Goodbye Columbus Essay

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After World War II, in a time that would later be called the Postwar Era, home ownership was at an all time high. Families began to settle down in areas, which had begun to be called the suburbs. There was a new economic climate in the air after the war, and people were much more able to realize the dream of homeownership. The American dream became to live in suburbia, and people thought that once there, they had finally made it in life. The message to aspiring young families across the nation was clear: go to suburbia and build your dream. Philip Roth’s Goodbye Columbus details the relationship between Brenda Patimkin and Neil Klugman and their difference in social classes. Brenda has recently entered a much higher class than he is, since her family has made a lot of money and no longer lives in Newark, New Jersey, where Neil lives with his aunt and uncle. It follows the progression of Brenda and her family, and through Neil as the narrator it offers his views and thoughts of what they are becoming. This novella is a parallel to the actual change that many families of the working class under went during the post war period with an upward trend into the middle class. And this theme is shown through Neil’s views of Brenda and her families change in Goodbye Columbus. Neil Klugman is a twenty-three Jewish kid who works at a public library living with his Aunt Gladys and Uncle Max. Brenda is also Jewish, and is a student at Radcliffe College in Boston, Massachusetts. Neil first meets Brenda at a country club swimming pool where Brenda asked him to hold her glasses while she swam in the pool. From the beginning of this book it is clear that Brenda and Neil come from different world; Neil being of the working class living in Newark, New Jersey and Brenda who lives in the upper class suburbs of Short Hills, New Jersey. One of the major themes in Goodbye Columbus along

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