Defender of the Faith (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Philip Roth
- First Published: 1959
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: May, 1945, to August, 1945
- Setting: Camp Crowder, Missouri
- Principal Characters: Sergeant Nathan Marx, Captain Paul Barrett, Private Sheldon Grossbart, Private Larry Fishbein, Private Mickey Halpern
- Genres: Social realism
- Subjects: Jews or Jewish life
- Locales: Missouri
The Story
Sergeant Nathan Marx, a veteran of combat in the European theater, is rotated back to the United States and assigned as top sergeant to a training company in Camp Crowder, Missouri. He soon becomes acquainted with a trainee, Sheldon Grossbart, who appeals to their common Jewish heritage as the rationale for granting him and the two Jewish fellow-draftees whom he dominates, Fishbein and Halpern, a succession of special favors. Grossbart cunningly uses their shared roots in the New York Jewish community to exploit Marx's humaneness, generosity, and sense of fairness....
[The entire page is 1239 words long]
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