The book “Goodbye Columbus” is one of the world’s best-known literary works. The themes raised in it – first love, the pursuit of one’s dream, and the formation of one’s identity – have a universal character and have remained relevant throughout the decades. The book’s main character leaves home to assert himself, but this journey leads to the redefinition of his values. This work hypostasizes that leaving home not only led to the main’s character alienation from his family but proved to be a rich experience. Staying away from home allowed the main character to see how far he was ready to compromise his values to pursue his ideals.
The main character of the book is named Neil, he is twenty-three years old, and he stays with his aunt and uncle for the summer. One day he meets and falls in love with Brenda, who embodies his ideas of a beautiful life, coming from a rich and influential family. For Neil at that time, a high social and material status are the necessary attributes of the life he wants to lead (Nasrullah). Brenda, belonging to the upper class, acquires additional attraction in his eyes. Seeing her societal position as the ultimate success, Neil shies away from his previous life, alienating his parents and relatives. In this sense, his experience cuts off his bond with his parents and creates new attachments on his part.
Entering Brenda’s family and learning a little more about the girl he falls in love with, Neil finds out that the glamour he was so attracted to conceals stances and opinions he does not share. Thus, Brenda’s father aspires that Neil will go into business, but this is not what he wants. Gradually the main character realizes that what he called love was, in truth, the pursuit of his earlier ideals – money and social position. His desperate longing for Brenda was the longing for those things that he had never had and regarded as an achievement. However, when Neil comes close to possessing them, he, ironically, finds out that these are not what he wants. Thus, Neil says: “What was it inside me that had turned pursuit and clutching into love and then turned it inside out again?” (Roth 67). Realizing that he will not find happiness with Brenda, Neil sets off home, where he is always welcome.
The relations with Brenda led to the redefinition of values by the main character, and his earlier infatuation with wealth gave way to the goal of finding his place in life. In this sense, Neil’s stay with his uncle and aunt proved to be a fruitful experience that made him see things differently and appreciate what he had. Neil says, “What was it that had turned winning into losing, and losing—who knows—into winning?”, meaning that what he earlier saw as a failure was, in the end, what allowed him to be himself (Roth 67). Thus, the main character understands that happiness is not about money and social position but about doing what one cares to do and being with people one wants to be with.
The book “Goodbye Columbus” sheds light on how values imposed by society can sometimes replace the values a person has. Staying from home for a certain time can, apart from being a traumatic experience, open new horizons and lead to the review and redefinition of ideas one has so far had. In this way, going away can be an enriching experience that allows people to look deep into their hearts and understand what they want.
Works Cited
Mambrol, Nasrullah. “Analysis of Philip Roth’s Goodbye, Columbus”. Literary Theory and Criticism, Web.
Roth, Philip. Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories. Modern library, 1995.