Jordi Mendez-Paris

10-15-2023

Professor Nochomovitz

FIQWS 10115

Philip Roth’s “Goodbye, Columbus” is a Novela about the summer relationship between Neil and Brenda, its struggles, and how those issues led to its eventual ending in the fall. Neil is introduced as a character that is extremely self-aware and is gradually revealed to be a calculated individual, with the intention of dating Brenda to fulfill his desire to live a richer, more objectively desirable lifestyle. However, the way he goes about maintaining this relationship is questionable at best and is clearly manipulative, often threatening the relationship if he doesn’t get his way. Roth uses this story to reveal how selfish and shallow desires will conflict with relationships by creating a power struggle that breeds resentment and a lack of trust, and with ulterior motives combined with the mental struggle for those involved, these relationships are doomed to end. Furthermore, Neil is entirely at fault for ruining the relationship he so desperately sought out, due to his unfulfilled desire to live the American Dream..

In order to truly know how Neil is the true enemy to his own love story is to start from the beginning, in which they both met at a country club at a swimming pool. Despite Neil only being there because he was invited by a cousin, Brenda stood out to him primarily due to her appearance, and despite the obvious different lifestyles they live, those two reasons led him to call her when he got home and start their relationship. Even from the start, Neil was shallow and superficial, and exhibited his resentment towards Brenda’s wealthiness when she revealed to him, she had a nose job (P.13) “Im afraid of my nose…Let me see if you got your money’s worth.” The significance of the nose job and why she got it is basically to “mask” her Jewishness using her father’s money, which Neil disapproved of because he doesn’t feel the need to hide his identity but what is also implied is that he doesn’t approve of how she used her wealth for something he believes is a waste of money. TO further expand on this, he is basically judging Brenda for how her family spends their money, seemingly jealous of their ability to do such things without much thought or consequence especially after she told him the price of the surgery, which was only to remove the bump on her nose. Despite this annoyance, he sweeps his envious feelings under the rug, which is building up for problems further into the relationship.

When Brenda brings Neil over for a week, Neil is ecstatic, since her home life is luxurious compared to his. In fact, Neil seems to be more excited about her quality of life that he will get to experience rather than being excited to see her. He claims “I get everything I want here. I’m just taking a vacation. Don’t I deserve a vacation?” (P.57) This example clearly shows how Neil thinks of Brenda as nothing more than some once in a lifetime experience, like a novelty instead of someone he loves by referring to the time he is spending at her place as a “vacation”. It is very likely he since mentally it is a vacation since he is enjoring the experience and since vacations are temporary breaks from one’s reality, just like how the relationship is a temporary thing, proven by his fears that Brenda will eventually leave him without many reasons to back up that belief other than the fact that there is no commitment on his end and he feels Brenda may be the same. Neil even stays an extra week than he was originally planned to stay due to his pestering of Brenda. Since he knows he won’t experience this forever, this is his way of holding onto the last bit of Brenda before she’ll eventually leave to go to school in Boston. He doesn’t actually care about Brenda here, just about how much fun he’ll have in Short Hills than he would’ve had back home in Newark.

Finally, the last piece of evidence to support my thesis is regarding the diaphragm as a form of control Neil attempted to have on Brenda. Simply put, the diaphragm is an idea Neil comes up with to ensure that Brenda is “committed” to him.  At the time, only married women would get diaphragms without being looked down on by society, which made the diaphragm as a symbol of commitment for Neil. During the first conversation they had about the diaphragm, Brenda recognizes that Neil only wants her to have it for his peace of mind—not about pregnancy, but for him to begin exerting his control over her, contributing to the power struggle and furthering their communication struggles.  (P.79-81) “Brenda I want you to own one for…for the sake of my pleasure…That’s all no explanation. Just do it. Do it because I asked you to.” Here, Neil is desperate to gain control of the situation with him attempting to forcefully get Brenda to do something without her input. He is attempting to leave Brenda with no other option but to comply without giving her a valid reason. Brenda, however, knows she has the right to do what she wants with her body, regardless of if the man she is with objects—something considered bold at the time.  Him hiding his true intentions with no answer is very eye opening to his selfish way of thought and is further proof that he doesn’t really care about the relationship since he willingly messes with Brenda’s emotions.

While many argue that it was just the power gap—or the class differences that led to the breakup between Brenda and Neil, in reality, it was solely Neil’s fault for the failure of the relationship due to his conflictions surrounding his Jewishness and his unfulfilled dream to live the American Dream. More importantly, he used Brenda as a vessel to somewhat achieve his goal, only to realize their feelings for each other are greatly complicated by Neil’s insecurities—which stem from the fact that he never loved her as much as she did him, and once she realizes that, he can no longer cling onto her as she has the ability to take everything away. The power struggle was only a thing because Neil knew that the relationship wasn’t sustainable, causing something that was good at the begginingg to downgrade itself to a draining relationship that is further exasperated by his anxiety of leaving the lifestyle. Through this love story, Neil from the start never acted out of true love—he only saw an opportunity and took it, a selfish move that doomed Brenda to become a victim to Neil’s manipulation and ultimately to fulfill his needs at living the American Dream.