A Woman in Jerusalem by B. Yehoshua - Research Paper Example

A Woman in Jerusalem by B. Yehoshua Humanity is very important as without humanity, the world would be impossible to live in. humanity is what makes the world balance. This is because; people would not care or feel guilty for doing something wrong. Humanity does not come from being obliged to do something for anyone. Humanity is all about the human conscious and the feeling of being at peace with oneself. The feeling of having a peaceful mind makes one want to do good to other humans. This paper will focus on the importance of humanity within a society using a woman in Jerusalem by A.B Yehoshua. The novel A Woman in Jerusalem by B. Yehoshua is an interesting book that focuses on the cultural, religion and gender issues in Jerusalem. The book is about a woman who is in her forties who unfortunately is a victim of a suicide bombing that happened at the Jerusalem Market. Her corpse lies unidentified in a hospital morgue. The woman is claimed to have worked as a cleaning woman at a bakery. But there is no record of her service at the bakery. A Jerusalem daily indicts the bakery of "coarse negligence and inhumanity toward an employee," the bakery's owner is beleaguered by guilt and takes upon the task of entrusting a human resource man to identify the woman’s body and bury the corpse. The human resource man is at first reluctant to taking up the task but when the facts about the woman begin to develop, the human resource man agrees to take the job without any complaints. The woman was a former engineer from the former Soviet Union and also a non-Jew on a religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem. An early picture of her shows that the woman was very beautiful. The human resource man develops feelings of expiation, regret and even love for this dead woman. Many have argued that the books major theme is a political one that condemned terrorism or suicide bombing (Biblibio, 2012). I disagree with this statement, the books major theme is humanity and love which are completely the opposite of the said theme. A.B. Yehoshua was born on December 19, 1936 in Jerusalem. Yehoshua is one of Israel’s most read and respected authors. From the mid 1950s to the 1970s, his writing was always full of suspense and allegories. Yehoshua is known to have written stories that questioned the foundations of the Zionists state and also the old man type memoirs. Yehoshua is well known for his novel, A Late Divorce and The Lover. A late divorce focuses on the pathological dimensions of the family and the society as a whole. The Lover he presents the Israeli society at its lowest point. He uses realism and tries to balance real and the grotesque truth on the Israeli society. Having adopted a Canaanite ideology, Yehoshua as an activist, has adopted "Israelism" as a better alternative for Judaism in Israel. Yehoshua lives in Haifa and still continues to write, lecture and very politically active. He is also a Professor at the School of Theater at the University of Haifa (Patrick, 2004). The nature of love has been portrayed in the novel although Yehoshua does not portray this successfully. The nature and search for love has been portrayed through different characters in the book. The first character that brings out this theme is Yulia, the dead woman. When she migrated to Jerusalem, she came with her son from a previous marriage and her lover who later on leave her in Jerusalem. This shows that Yulia believed in love as a form of happiness and completeness in her life. Despite her failed marriage, Yulia did not give up on love. This is shown by the fact that she went ahead and fell in love with another man; her lover from Russia. The resource manager also portrayed the nature of love. We can see that the resource manager is searching for love. The resource manager is recently divorced and is living with his mother. The resource manager skulks around clubs and pubs to find a new relationship. During his investigation of Yulia, the resource manager falls in love with her. Previously, the resource manager had interviewed Yulia and gave her a job but he did not recall her until when he saw a picture of her. Since the resource manager cannot have a physical relationship with Yulia, he struggles to give her a respectable burial. He travels with the coffins and the body all the way to a murky village in Russia just to make sure that Yulia is buried respectfully and at her birth place. This shows the extent in which he had fallen in love with Yulia. Yehoshua shows how important love is as at the end of the book, the resource manager and ‘weasel’ discuss the Plato phaedo. Weasel tells the resource manger that love is divine. This shows how love is valued. This showed that weasel had given up on love and was encouraging the resource manager by stating that love is exhausted. "Platonic love has been mined to exhaustion." (Yehoshua, 2006). Much later in the conversation, the weasel scrutinizes that "that's love's secret. There is no formula to love and every person has to discover the secret for themselves. Though contradicting, weasel still has hope for love though not through the expectations of the society. Humanity is very important to the being of a society as without humanity, life would be u unbearable. A Woman in Jerusalem portrays this theme. The theme of humanity has been brought out through the bakery owner and mostly through the resource manager. Though it the main aim of writing the article on Yulia and blaming the bakery for negligence was a way of making a name for himself. What weasel did was an act of humanity. He felt touched and that is why he had a good story though he wrote it for his own selfish reasons. The other character that showed humanity is the resource manager. At first, he helped the lifeless body of Yulia because he was getting paid to do it but at some point, he stopped doing it for the money but out of his own good will (Yehoshua et al, 2011). The resources manager went out of his way and took the body to its native country and made sure that Yulia got a befitting burial. A Woman in Jerusalem" can be said to be a story of humanity can flourish in the center of an unknown bureaucracy. As a matter of fact, no one should have cared that Yulia is dead as she was an introverted woman, with no relatives in Israel. Despite this, after the newspaper article was printed, a number of people work hand in hand in order to give Yulia a respectful and befitting burial. Yulia gets the decorum and acknowledgment at her death that she did not get in her life in Jerusalem. The bakery owner is horrified of death, and he employees his resource manager to do what he did as a way of showing concern for Yulia. He does this in the hope of having a peaceful mind and settled conscious. The human resources manager had the option of refusing to get involved in the whole mess. Although he was reluctant at first, he gradually feels compelled by his own will and the love that he had developed for Yulia to do all he did for her. This brings about a fulfillment and he is at peace with himself, something that he had previously lacked and was looking for. This shows that the acts of humanity that might be little or seem minor to one brings about satisfaction and peace to many. A woman in Jerusalem can be mistaken for a political story because at the time the book was written, suicide bombing was rampant in Jerusalem. Expect for the fact that Yulia died due to a suicide bomb, the major themes of the novel is not terrorism but the opposite of it. The major themes are humanity, compassion and love (Ramsay, 2006). Yehoshua wrote the book and dedicated it to someone he loved that died in a suicide bombing. The loss compelled him to write in with compassion and love and that is why the book encourages acts of humanity that bring one peace and satisfaction. The acts of humanity that were done by various characters in the novel were as a way to have a peace of mind. The bakery owner hired the resource manager to clear up Yulia’s death so as to have a peace of mind. Although the resource manager was getting paid, at the end, he feels satisfied and liberated. Works cited Yehoshua, Abraham B., and Hillel Halkin. A woman in Jerusalem. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc., 2006. Print. O'Neil, Patrick M. Great World Writers: Twentieth Century. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2004. Print. Yehoshua, A B, and Hillel Halkin. A Woman in Jerusalem: A Passion in Three Parts. New York: Halban, 2011. Internet resource. Ramsay, C. Jewish Independent, 2006. Retrieved from 4th December 2012 < http://www.jewishindependent.ca/archives/Sept06/archives06Sept22-20.html> Biblibio letters in life. A woman in Jerusalem, 2012. Retrieved from 4th December 2012< http://biblibio.blogspot.com/2012/06/yehoshuas-earlier-duet-woman-in.html> Read More