A thorough analysis of ‘Bontsha the silent’ short story by Isaac Leib Peretz (1906)

Abstract

The story of Bontsha the silent is a story written by I. L. Peretz, a Jewish writer. Bontsha is silent all his lifetime under various disasters and after passing away, he enters heaven in which the authorities hold a court for him and finally is accorded the highest honors of heaven, while he still keeps silent and admits only some bread and butter. Bontsha seems to represent an oppressed group who keeps a perpetual silence under the governing society’s cruelty and even given an opportunity would not be able to take advantage of it. A defending angle defends Bontsha’s privileged rights in heaven which represents a group of people who justify every possible phenomenon in society for their own benefit such as a dominant government or a dogmatic church. A prosecutor in trial session protests against the sentence manifests a limited number of people in any society tending to cry the truth and the reality which is neither welcomed by the dominant group nor given liberty or opportunity to declare their demands. This paper tends to analyze this story profoundly from different angles and evaluates symbols, ironies, fantasy, characterization, viewpoints, conflicts, emotions, plot and theme applied in the story.