My paper on The Slave

The Slave by Isaac Singer depicts a heroic tale of a man named Jacob and his outstanding tribulations to overcome suffering, slavery, and his audacious efforts to seek answers within his own religion of Judaism. He encounters many demons, not in a physical sense, but rather a metaphysical sense by suffering through the agonizing accounts of unjust living and punishment for actions out of his control. Jacob has lost his wife and children, but has found a new true love named Wanda. The couple fights through a world of suffering to exist together in a world that is against their forbidden love, and they battle through a whirlwind of odds that are against them.

Isaac Singer makes his story apparent to the fact that Jacob lives a life of suffering, but he neglects to paint the picture in the reader’s mind of how Jacob’s actions have lead to the suffering and emotional enslavement of others. In this sense, I have chosen to take a more immersed approach to my paper for the unnoticed sufferer in this novel. I am very fascinated by the character of Wanda, and am rather absorbed in trying to unravel the suffering that she has endured due to living side by side with Jacob. She has not lost a family due to murders from the Cossacks, and she was not enslaved by a stranger to live a life unfamiliar to her, and she was not forced to lose her religion based on all these regards. But in a sense, she has lost herself completely for her love of Jacob.

Wanda has lost her identity by having to conceal who she is as a person, in order to live with Jacob and to be his lover. She was forced to act as a deaf mute to camouflage her religion, and more so, because she was not Jewish when Jacob returned to his homeland of Josefov along with her. She changed her identity to take on the nature of another woman, named Sarah. She had to change who she was, by not being able to speak, defend, and justify her voice as a woman. For Jacob had fallen in love with the woman he knew as Wanda, a woman who was able to voice herself, and she now had to live as Sarah, someone different than the woman that her companion had fallen in love with, and that must have been a painful truth for her to swallow to be alongside him. Jacob had known that she was in fact Wanda, and not Sarah, but she had to act as someone different, and live in the relationship with Jacob as a partner, dealing with the fact that she was pretending to be a different woman who he had not in fact fallen in love with. Sarah is a different person all together, as her preceding life living as Wanda.

Wanda was made paralyzed enough from losing her voice as a woman to not even be able to let out a painful wail from enduring childbirth, and she was greatly surrounded in suffering when she had to face consequences when she finally let out her voice as she gave birth to her son Benjamin. She had to suffer the claims made upon her by the residents of Josefov of having a demon inside of her because she finally let out her voice that was hidden inside of her. She made public her true identity of being Wanda, and not Sarah which eventually led further enslavement from Jacob, intentional or not, as she was trying to disguise herself for the sake of being with him. She did this to make him and herself happy. The truth of who she really is as Jacob’s lover would end her suffering. But she was never able to speak the truth.

After her childbirth, Wanda died. She had to suffer through the abandonment of her motherhood for her son Benajmin that she had created with her true love, Jacob. Isaac Singer does not go into great detail to describe the bond that she had created with Benjamin while she carried him in her womb. And also the deeper relationship that she has grown with Jacob, as they fight through their emotional struggles, and embellish the beauty of preparing for parenthood together. But she no longer has a chance to enjoy the one glimpse of hope for happiness in her life by experiencing motherhood. It is all ripped away from her when she passes on. She again suffers by not having a chance to even live the life she has always wanted.
Benjamin and Jacob both suffer from her death. Their suffering leads to further suffering for Wanda because she in return has to live an eternity knowing that they have suffered. I have come to this conclusion because Isaac Singer elucidates her character as originally being a Christian. She believes in going to heaven to look after the lives of Benjamin and Jacob, and gains an understanding of the pain they both had went through without her in their lives. Wanda suffers in death as she looks on to watch her son become a professor, but not being able to physically be there with him through his accomplishments. Again, she misses out on the life she has always wanted.


Another point that was never touched on was Wanda not being able to see her father, Jan Bzik, again once she had fled to the Jewish town of Josekov with Jacob. She knew that Jacob was a slave to her father, but he had to have suffered through the pains of the absence of him not being in her new life. Wanda also had to see Jacob question his faith and life due to the enslavement from her own father.
I understand it was the choice of Wanda to follow Jacob when he came for her, and to transform herself into another woman named Sarah, but the power of love gave her no other choices, and that was ultimately her suffering. It may have not been the true intention of Jacob to make Wanda his slave under the suffering of love, but the novel, The Slave, illustrates many realities of this being so. However, Wanda’s suffering seems justified when Jacob passes away and she is finally laid to rest with her true love as his bones are buried along hers. For this image makes it seem that Wanda is no longer a slave to the circumstances of Jacob by having to adapt to any and all conditions to be with her true love. After his death, not only was Jacob released of all suffering, but so was Wanda as she was buried along the side of her love, able to be with him forever, and finally fulfilling her true motives after having endured so much suffering in order to get there.


Wanda’s greatest suffering profoundly involves Jacob and not in an enslavement type of suffering from him. The couple had fought so long to take the steps towards ultimate freedom and escape the burden of being forbidden lovers, and to finally live their lives the way they wanted. Their freedom is only ever found in death, buried beneath the earth of a cemetery. Wanda was lost and forgotten in this burial place, but the same burial place where Jacob has found her once again.

An Epiphany in the midst of Suffering

I have had a somewhat painful epiphany, but when digging myself deep into the thoughts of suffering in a Biblical sense, I have found that my occurrences have led me to believe I had a moment of deeper understanding. I had the combination of having a bad day, and a day that held an epiphany. A moment of rarity, rather, but that is the best kind.

My Uncle passed away on November 27th of this year after a long battle of liver cancer. He suffered through years of fear, physical anguish, and hopelessness due to the devastation of his disease. I was lucky enough to be home the night that he passed. My family and I stood around him as tears flooded down our faces, and we watched him take his final breaths. I had seen him suffer more than anyone in the events leading up to his death. He had laid in that hospice bed not being able to fully live, or fully die, but just lay there in agony as his world moved on without his control. I knew he was hiding his pain, but it was made evident with every grievous breath of air that he took, as his body housed this murderous cancer. He was innocent, and he suffered.

And then he went. The expressions on his face beneath his wrinkled skin that had once been filled with strain and torment, had somewhat released expressions that had turned to relief and comfort in the moments after he had passed. It was as if his suffering was erased. I was too upset to juggle any other thoughts, but as my mind had eventually calmed, I had noticed that I had an epiphany. Death ended his suffering. My Uncle had "accepted God's invitation", and released his suffering from his cancer, and it was all made evident to me as I witnessed the change of expressions upon his face.

From this experience, I have come to my own understanding of why God allows the suffering of innocents. I think that for he knows one day these innocent people who suffer, will one day be delivered to ultimate solitude, and freed of all devastation. For while we are on earth, we live fully and that will entail coming upon suffering, but that is the beauty of life, and overcoming the triumphs that will be in our way. And I think that even though this may require suffering, God wants humans, his children, to find out who we really are individually, and take notice of how strong we can be to move past suffering into a world of complete sanctuary, which will we be welcomed into once we succumb death ,and rest in ultimate peace.

Thank you Uncle Tommy for teaching me strength through your suffering.

Response to Debbie's Blog

Debbie blogged a very hilarious experience that she had while discussing the Book of Ruth with her mother. And it made me realize the absolute treasure that the Bible becomes in the world of storytelling. Her mom was reading The Book of Ruth, as described by Plotz, and her mother says, "So, Boaz didn't want to get into Ruth's pants?" After I laughed until my sides ached, I began to realize how different interpretations of the Bible lead to different endings in each of the stories. And that is part of the beauty of it all because it leads to many understandings and messages hidden beneath the trialing language of the Bible. Debbie showed this well in her blog by demonstrating the different comprehensions of the Book of Ruth between her mother and David Plotz. We translate these stories into our own understandings, and the tale of storytelling continues on with how the work is learned and taken in. This may lead to misinterprtations, or just another way of telling the story different than others have. For that is the importance for being a reader of the Bible, and for the room that is given to learn and appreciate the meaning of the Books, which leads to a fuller understanding of the Bible as a whole.

Link to Debbie's Blog---->http://bible240.blogspot.com/

Why must we suffer?

The question I often ponder is, does God himself suffer along with innocents beneath him?
Must he suffer in order to seek compassion for those on Earth who have suffered as well?
How do we know? How do we not? The Bible does not clearly demonstrate any accounts of justification for innocent suffering, but the message may be hidden beneath the verses.

We question why innocent children die and why the Holocaust occured, and if God was a God of compassion, how can he allow suffering among his people? But we come to these understandings without fully embelleshing ourselves in the Books of the New Testament, and diving in deep to the questions that may be answered under the compelling literature.




I came across an interesting passage as I was reading Revelations.

"And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."


I really enjoyed reading this because it places God on both a physical and emotional level with man rather than him being above these emotions that we fill ourselves with. He may often have the same emotions that we uphold, and take in the pain of suffering.

Another question I often ponder is what if one persons' suffering is another persons' refuge? How do we define the true and ultimate term of suffering? When is it suffering and when is it not? For example, the death penalty is what made me wonder of this. The person being put to death is obviously suffering from feelings of terror and shame, but on the other end the suffering becomes less daunting as the family of an innocent victim sees the guilty person put to death, and justice becomes the result of the suffering.

In a way, my thoughts coincide with the Book of Job. Job says that he has not sinned, and so his suffering is unjustified. But the case of the death penalty, in some contexts, has an opposite approach. The person who is suffering from being put to death is convicted as gulity, and the family members of the victim have an ease of suffering.

If I take a historical look at suffering and the death penalty, the women that were convicted of being witches and sentenced to death in the Salem Witch Trials, were in fact innocent. But they suffered along with guilty upon false accusations. If I begin to wonder how often this may occur within death penalty cases, it makes me think that suffering will never be justified, and there will always be unjust suffering. But then again, this may be more of a political view for me to have, rather than a biblical view. :)

Jesus is Everywhere!

The following are pictures of the face of Jesus in bizarre places. He is with us everywhere, I suppose.

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A picture was captured of Jesus in the clouds.

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On the left someone popped their toast out of the toaster, and Jesus' face appeared!
And on the right the face of the Virgin Mary appeared on a grilled cheese after it was taken off the frying pan. Talk about breakin' the bread!







A person took a bite into a Kit Kat bar and claims to have looked down and have seen the face of Jesus... sort of. Break me off a peice of that... Jesus!







A family breakfast turned religious when a mother opened a jar of Marmite to put on her son's toast, and WHAM... Jesus face.






Here, Jesus was found after someone had fried some pot stickers! Nice choice Jesus. Those are delicious.






Before someone could get to soaking their pots and pans, this face of Jesus appeared on the bottom of the grease.






Have you ever gotten ready to peel back a banana and seen the face of Jesus in the bruised fruit? Neither did this lady until she pulled it from her fruit bowl! Another form of Jesus in fruit, he appears in this orange soon enough to been seen before someone sliced it further.





Someone searched on Google Earth a farm in Hungary and were
astonished when the face of Jesus appeared on their map.
Holy Cow!

Why haven't I finished the Bible?

I haven't finished the Bible yet for several reasons.

1... well, I may be a slow reader, and the Bible is more complex and full of meaning than any literature I have yet to encounter.

2... I read a Book of the Bible and gain my own understanding of the story. And then I read Plotz

to compare how accurate my understanding is as compared to his. So, this takes some time.

3... To read the Bible to it's entirety takes more time than I am able to put forth in a given semester along with all my other readings.

After reading the above accusations as to why I haven't finished, do not let me fool you into thinking I won't finish! Because I will. I want to be able to not only proudly say that I have finished the Bible, but hold a valid argument and to articulate my thoughts about the Books in the Bible with any Bible thumper out there. I'll show them what it really takes to thump it after having read it from cover to cover! :) ... And I also want to finish it for myself. I, so far, have been introduced to some of the most wonderful stories I have yet to encounter and have negated all mundane views of the Bible I have once had. I want to continue to dive in head first, with no armor, but prepared to take on the headstrong battle of interpreting it for myself.

Biblical Brawl

I had a conversation about the Bible with a Jehovah's Witness. He is a man that lives in my neighborhood, and I am a friend of his daughthers who are not Jehovah's Witnesses, something he is not happy with. So, as we started the conversation, he wasn't happy with me from the beginning, as one could imagine since he is very passionate for his religion, and thinks that everyone else should be as well. And I wasn't there to talk about his religion. I was there to discuss, the Bible. And I told him that. So, our conversation continues on vigorously. He told me that the Jehovah's Witness version of the Bible was the most accurate version of the Bible. I didn't laugh, or sneer, or even scoff at him. I simply asked him who wrote it? He could only reply that 100% of the Bible is inspired by God. By that being his only reply, it was obvious he had not read the Bible, even the Jehovah's Witness Bible, and I having read at least through Psalms, wanted to ask a few more questions.
"Are you familiar with the first book of the Bible about creation?", I proceed to ask him.
"Well, every Bible is a little different", he quickly shoots back. I am not looking to get in an argument at this point, I just want to see if he's read any Bible, or just the type, as we say in class, that claims to read the Bible, but never does.
So, I calmly ask, "Oh you know the story of Adam and Eve, and when God creates the Earth, what's the name of that Book in the Bible?"
I'm obviously playing dumb to make him more comfortable to answer, a bit satan like of me don't you think? :)
He just looks at me strange and replies, "We talked about that story all the time at my old Kingdom Hall I used to go to in Chicago." (Kingdom Hall is the Jehovah's Witness Church. I wasn't aware of this either.)
"It's called the Book of Genesis in the Bible" I inform to him.
He mocks me and says, "Well, The New World Translation of the Bible may be different and is more accurate."
I ask to see his Bible. He shows me it and I turn to the first Book. The Book of Genesis appears before me, and throughout the Book the scriptures are a little different a re-worded but nonetheless, the meaning is there. I show him his Bible, and I show him mine. I think he is a little astonished at this point.
"They're both here, pretty cool huh?" I tell him.

I think I learned from my discussion with him that he may have learned a lot about his religion by going to his Church and listening, but he never got the full meaning of the Bible by reading it for himself. He didn't even know the name of the first Book, or even that the story of Genesis was he opening to the Bible, even the opening to his Bible. It makes me want to finish the Bible even that much more so I can take into the account the meaning of the Books of the Bible for myself, instead of leaving it up to someone else to interpret them for me.