Peace Lies Within Faith in Singer’s “Gimpel the Fool”

Although many people do not deserve to be trusted, it is always better to have faith in a person than assume the worst. If the worst was always assumed than no person would be trusted and there would be no peace. With his intellectuality and religiousness, Isaac Behavis Singer explores “[h]is strict religious training [that] often conflict[s] with his secular interests, in his fiction, through characters who grapple with faith and skepticism” (Wilson). Singer’s “Gimpel the Fool” is an exact representation of how he acts in his own life: faithful and religious. The thoughts and ideas used to create the plot of the story show how Singer integrates his religious life into his work. In “Gimpel the Fool”, which takes place in Frampol, a Jewish town, Gimpel is known as the town fool, imbecile, donkey, ninny, and many other demeaning names. He is possessed with the virtue of faith and peacefulness in oneself. Believing the people around him keeps him contempt even though people look at him foolishly. The town’s people take advantage of Gimpel’s virtue but he continues to see the good in everyone and believes everyone to be trustworthy because it makes him happy and at peace with everyone. The faith Gimpel has in people makes them change their perspectives of what kind of man he truly is. Through the use of characterization, point of view, and irony, Isaac Behavis Singer's "Gimpel the Fool" uses the theme of faith to show that peace and consolation can be found in life through trust.
Singer uses characterization to disclose to the reader that personality and faith in people can help us find inner happiness in oneself. Gimpel, also known by seven other names like dope and fool, is described as a “common man”. The fool is constantly teased and bares life’s burdens because he believes in the essential good of people---it is better to think the best in a person than the worst. Because of Gimpel’s innocence, Singer shows his goodness and humor by saying, “[i]’m the