the other two boys do not share Mickey’s religious devotion, but they are happy to use his faith to reinforce their own pleas for exceptions. Mickey is characterized as a nervous person; his anxiety may stem from his personality or from the fact that there is a war going on, and that he, like all the other trainees, may soon have to see combat.
Philip Roth
Novelist Philip Roth (1933-2018) has long been considered a writer of “fake biographies,” or works of fiction that mirror the author’s life closely enough to be revelatory and deeply personal. He is widely respected as a member of a Jewish trio of male American writers; alongside Bernard Malamud and Saul Bellow, Roth wrote plentifully about the Jewish life, but Roth’s take on Jewish identity was often controversial. The short story “Defender of the Faith” was published in 1959, and Roth was criticized by Jewish leaders who believed he expressed a sort of Jewish self-hatred in the work. According to scholars, Roth emerged from this conflict even more resilient and confident about his literary voice, and his writing career was marked by multiple successes, including a Pulitzer Prize for his 1997 novel American Pastoral, a Man Booker International Prize in 2011, and the title of “greatest American writer” from New York Magazine in 2013.
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