In an attempt to fully convey the parallels of suffering in The Bible, Issac Bashevis Singer’s, The Slave, and the blogs written for Biblical Foundations of Literature it is nearly impossible to make any valid claims in a strictly formal report. Thus being said, the following text is revealed in both a formal and personal level to truly depict the effects of suffering and this emotions influence in literature and reality.
After a complete reading of The Bible and The Slave it is not difficult to identify the direct parallels between the Old Testament and The Slave. Throughout the Old Testament suffering is clearly depicted through multiple characters, cultures, and situations. Similarly, in The Slave suffering can be traced throughout the entire book by a close examination of the characters Jacob and Sarah (also known as Wanda, but for the entirety of this analysis will be identified as Sarah). It is also necessary to trace the suffering of non-fictional people and closely examine their strife in comparison to both biblical characters and fictional characters Jacob and Sarah. It is simply not enough to point out particular instances of suffering since it is apparent that the entire Old Testament appears to be book after book of someone, or even whole nations suffering. Instead, I am most concerned with the different levels in which people suffer. Does suffering and love parallel each other? Can one exist without the other? Can a certain sense of beauty be found in suffering that could not have been found without love?
Biblical Suffering
As previously stated, the Old Testament is filled with multitudes of suffering. Specifically, I find the suffering of Hannah (First Samuel), David (Second Samuel), and Job (Book of Job) suggests different levels of suffrage. In the book of First Samuel, Hannah is desperate to conceive a child and pray’s to God fervently, saying “O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you, as a Nazarite until the day of his death” (1Samuel 1:11). In her suffering, Hannah’s genuine desires prompt her to mercifully praise God as she confesses her love to him. Is it because of Hannah’s true love for God that she suffers so greatly? Hannah seems to understand the love God has for her and she desires to return an equal love to God by raising a son who will also be a servant to God. Hannah suffers regarding the lack of something that she never had thus showing one can suffer without loss.
Job, a righteous man loses his home, family and health as a result of a bet between God and Satan. He is covered in boils and suffers from the physical pain, but also the pain of seemingly being rejected by God. Before Job’s three friends decided that Job is guilty of sin and is being punished “They sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was great” (Job 2:13). Unlike Hannah, Job suffers because of what he has lost.
David, King of Israel is not exempt from suffering because he is God’s chosen leader. Like Job, his suffering is a result of having lost something and in this case it is two of his children. In my opinion two of the most emotional passages in The Bible are found in David’s response to having lost his kin. When God punishes David for committing adultery and intentionally placing Bathsheba’s husband in fatal danger he strikes the first born son of David and Bathsheba. David mourns his loss and when asked by his servants why he ceases to mourn David replies, “I can go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Samuel 12:23). David suffers in being alone and having lost what he shall never be able to regain. Likewise, when Absalom, David’s rebellious son is slain, David publically weeps “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 Samuel 18:33). Through David’s lament one cannot help, but feel the emotions suffering in literature conveys to the reader as real emotion. David, like Hannah and Job suffers because he loves.
The Slave Suffering
Jacob, a Polish Jew survives the massacres and instead of death is sold into slavery and placed on a mountain as a laborer. “A passage from the Song of Songs came to his mind: Many waters cannot quench love; neither can the floods drown it. (Singer, 36)” In this case, Jacob’s suffering stems from an innocent love for God. When Jacob begins to lust for Sarah and eventually falls in love with the gentile “He murmured a prayer: “Lord of the universe, remove me from this world, before I stumble and arouse Thy Wrath... He had now become a man at war with himself” (36). Is Jacob’s love for Sarah and his devotion to God a direct cause of his suffering? Jacob’s situation, similar to Job’s, seems to create suffering thus alluding to the answer that without love one cannot truly suffer.
Sarah, a gentile converted to a Jew after falling in love with Jacob seems to suffer happily throughout the entire novel. I question if Sarah actually suffers more than Jacob because of her innocence. Her genuine love for Jacob and her desire to be Jew seem to lead her down a path destined to be filled with grief. How can sincere feelings of joy only result in suffering? Are people destined to suffer as a result of uncontrollable emotions and circumstances? Singer writes of Sarah, “Her only special merit had been the suffering which had set her apart from childhood: sorrow and longing had always been part of her” (215). After giving birth and shortly before her death Sarah says, “Be quiet, Jacob. My sorrow speaks, not I. I can no longer be silent” (218). It appears that in Sarah’s death her suffering overthrows her ability to control her human emotions; again showing the power of grief.
Although the novel is plagued with sorrow it is also a prime example of love and absolute devotion. I ask myself how can a story consume my mind with terror and my heart with sadness, yet delight all of my senses when I consider the undying love of Jacob and Sarah for each other and for God? After Sarah has finally passed Jacob “felt a love such as he had never known before, but equally a helplessness” (242). There is an underlying sense of beauty in the suffering experienced by Jacob and Sarah. It is paradoxical that beauty and suffering can be related, but without love one does not truly suffer and with love there is beauty.
Blog and Human Suffering
After reading Natalie Brandsma’s blog entries an undeniable correlation between her recent experiences and those of Jacob in The Slave became clear. Previously, Natalie lost her father to death while attempting to summit Lone’s Peak in Colorado. Natalie writes that it was another typical day with blue skies and the suns radiant beams shining on their faces. Moments before reaching the summit her father is instantly taken from his earthly life and Natalie is sent plummeting into the arms of suffering. Currently her sorrow continues from “the depth of loss, of love, and of life.”
My relationship with Natalie has allowed me draw upon the idea that both suffering and literature are powerful mediums to overcome sorrow and perpetuate joy. Coincidentally my friendship with Natalie formed eight years to the day that my own father passed away from the same murderer that took Natalie’s father; a massive heart-attack. Is it again coincidence that a heart-attack, the explosion of death through the chambers of a life-sustaining organ, is the factor that can send two young women down the mountain of happiness into the swells of grief? Or perhaps, it is the power of literature that can bring two strangers together to again learn to suffer less and experience the joy of life. In regards to suffering, I find solace as Natalie writes:
“I continue to speak to myself using climbing metaphors: remember to breathe, put one foot in front of the other, focus on the path in front of you, and in this way, just keep going until you reach the top of this mountain too. I'm not sure that there will be any sort of "summit" experience, but focusing on putting one foot in front of the other helps me to get through each day, minute by minute.”
Similarly, Lisette Langdorf has also recently lost a loved one. She shares that the loss of her boyfriend has been devastating and an unimaginable tragedy in her young life. Lisette compares her current emotional situation to that of Jacob’s as she writes, “There is nothing that I can do to bring him back, so I just have to take this day by day. Just like Jacob did. Day by day.”
It appears certain that with suffering comes loneliness. Job feels alone while in the company of his three friends and David is left alone while mourning for his lost children. Lisette is alone without her best friend, the man she was to marry and spend a lifetime with, and Natalie was left alone on the side of a mountain. Natalie writes, “I have always embraced aloneness, and I believe that loneliness is part of the essence of the grief process. Loneliness is a part of the definition of grief,” which strikes me as being similar to Jacob’s enslavement on the mountain. After narrowly escaping death he is left alone to labor for another man and labor his emotions, beliefs, and faith for God. Jacob, like Natalie embraces aloneness in order to grieve and recuperate.
Conclusion
In life and in literature suffering exists and is necessary in telling the story. One could not fully understand what it feels like to love another without knowing how it hurts to lose. One can also never fully know how much they suffered unless, like Hannah, they have felt a desire so great that it consumes their every merciful prayer. Although tragic, suffering is beautiful. Natalie blogs that with the anguish she felt after her father’s death came “a strange gratitude” because the emptiness that she feels is “so deep because the man who left it was so great.” Lisette understands that without having lost a part of her she would not have gained new relationships and the joy she has found in others she recently did not know. By losing Sarah, Jacob discovered what it was to truly love another besides God who he had loved innately his entire life. Although perhaps the most terrifying emotion, truly suffering is not a moment lost, but a lifetime of knowledge of love and beauty gained. Literature is power. Life is compelling. It connects fictional characters and situations to real life emotions and reminds us that we are not the only ones to endure such pain.
