61 pages • 2 hours read
Helene WeckerThe Golem and the Jinni
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Pressures of Cultural Assimilation
Cultural assimilation is an inherent part of the immigration process, for any immigrant to a new country faces differences in cultural values, expectations, traditions, and norms, and all immigrants must find innovative ways to navigate the intense pressure to conform and survive. In The Golem and the Jinni, Chava and Ahmad are pressured to hide their identities as non-human beings in order to survive the chaotic New York landscape, for standing out as anything other than human will result in serious consequences. The fear of such repercussions push them into assimilating, and their experiences mirroring those of many real-life immigrants who are forced to leave their cultural traditions behind in order to fit into their new country.
Wecker uses a variety of creative examples to illustrate the day-to-day challenges of this pressure to assimilate, the most prominent of which occurs when Chava endures a harsh collective rebuke from New Yorkers who witness her steal a pastry and give it to a starving boy. She does this so blatantly that a crowd forms, eager to humiliate and punish her for her rash actions. It is only with Avram’s intervention that she is able to escape the situation and learn how to better fit in as a human, for he teaches Chava to mimic the behaviors of other women and people around her to fit in. He even keeps her from walking around the city at night, stressing that “[w]omen out alone at night are assumed to be of poor moral character” and warning Chava that she will find herself becoming “prey to unwanted advances, even violent behavior“ (54). Thus, although Chava possesses more than enough physical strength to deal with such “unwanted advances,” she is compelled to restrict her movements to protect her reputation amongst humans. While she succeeds in concealing her true nature for quite a while, she eventually runs afoul of the consequences she fears when she loses control of herself and nearly beats Irving to death, for her inhuman strength and violence alienate her from Anna, who becomes terrified of Chava. At that moment, she stands out from what is typical for a human woman, attacking with her unnatural strength instead of trying to defuse the situation. Even Michael fears her differences when he discovers the truth.
Ahmad encounters similar difficulties as he adjusts to living in New York, for he struggles to adapt to societal expectations and often disagrees with the new cultural values that Arbeely asks him to adopt or respect. Many people notice his eccentricities, and he finds himself subject to the same sort of chastisement that an errant child would experience upon breaking unwritten social rules. For example, when Maryam notices him silently flirting with a bride, she implicitly warns him to stop displaying such behavior. Similarly, he does not understand the customs of weddings and marriages, and he only attends the wedding because Arbeely urges him to go. As his mentor stresses, “You’re part of the community now. You’ll be expected at these things“ (98). Significantly, many of Arbeely’s and Ahmad’s arguments stem misunderstandings over such expectations, especially when Ahmad’s actions threaten to endanger the Syrian community and make him stand out as inhuman. These arguments follow Ahmad through the novel. When he tells Arbeely about his affair with Sophia Winston, his actions terrify Arbeely, who understands the social cost if the two were to be caught. Within the innate biases and racism that plague New York City at this time, a wealthy white socialite like Sophia is not meant to cross paths with someone of Ahmad’s apparent heritage, let alone have a love affair with him. Arbeely worries that if her father were to discover it, the resulting scandal would cause the powerful Mr. Winston to have the police force raze Little Syria to the ground in revenge. In support of Arbeely’s fears, the disdain that Sophia’s aunt displays toward Ahmad is designed to illustrate the era’s typical bigotry, and it also reminds Ahmad of his place in society, which is nowhere near Sophia. The growing pressure to assimilate comes to a head when Ahmad tells Matthew why he won’t bring the boy’s mother back to life, scaring him. Arbeely dissolves their partnership in a rage without letting Ahmad explain what happened, and this falling-out causes Ahmad to alienate himself even further, giving up on the human life he created. Throughout the novel, both protagonists are pressured to conform to foreign standards that society deems appropriate. Whenever Chava and Ahmad stand out, they risk their lives and livelihoods, put their friends in danger, and struggle to survive. Their experiences are thus designed to parallel real-life immigrant experiences, and in this way, the author strives to inspire empathy for the similar challenges of all immigrants who are trying to fit into a new culture.
The Importance of Community and Shared Cultural Background
Throughout The Golem and the Jinni, the rich cultural context of both the Syrian people and Ashkenazi Jewish people are central to the success and survival of many of the characters, including the protagonists. Wecker uses uniquely crafted elements of fantasy to illustrate the typical immigrant experience, and by setting her story in the past, she gains increased access to exploring the nuances of immigration-related issues without directly evoking the current political context of the discussion surrounding immigration. Thus, many of her themes are tied to the continuing immigrant experience in the United States, and the emphasis on building a community and embracing a shared cultural background is central to that message.
While walking through the streets of New York City, Chava notes the way that languages shift from neighborhood to neighborhood, illustrating the corresponding shifts in local culture and identity. For example, at Radzin’s bakery and the dance hall, the commonly spoken language is Yiddish. This shared language brings the community closer together and helps people to preserve the culture that they have been pressured to leave behind. As the narrative states, “The language they spoke was the same one she’d used with Rotfeld, the language she’d known upon waking. After the day’s riot of words, hearing it again was a small, familiar comfort” (35). At this point, Chava has been bombarded with the chaos of the world, but hearing Yiddish provides her with an unexpected commonality with the humans around her, giving her a stable place from which to view an otherwise unfamiliar world. A different angle of the same issue is addressed with Arbeely, for although he struggles to speak English, this is rarely been an issue because most of his clientele speak Arabic. However, as his business grows and gathers notoriety, more non-Arabic speaking people join his customer base, and Arbeely must rely on a neighbor who does speak English to communicate and translate for him. Without that connection to the community, Arbeely would likely have fewer new clients because of the lack of communication would turn them away entirely.
Other characters serve as the points of connection to bring people together. For example, Michael Levy runs the Hebrew Sheltering House, which is dedicated to helping recently arrived Ashkenazi men and “was a way station where men fresh from the Old World could pause, and gather their wits, before jumping headfirst into the gaping maw of the New” (89). Community connections are rife throughout the narrative, for Michael works with the Radzins’ bakery to get donations of bread for the shelter, and the Rabbi uses his social status to get Chava a job. Within the Syrian neighborhood, Maryam Faddoul is also emblematic of community support. At the coffee house, she often listens to the concerns of her patrons and connects them with the people who can help them. She even takes the time to help relative outsiders such as Ice Cream Saleh, an odd loner whom many find forbidding. Maryam organizes the community to support Saleh because he is Syrian and lives in the same neighborhood. Some of the restaurant owners even give him clothes as they buy from him. Thus, although Saleh expected to die during the winter, he benefits from the help of a supportive community that rallies around him.
Nature Versus Nurture
The internal conflict of nature versus nurture is a classic debate that several characters in the novel struggle to resolve as they ponder whether their attributes are a result of their origins or of their socialized behaviors and life experiences. These questions are often posed when considering the human condition and what sets humanity apart from other living creatures, and Wecker explores this complex theme through the complex lens of Chava and Ahmad’s attempts to create identities for themselves in New York.
As Schaalman creates Chava, he warns Rotfeld that she will always be a Golem and, therefore, dangerous, no matter how much personality and intelligence he instills in her. As he states, “A creature can only be altered so far from its basic nature. She’ll still be a golem” (5). Avram echoes this concern as he contends with the ethical dilemma over whether to restrict Chava’s free will. Under his careful instruction, however, Chava develops a sense of self and learns to control her awkward behavior and more violent urges. However, whenever she makes mistakes, her innate nature can be glimpsed beneath her learned actions, and she is often led to scold herself, fearing that she might get caught. Chava knows that her nature makes her highly productive and understands that she will stand out if she is not careful. By contrast, whenever Chava’s nature overwhelms her and takes control, she learns to nurture a new ability to regain her composure and sense of self. Chava loses control twice in the novel; the first time, she cannot stop herself; however, the second time, she has learned to control herself and stops herself from attacking Michael. By the end of the book, Chava reconciles her nature as a Golem and the nurtured sense of self that she gained throughout the novel’s events.
Ahmad also battles against his own inner nature, for he is restless and solitary, and is accustomed to doing as he pleases without thinking of the consequences to others. However, Arbeely, Chava, and society in general all pressure him to learn to leave his nature behind and act human: something that he struggles with greatly. As the narrative states, “In his mind […] although he might be forced to live like a human, he’d never truly be one” (263). However, the Jinni does learn to adapt, for when Malik captures Ahmad, the Jinni faces the direct result of his actions of long ago. If he had never invaded Fadwa’s dreams, Malik would not have been able to find him, and he would not have been bound and forced into a flask for almost 1,000 years. However, when he is released, many of his memories leading to his enslavement are gone and he therefore repeats his old mistakes. Thus, the author implies that hard experience and the lessons it brings play a major role in identity formation.
Ultimately, Chava and Ahmad find ways to nurture each other, and by the end of the novel, Ahmad begins to recognize the responsibilities that he must shoulder, for he actively seeks to make amends for his wrongs of many years past. Thus, he searches for the ruins of his old palace to pay his respects to Fadwa and Abu Yusuf, acknowledging the role his desires played in their violent deaths. He cannot bring them back to life, but he engages in funeral rituals on their behalf, using his observations of the rituals conducted for Nadia and Saleh in New York. In this moment, Ahmad resolves his internal conflicts with the cultural lessons he gained while pretending to be human, and this inner growth results in a moment of atonement and care.
