Portnoy 's Complaint and Mama day are one of the greatest American novels of the twentieth century, focusing on family values and traditions passed from one generation to another generation. Even though written in two completely different styles, magical realism and satire, both novels masterfully illustrate a same central subject, a family unit and its heritage.
Mama day is a perfect example of a work of magical realism. The author created a work which is at once a tale of the supernatural, a love story, a generational saga and a portrait of African-American tradition, a novel in which two major spaces exist: Willow Spring and New York City. Willow Spring is a mysterious place, an island that exists off the coast somewhere between Georgia and South Carolina, that no state claimed as its own. The island is characterized by an emphasis on the supernatural, nature, myths, community and imagination, a world controlled by supernatural forces. In contrast, New York is characterized by emphasis on science, culture, reality, a world controlled by modern rationality and logic. While the inhabitants of New York believe in themselves and their …show more content…
I’d like to think that Roth wrote the Portnoy’s Complaint as a satire, because of the real American Jew character, in one way endlessly comic and bitterly too. Why Portnoy complaints and what is his problem? Is his religion? Perhaps, Portnoy’s problem with his own religion is because of his family and its constant reminder that he is a Jew and that needs to obey and follow the Jew rules of life. He is overwhelmed by his mother nonstop worries the way his parents describe the “enemy” – the world of the non-Jew.
I think, by using humor, excess and irony the author’s goal is to expose his own people ridiculous views and weaknesses while “living in the middle of a Jewish joke” as Alex
Mama day is a perfect example of a work of magical realism. The author created a work which is at once a tale of the supernatural, a love story, a generational saga and a portrait of African-American tradition, a novel in which two major spaces exist: Willow Spring and New York City. Willow Spring is a mysterious place, an island that exists off the coast somewhere between Georgia and South Carolina, that no state claimed as its own. The island is characterized by an emphasis on the supernatural, nature, myths, community and imagination, a world controlled by supernatural forces. In contrast, New York is characterized by emphasis on science, culture, reality, a world controlled by modern rationality and logic. While the inhabitants of New York believe in themselves and their …show more content…
I’d like to think that Roth wrote the Portnoy’s Complaint as a satire, because of the real American Jew character, in one way endlessly comic and bitterly too. Why Portnoy complaints and what is his problem? Is his religion? Perhaps, Portnoy’s problem with his own religion is because of his family and its constant reminder that he is a Jew and that needs to obey and follow the Jew rules of life. He is overwhelmed by his mother nonstop worries the way his parents describe the “enemy” – the world of the non-Jew.
I think, by using humor, excess and irony the author’s goal is to expose his own people ridiculous views and weaknesses while “living in the middle of a Jewish joke” as Alex