Neil Simons influence on Jewish culture - Essay Example

So many of our traditions inherently contain aspects of culture. Look at the Passover Seder-it's essentially great theater. Jewish education and religiosity bereft of culture is not as interesting. It is also clear that Jews have, in one form of another, dominated much of the American theatre, musical theatre and film worlds for much of their existence. Neil Simon is hardly unique in dominating one aspect of the performing arts: he is part of an oligarchy that has been recognized for decades.

Simon has brought an eclectic view of what it means to be Jewish to a wide audience for nearly six decades. Thus in The Eugene Trilogy of plays he gives a semi-autobiographical account of his own early life, career and struggles. Brighton Beach Memoirs, the first play of the trilogy, deals with a Jewish teenager who experiences sexual awakening and a search for identity against the backdrop of a complex Jewish family. While not necessarily "about" being Jewish, Simon brings a shrewd sensibility to the idea of the difficulties of growing up and being Jewish (Simon, 1995).

Within all of Simon's drama, even the more "serious" tupe as can be seen within the Eugene Trilogy, there is an element of humor. He has brought an ability to view even the most serious matters humorously to a mass audience. In some ways it is easy to see the influence of Neil Simon on icons of Jewish culture such as Woody Allen. The ability to write about a uniquely Jewish experience and yet at the same time to make that experience accessible and even enjoyable to a much wider, often non-Jewish audience has been an inspiration to many different other artists.

At times Neil Simon has taken iconic Jewish figures, such as the character of Job from the Bible, and made them accessible to modern audiences. Thus in God's Favorite he transfers the Book of Job to a Long Island Mansion, and manages to make the play both funny and thought-provoking. This play may be seen as part of a recurrent theme that runs throughout many of what at least superficially appear to be light-hearted and comic plays (Konas, 1997). Konas also argues that Neil Simon's comedy is rooted in "people's neuroses" (1997), and one of them that many of Simon's character possess is the fact that they are Jewish.

There is a deceptive seriousness to these analyses of Jewish life in America, a deception that allows Simon to introduce the audience to some of their own prejudices and doubts. Thus in Jake's Women the leading character is haunted by the fact that some of his previous relationships have been defined, more or less, with the fact that he was Jewish and the supposed sensibility that goes along with that. Neil Simon's contribution to Jewish culture has been profound. He has brought a decidedly Jewish outlook to stage and film for nearly sixty years, with more than forty plays and thirty screenplays to his credit.

He paved the way for other popular artists such as Woody Allen and Mel Brooks to consider Jewishness in perhaps more challenging ways (or at least more controversial ways) than Simon has himself. Such is the role of a catalyst and role-model for others. The