Importance Of Faith In Man example essay topic

Faith is believed to be one of the most important elements attached to the life of a human being. Faith brings meaning to life. It is the essence that ties a person to life no matter the struggle encountered. Whenever some one looses faith in the people of their society, all he has felt is a religious believe which can be translated into 'faith in God (s) '; . In the stories 'Bontsha the Silent'; and 'Gimpel the Fool'; by Isaac Loeb Peretz and Isaac Bashevis Singer respectively, the protagonists are victims of tremendous sufferings, where faith is the only way out. However, the faith focused by both authors differ somewhat.

Peretz prioritizes faith in the divine, while Singer elaborates faith in man around their protagonists. First, in his tale 'Bontsha the Silent'; , Peretz seems to suggest that a person who has lost faith in man ought to have, at least, faith God. One must not go without faith just because he had run into some sort of difficulty or been victim of injustice during his life. Peretz expresses his believe through the main character, Bontsha. He describes Bontsha as the most unfortunate imaginable human being on earth and yet never complaining about his adversity. Ever since the first day Bontsha was born, no one has cared of him.

He was born with silence and passed away with silence. During his lifetime, he had to haul heavy loads stumbling at each step and begged for the pennies that were rightfully his, and even then, sometimes he did not get paid. Further, he knew he had been taken advantage of, and still, he remained silent. Once he had run into luck by saving a man's life who then made him a coachman and married him off. But his luck did not last for long, as his great benefactor and philanthropist went into bankruptcy and never got what he had earned. Peretz develops his character in such way implying that perhaps Bontsha had so much faith in God that he did not care any of his sufferings; he lost hope with mankind.

When all faith for man is lost, one should at least believe in God for he might be rewarded in 'the other world'; . Indeed, when Bontsha dies, he rewarded for having maintained his faith in God and never complained to him. Second, in 'Gimpel the Fool'; , Singer demonstrates the importance of faith in man one must have. Gimpel, the main character, gets fooled by all the people in his community though he did not care much about it. In fact, he even believed that it was a good thing to be fooled: 'at least that did them some good'; he said. In addition, Gimpel did not want to hurt other people feelings since he was afraid people might think they are lairs.

Eventually, he married a woman who he thought was a virgin and who had a little brother being her son in reality. He had been fooled again. The foolishness of the fool did not end here though. Only four years after their marriage, his wife gives birth to a child supposedly premature. Gimpel did not want to be fooled and asked his wife: 'Isn't he a little too premature?' ; Anyone who would have been in the same situation as Gimpel would have divorced the women immediately. On the contrary, Gimpel had faith in his wife and loved the child with madness.

The greatness of his faith is rendered further when witnesses his wife cheating on him and giving birth to another child that could not possibly be his. Moreover, after his wife's death Gimpel did not cease loving her and dreamt of her at night. 'Gimpel the Fool'; helped Singer illustrate the greatness of someone who lives by simply having faith: 'it is written that a good man lives by his faith'; . Finally, Bontsha and Gimpel are very similar character in a way that both are mistreated by practically everyone in their surroundings and yet are able to endure with almost no trouble in affirming their faith. Bontsha seem to have lost completely his faith in man, and keeps silence for his entire life until he dies and gets rewarded. Gimpel, for his part, believes in man and lives with them without regarding on what he has to go through.

Although Peretz and Singer do not share the same conviction, both still believe in the value of faith of a man.