Defender of the Faith/ Philip Roth.

“l refuse, I can’t stop being me, that’s all there is to it”. Tears came to his eyes. “It’s a hard thing to be a Jew. But now I understand what Mackey says- it’s a harder thing to stay one”. He raised a hand sadly toward me. “Look at you. ” Defender of the Faith/ Philip Roth. The quote above is the part of the Defender of Faith which is a conversation between Crossbars and Marx. Crossbars ask Marx to go out of the army to attend the

Passover dinner. Throughout the story, we come to understand that Crossbars is taking advantage of the fact that both he and Marx are Jewish for his own benefit. Crossbars try to “bond” with Marx on the basis of their common religion, but soon we realize that he uses this common fact to try to get benefits and other privileges. At some point, Marx understands that Crossbars is being selfish and is using the religion for his own needs, and gets tired from Crossbar’s requests.

Crossbars insist that he shouldn’t be treated like everyone else; because he claims that he is better. In addition, he throws at Marx accusations saying that he is denting his roots and his family. Crossbars say this only because he is unhappy and doesn’t get from Marx what he wants, he calls him a go. “You even talk like a go. ” “It’s a hard thing to be a Jew. But now I understand what Mackey says- It’s a harder thing to stay one”.