“They felt hungry, these picturesque people; their near and dear ones were hungering at home. Voluptuously savoring in imagination, the operation of the soup, they forgot its operation as a dole in aid of wages; were unconscious of the grave economical possibilities of pauperization and the rest, and quite willing to swallow their independence with the soup. Even Esther, who had read much, and was sensitive, accepted unquestioningly the theory of the universe that was held by most people about her, that human beings were distinguished from animals in having to toil terribly for a meagre crust, but that their lot was lightened by the existence of a small and semi-divine class called Takeefim, or rich people, who gave away what they didn’t want. How these rich people came to be, Esther did not inquire; they were as much a part of the constitution of things as clouds and horses. The semi-celestial variety was rarely to be met with. It lived far away from the Ghetto, and a small family of it was said to occupy a whole house. Representatives of it, clad in rustling silks or impressive broad-cloth, and radiating an indefinable aroma of superhumanity, sometimes came to the school, preceded by the beaming Head Mistress; and then all the little girls rose and curtseyed, and the best of them, passing as average members of the class, astonished the semi-divine persons by their intimate acquaintance with the topography of the Pyrenees and the disagreements of Saul and David, the intercourse of the two species ending in effusive smiles and general satisfaction. But the dullest of the girls was alive to the comedy, and had a good-humored contempt for the unworldliness of the semi-divine persons who spoke to them as if they were not going to recommence squabbling, and pulling one another’s hair, and copying one another’s sums, and stealing one another’s needles, the moment the semi-celestial backs were turned.” – Children of the Ghetto, Chapter 1
In Children of the Ghetto, Zangwill attempts to embody the voice of the Anglo-Jewry, displaying the realities of life in the poor Jewish neighborhoods of East London. From the prologue to his first chapter, he creates the foundation of his story; he investigates the liminal space that Jews of the 19th century occupied between the tight knit community of the ghetto and the modern attempt to mesh with British life while remaining true to their community and heritage. The passage above illustrates Zangwill’s use of realism tinged with irony and sarcasm. We can see all of these elements from the first line of the paragraph when the narrator describes the poor who gathered at the soup kitchen writing, “they’re hungry, these picturesque people.” There is a clear use of sarcasm here as the large impoverished crowd would look nothing but picturesque (as one can see in the photo 1). It is interesting to note where the narrator appears to be placed in relationship to Esther, the young poor girl we are following throughout the first chapter. By describing the crowd this way, Zangwill seems to be placing the narrator behind the eyes of the rich, philanthropic individuals serving at the soup kitchen, who look at the poor naively and seemingly condescendingly. The use of a third person narrator throughout the story allows the story to observe multiple entities at once to better showcase the wide range of perspectives and characters within the story. In this scene, the third person narrator allows us to see how the Takeefin have become separated from the greater Jewish community both emotionally and physically through the use of sarcasm.
Throughout the passage there are numerous mentions of “semi-divine” beings and superhumanity in reference to the Takeefin, or rich Jewish class, who become religious quasi-archetypes as we view them through Esther’s eyes. Yet despite her divine view of these individuals, she holds contempt for them for their lack of worldliness. The use of irony further flavors the scene as the narrator shows us how out of touch the Takeefin are with the poorer members of Jewish society – they are divine entities with little connection to those they are supposed to be serving. Zangwill dehumanizes the Takeefin by referring to the individuals as “it”, illustrating the lack of a relationship between them and the poor, a drastic change from the days of the ghetto. This can be clearly seen when he writes, “The semi-celestial variety was rarely to be met with. It lived far away from the Ghetto, and a small family of it was said to occupy a whole house. Representatives of it, clad in rustling silks or impressive broad-cloth, and radiating an indefinable aroma of superhumanity, sometimes came to the school.” The Takeefin are being dehumanized by the narrator, yet the continual use of sarcasm serves to illustrate how out of touch they are with the larger Jewish community as the narrator mocks them.
Zangwill also uses various methods of juxtaposition when describing the rich and poor members of community. We can see the tensions between the worldly and the semi-divine in the final two lines of the paragraph. Both lines are almost identical in structure and length and the juxtaposition between the façade and reality of interactions with the Takeefin illustrates the growing lack of true understanding within Anglo-Jewish community. The first line presents the façade saying, “then all the little girls rose and curtseyed, and the best of them, passing as average members of the class, astonished the semi-divine persons by their intimate acquaintance with the topography of the Pyrenees and the disagreements of Saul and David, the intercourse of the two species ending in effusive smiles and general satisfaction.” By calling the girls and the Takeefin “two species”, the narrator is emphasizing the cultural divide that has appeared between these different factions of Jewish life. The line also presents the performance that is required of the children in order to gain the grace of these divine beings, insinuating that the Takeefin need to be catered to in order to obtain their charity. The next line illustrates the worldly reality saying, “But the dullest of the girls was alive to the comedy, and had a good-humored contempt for the unworldliness of the semi-divine persons who spoke to them as if they were not going to recommence squabbling, and pulling one another’s hair, and copying one another’s sums, and stealing one another’s needles, the moment the semi-celestial backs were turned.” By substituting the worlds rich and poor with the divine and the worldly, Zangwill is able to starkly present how separated these two factions of Jewish society have become. The narrator illustrating how easily these “godly” individuals are able to be fooled by the earthly beings, using sarcasm to nullify their divinity by calling attention to their flaws.
These dualities present in Zangwill’s writing reflect the two sided lives that the individuals in the story live – one side Jewish and the other British, one side isolated and the other filled with community, and one side poor and the other rich. Children of the Ghetto produces pathos in its readers as we are shown a group of people who are in between two worlds – the modern British world and that of the Jewish ghetto.
