There Are Jews in My House Essay -- Literary Analysis, Lara Vapnyar

There Are Jews in My House Lara Vapnyar, in There Are Jews in My House, ingeniously shows her wisdom about life by exploring humanity and human frailty. Remarkably adept at portraying characters, Vapnyar, a recent Russian immigrant herself, vividly depicts the struggles and adventures, dilemmas and unexpected turns in small people's world, with delicate humor and incredible emotional honesty. It is her deft and vivid portraits of different main characters in each of the six stories that successfully develop her main theme: human beings should always stay on their way of pursuing spiritual sustenance, regardless of the adversity they face. In the title story, "There Are Jews in My House," Vapnyar reveals that morals and faith are two important forms of spiritual sustenance. The emotional transition of the only three-dimensional character, Galina, towards her Jewish friend, Raya, is the main thread of this story. At first, Galina decides to save Raya and Leeza although she somehow knows the danger inherent in harboring Jews. "But the thought of the danger [does not] dampen Galina's ardor; on the contrary, it [makes] her all the more enthusiastic" (28). However, the external conflicts, which arise under the law against Jews, cause the internal conflicts in Galina's mind. Ambivalence comes up inevitably and her hypocrisy slowly outweighs her generosity. Holding two lives in her hand while risking her own life, Galina "desperately [wants] to back out" and to tell Raya, "'No, no, you can't stay here. It's not for me. I am the wrong type of person. I am not prepared'" (30). Furthermore, Galina's negative attitudes towards Raya, deeply buried in her mind, are unearthed and magnified. On the one hand, Galina still hides Raya in her ... ... lessons anymore" (138). At the end of the story, her confession about her ignorance in front of her students finally releases her from solving the burdens of sex as well as of exile. â€Å"'I don't know!'† she says, â€Å"I enjoyed saying these words so much that it made me light-headed. I felt like hopping on one foot around the classroom singing, ‘I don't know! I don't know! I don't know!’† (149). By creating all these characters, Vapnyar successfully conveys to people the importance of adhering to their morals and opening their hearts, facing the present and relinquishing the past, experiencing the need for confirmation and feeling the desire for shared hesitancy, maintaining their faith and pursuing true love, or admitting their ignorance and confronting their fears. Only when people begin to seek these objectives, can they finally achieve their spiritual sustenance.