Distance lesson - Analysis of Mordecai Richler's short story "The Summer My Grandmother was Suppose to Die" and discussion of structure of abstracts for essay

18 Março 2020, 14:00 • Cecília Maria Beecher Martins

The research paper is to be based on your own analysis of any Canadian film or book. These do not have to be set in Canada, but they should have a Canadian director or author. You can analyse these using any one or combination of the theoretical approaches presented in the texts in the manual ("The People and their Social Habits; Elspeth Cameron "Canadian Culture: An Introduction; Eva-Marie Kroller "Introduction"; Margaret Atwood Survival; Joanne Saul, Biotext) or Post-Colonial theory.

 You can work with the authors we have analysed in class, but obviously you cannot work with the texts we have analysed as the work has been done. You can also choose other films or books. The essay plan is that presented on page 2 of the manual.

If you wish to work with film and have not selected one yet, you should look at the Film Board of Canada’s webpage, https://www.nfb.ca/. You will find many films that you can watch free-of-charge there. 

The abstract  to be submitted by 24^th March is a short (200-250 word) text where present what you are going to do and how you are going to do it. A pdf with a sample abstract and that also shows you an example of a good and a bad abstract has been sent to your email. 

Questions students answered online 

I want you to look at it from the perspective of how Canadian literature presents: 1) community 2) heroes

 Analysis of "The Summer my Grandmother was Suppose to Die" 

General Introduction to Richler’s literary style and comparison to look for with Alice Munro, who will be the author we will look at next: The short story “The Summer my Grandmother was Supposed to Die” like much of Richler’s work brings together elements of classic realism with varying degrees of humour (comic-realism, comic-satire, outright satire). Moreover, as many of you mentioned in your analysis it also conveys implicit and explicit moral stances.

I want you to pay particular attention to this element as of social and moral criticism and keep this in mind when you read Munro’s “Passion” because one of the outstanding features of Munro’s work is this absence of an explicit moral stance.

Community in “The Summer my Grandmother was Supposed to Die: There is a strong presence of community in this story. The family’s standing in the community in introduced through religious references: the grandfather had been a Zaddik (a Hasidic Jewish spiritual leader, literal translation – a righteous one) and his memory is revered in the community (p31 & 32 – funeral, p 37 & 38 the Holy Shakers). However, there is no mention of younger Jewish Rabbis or scholars visiting – not even the younger son who is a rabbi in Boston. Thus, this family story is a testimony of the fact that there has been a readjustment of power hierarchies within the Jewish community: the professions are surpassing the religious “callings”. The family had a long history of rabbis, but this will die with the younger son, (perhaps because the traditional means of supporting the Jewish religious leaders had meant the family had not been well provided for by the Zaddik, requiring his wife’s many trips to the pawnbrokers p 32-33, perhaps in keeping with the times and the desire to be a part of a greater community, perhaps the sense of sacrifice required to be a religious leader is no longer deemed admirable because it requires sacrifice on the part of the family – this physical sacrifice been seen worthwhile because of the spiritual/moralistic rewards, perhaps a blend of all). Curiously, the protagonist’s mother’s self-sacrifice for a “higher” cause could be seen as an analogy for this, because not everyone appreciates how she sacrifices her own family (Sam, his friends and family, Cousin Lucy) and some of the family members justify their absence because they consider she has alternatives (the nursing home) and doesn’t take them, merely because she is stubborn.

The other members of the family have chosen different paths (lawyer, theatre director). Being Jewish is still important but it seems to be taking a new secular route. In the story the senior member of the community who conveys the Jewish tradition is the professional, Dr Katzman. He does this in a secular fashion visiting regularly but dispensing medical aid and advise, rather than spiritual and he refers to Yiddish literature, rather than the Torah.   Also, in the conversations within the family and among the protagonist’s group of friends we see many Yiddish expressions. These act to produce a communal sense of belonging to a group. Other references like the move to the professions and inclusion in Canadian life (p. 41 “ Kiss my Royal Canadian…) and activities (e.g. p 38 initial pride that a Jew, Kermit Kitman, was on the Montreal Royals baseball team, disappointment that he wasn’t so good) also indicate a shifting social hierarchy. Traditional knowledge is enriched with ideas that come from outside the Jewish community, whether these are accurate or not depends on the source – p 30 Duddy’s reference to Perry Mason (fictional criminal defence lawyer in books and TV series), or Gill University (but here disparaged because delivered by girl – see below)

Still when trying to explain, that which cannot be explained – the grandmother’s sudden stroke and capacity to stay alive for seven long years – the community is willing to return to a form of religious mysticism to explain this: p 42. So, the new open-cultural approach is only a thin surface layer, the religious heritage is still there. Here we also see social criticism because this also allows the reader to think that this new open approach is more about securing wealth and financial security than anything else. This is what Richler criticises in his humous story while also examining how this community supports suffers with typical Canadian heroes and that will be presented below. 

There is however definite criticism of this community in the story, because the greater Jewish community and even the family itself leaves the care of the elderly parent to one individual – the protagonist’s mother. But there is still a strong sense of community, is the medical support, the protagonist’s group of friends, and the unnamed aunts and uncles on Sam (the protagonist’s father’s side) who take care of him – provide him with meals etc., in that summer when he is rarely at home.

Heroes in “The Summer my Grandmother was Supposed to Die: As mentioned above the heroes in the story, are the typical heroes of Canadian literature – the ordinary people. A daughter who takes care of her mother willingly out of love, not only duty. But she is no saint and we see her frustration at the careless attitude of her siblings – a true Canadian everyman hero.

Other heroes are unknown family members who look after a brother’s children, even though they may not agree with why this is necessary. The general community consensus is that the grandmother should be taken care of in a home – sounds familiar.

About heroes, I also think it’s interesting to look at the characters Richler actually names: all of the protagonist’s friends – community collective and individual; Sam – the father; Rifka – the fearless and savvy sister. Both understand the importance of silent ethnocentric discourse and knows immediately that when her grandmother is sent to the home, reference must never be made to the empty bedroom even if she must be just as keen as the protagonist to have a room to herself.

The role of gender in terms of the power relations interconnected with cultural identity is also interesting. Even in good times, the protagonist’s mother (whose name we are not told in this story; but he is revealed as Jake in other stories in the collection. In the immediate family we are just told his sister’s name: Rifka and father’s: Sam) is assigned to being wife and mother; housekeeper and cook. Moreover and cousin Libby, who must be in her late teens/early twenties as she is studying at university, is “shut up” by Sam when she suggests (we must be honest in an uppity manner) that growing up with a dying person in the house is probably not good for the children, with a typical masochist put-down “What you need is a boyfriend … and How!!” (p35).

Still, even though she is stricken throughout the entire story, the grandmother dominates family interactions and embodies cultural enunciations, preserving culture through a silent ethnocentric discourse. Curiously, Rifka also seems to have picked up on the importance of silent ethnocentric discourse – she knows immediately that when her grandmother is sent to the home, reference must never be made to the empty bedroom even if she must be just as keen as the protagonist to have a room to herself.

Mordecai Richler and “the street”: All the characters in the story live in the Jewish neighbourhood of Montreal in the 1950s (the 5 streets around Urbain St.). Richler grew up in 5257 St. Urbain St. In the Foreword to The Street, Richler writes about what it was like to live in this street – the push by Jewish mothers to make sure they “got a head start” meant they enrolled them in pre-school at 4 rather than the mandatory 6 years of age, giving all sorts of reasons. The holy grail was to get into Medical School and if all else failed at least Dentistry. Richler writes, in a humorous but realistic fashion, about the rivalry between these mothers appears to have been literally vicious – these are the aspects that Richler highlights in his text. You could say the streets were filled with working class Jewish kids dreaming ways to make it big while their parents yelled and pleaded with them to go make it big. Richler’s own house was far from luxurious. He lived in a typical Montreal cold water flat with two bedrooms. His parents separated after he was born, and it is said that his father took a place nearby so that they could keep an eye on each other. He went to the local primary pre-school, parochial primary school and because of parents’ urging like most of his “gang of friends” got into one of the best secondary schools in Montreal, despite belonging to a Jewish working-class family.

This desire to push their children forward, despite having been brought up to consider traditional family and religious values, perhaps explains why other family members felt that it was ok to leave the one sucker, who was willing to care of the old lady – the protagonist’s mother – take care of the situation on her; despite the fact that this old lady had given everything for them, pawning her jewelry and personal possessions when that was needed, and that the solution given at the end for her resistance and longevity comes from a religious tradition.

We could say that Richler both admires and challenges the spirit of those families who pushed their children to be better, even if this meant turning their back on their commitments and past – but in a slightly hypocritical fashion they also fall back on these when things happen they cannot explain.