While there are several confrontations at Nathan Marx’s “new front” in Philip Roth’s “Defender of the Faith,” are there also moments of what Charles Baxter calls stillness, which he says “is simply one of the hardest psychic conditions to get on paper” (183)? Has Roth managed to make possible a feature that is usually a limitation in fiction? Focus on a nonactive moment in Roth’s story and explain its power.
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Roundtable Conversation 
Stillness in Battles
In Philip Roth’s “Defender of the Faith,” stillness and silence are used throughout the story in order to intensify what is going on around the protagonist, Sergeant Nathan Marx. For example, when he does his work in the orderly room he in the “warm evening,” he “could hear radios playing dance music over the barrack,” (162). This kind of narration can express stillness in this scene by showing how silence in the room so the sergeant could the music from radios. In addition, slight movement is used to create stillness atmosphere in the story, “[i]t was very slight—no more than a movement back and forth of the wrist—and yet it managed to exclude from our affair to everything else in the orderly room,” (163). The stillness of atmosphere around him and Grossbart intensify the mood of the two characters. Moreover, hearing someone else talking can be a tool for the writer to create stillness such as “A little while later… [Marx] heard LaHill’s thick, inflectionless voice outside [his] window: ‘Give me your ears, troopers. Toppie… if they want to attend the Jewish Mass,” (167). This is also one of the techniques the writer uses to express stillness in his story. To summarize, even though stillness is state which is hard to express in narration, there are techniques the writer could use to make narrating stillness become possible.
Work Cited
Roth, Philip. “Defender of the Faith.” Columbus and Five Short Stories. New York: Modern Library, 1995. 161-200. Print.
Philip Roth’s “Defender of the Faith” has illustrated the moment of stillness — the moment at which there seems to be no movement or advancement in plot, but carries powerful message behind. The first example of stillness in the story is depicted at the first paragraph of the story. Mark, an experienced soldier, recollects the time when he takes part in the war at Europe. This scene does not help move the plot forward. There is no movement in the character; it seems the character goes backward. The stagnation of the scene, however, tells the readers considerable amount of his background, which shapes how he is, as illustrated and portrayed throughout the story. It also makes an effect to the characterization of Mark himself, that he possesses a quality of being a dynamic character as well. Next example can be found when Mark has his reverie imagining the time when he is a child living in Bronx. This scene per se can be categorized as stillness — Mark is not doing anything at the moment of the story, nor is there an advancement in plot. Nevertheless, the childhood experience tells the readers that he used to have a normal life there without having to worry about war. It also emphasizes the point that Mark is about to change, as he is “grow[ing] exceedingly tender about [him]self” (170), which foreshadows the moment in the story where he will have to encounter with his own self altered. To summarize, stillness in “Defender of the Faith” has functioned as a vessel to hint and tell the readers the important information and moment in the story.
In “Defender of the Faith,” Roth lets us delve into Marx’s childhood as physical inactivity gives leeway for mental navigation. Following the scene where Marx allows Grossbart, Halpern, and Fishbein to attend the Jewish service, Marx hears Grossbart singing ‘double-time cadence,’ less and less as it ‘grew dimmer and dimmer.’ Once silence befalls this particular passage, we slip into Marx’s childhood days, where, although Marx does mention the ‘shrill sounds of a Brox playgrouns,’ nostalgia seems to hold forth, making the sounds inaudible as we concentrate on the tranquillity the memory brings with it. Along with Marx himself who ‘began to grow exceedingly tender about [him]self,’ we are allowed to take our mind off the story for a moment and dwell on such a ‘pleasant memory,’ until Marx finds himself following the three privates, from which point “Defender of the Faith,” resumes activity, and we, the reading audience, resumes curiosity.
In “Defender of the Faith”, Stillness can be used in the conversations. A pause, silence, can be meaningful as much or even more than a word. For example, after Grossbart is scolded by the Captain, there’s a scene where he and Marx stand side by side for a moment watching Captain’s jeep go back to the camp, then one of them starts a conversation. The silence can show some thoughts that might be in their heads, maybe they don’t want to reveal their closeness to the Captain, or they might contemplate before they speak to make it most appropriate since Grossbart seems to be the trouble maker there. The interesting thing about stillness is that if the story doesn’t tell the speakers’ thoughts during the silence, we’re unable to know what exactly is in their minds, thus we can analyze and interpret in various ways. And in this scene, at least it shows that Grossbart is conscious enough not to let his anger out despite the disagreement between him and the Captain. Moreover, after the conversation the Marx asks Grossbart about his life and later find out that he writes the letter himself. The moment after Marx asks for the truth, the story says that “it took only a second or two for his eyes to flash happy again”. We can see that there’s a tiny pause here, but just this short period of stillness can be the state that Grossbart’s mood is changed. It’s an important connection to make the story flow and also depicts how the speaker might felt, Grossbart might be shocked, surprised, or relieved that the truth is told.
Power of stillness: Revealing Nathan Marx’s true self
According to Charles Baxter, stillness in fiction arises when the dramatic action pauses, and the dynamics of desire and fear are momentarily displaced by a rapt attention to small details. Therefore, it’s difficult to make stillness possible for creating a critical moment in the story. However, stillness can help readers understand more about the main character’s personality. In Philip Roth’s “Defender of the Faith”, the author has managed to use two moments of stillness—when Nathan Marx recollects the memory of Bronx playground and when he accepts his decision-making involving Grossbart’s future, as a tool to show readers Nathan Marx’s true self.
The first moment of stillness is when the three soldiers, Grossbart, Fishbein and Halpern, are walking away from Nathan Marx to shul, while the sergeant is standing still and recollecting his old memories at a Bronx playground. Details given, such as “I hear Grossbart singing…as it grew dimmer and dimmer” and “…as did the slant of the light” (170) not only paint a beautiful picture but also remind Nathan Marx of the time that he had played at the playground. This moment is significant because Marx begins to “grow exceedingly tender” (170) about himself; he finds his own heart softens and feels things he shouldn’t such as missing home and the old days. From the beginning, Marx claims that he has developed “an infantryman’s heart…travel the weirdest paths without feeling a thing” (161). Therefore, it seems like what he confirms about himself is contradictory. He still has tenderness in his heart because he appears to think of the past fondly. More importantly, before this moment happens, he has just granted Grossbart’s request for announcing that the Jews can go to services. This means that he actually cares for other people and seeks a way to help Grossbart, contrasting to what he says: “I had shut off all softness I might feel for my fellows” (170). The power of stillness in this scene is to illustrate Nathan Marx’s true self as a person who’s softhearted and can’t resist giving what Grossbart wants so many times.
Apart from showing his tenderness, Nathan Marx confirms that he has a heart by showing his dark side in another moment of stillness: when Marx confronts with Grossbart who finds out that the sergeant uses his authority to send Grossbart to the Pacific. The moment is very non-active—Marx is just standing and hearing Grossbart weeping behind him, while other boys are talking in the distance. But the stillness is presented as an acceptance of the fate of every character in the story. Since the boys are forced to go to the Pacific, they are “trying the best as they could to accept their fate” (200). Grossbart, despite fighting against Marx’s order, “swallowed hard, accepting his” (200) Also, Marx accepts his own decision-making that he might send Grossbart to death. In this moment of acceptance, Marx’s true self is revealed even more clearly. He admits that he is “resisting with all my will an impulse to turn and seek pardon for my vindictiveness” (200), If he really has no heart, he shouldn’t feel like he is betrayed by Grossbart and needs to get revenge. Also, he shouldn’t feel guilty or need forgiving either.
To conclude, these two moments of stillness have a very strong impact on how Marx is portrayed. Despite what he says, he still has an ordinary heart filled with both kindness and hatred just like everyone else.
One of the examples of stillness in “Defender of the Faith” is when Nathan Marx is reflecting on his actions towards Grossbart and whether he was being too cruel with him in the afternoon after he gave Grossbart, Halpern, and Fishbern weekend passes. In this scene, Marx is only drinking beer by himself, and there is an absence of significant actions or movements such as interacting with other people or involving in any combatant affairs. Within his mind, he is questioning his own behaviors and trying to achieve a clearer picture of his relationship with Grossbart amid this motionlessness. Even though he is rather remaining still, this part brings about a number of important effects, as well as providing a better understanding of the character, Marx and the story for the readers, which makes this part very powerful. First of all, this stillness is an essential part of the story since it involves Marx making a decision that leads to another important action. Regarding his treatments towards Grossbart, Halpern, and Fishbern, he is starting to think that he could be kinder, more helpful to them as he questions “Who was Nathan Marx to be such a penny pincher with kindness?” (193) and remembers how his grandmother knew that “mercy overrides justice” (193). As a result, he decided to find the answer to Grossbart’s suspicion about where they were going after their training cycle ended and tells Grossbart what he wanted to know, helping him once again even after he knows that Grossbart tends to lie and go out of his way to get what he wants. Then, Grossbart knowing it causes him to change to the place where he would be sent and that gives rise to another major conflict of the story. It is clear that without this stillness that is also Marx’s contemplation, many actions and decisions would not occur, so Roth is not only making stillness possible in his story, but he is also making it one of its necessary elements. Furthermore, this stillness also shows that Marx is actually not as heartless and cold as he believes. At the beginning of the story, Marx describes himself as having a heart that “finally grows horny enough for him to travel the weirdest paths without feeling a thing” (161), but during this scene of stillness, he appears to be caring about the well-being of other people as he wonders “Had I a right, then, or a reason, to clamp down on Grossbart, when that meant clamping down on Halpern, too? And Fishbein – that ugly, agreeable soul?” (193). He worries that if he shuts Grossbart out and doesn’t help him, he would also leave Fishbein and Halpern in a difficult situation as well and he doesn’t want that to happen. Nevertheless, despite having been through so many battles in the wars, he is not completely harsh, but he still has sympathy for others and want to help them. Lastly, from this stillness, the readers get to know some factors that influence Marx’s decision-making for his own behaviors and kindness. As he was considering his kindness, he takes into account his childhood memories, the way his grandmother treats him, being merciful even though he does something wrong, and also how the Messiah “won’t niggle over nickels and dimes”. With these things in his mind, he is able to come to conclusion and decides to be less “grudging” and “tight-hearted” because he has his grandmother as an example and a model and is a religious person who believes in and lives by Judaism. Therefore, family, the way he is raised and his religious beliefs are very important to his life and do contribute to the decisions that he makes.
Motionlessly Moving
In Philip Roth’s short story, “Defender of the Faith”, the writer does not only manage to go beyond one of the boundaries in fiction that is stillness, Roth is also able to put it in his short story in a very moving way. He creates stillness in the story with the element that could be considered as stillness in some ways, repetition. With repeating the word ‘past’ (170), Roth makes the story stop moving, forcing it to step on its own footsteps but in a different way each time by giving every step its own unique detail about Nathan Marx’s, the protagonist, lives in the past years. By using stillness to tell Marx’s memories, the writer sets the mood of the scene, creating silence and calmness, just like meditation, making it conducive for going in one’s mind. The stillness of repetition also gives reader a very vivid picture of how emotional a memory needs to be in order to break into Nathan Marx’s indifferent heart because it gives Roth a chance to put Marx’s memories such as ‘the dying I’d refused to weep over’ and ‘endless stretches when I had shut off all softness I might feel for my fellows’ (170) in the scene as many as he wants to and the more memories he puts in, the more reasonable it is for Marx to have an ‘infantryman’s heart’ (161). And yet, with all the experiences Marx has been through, his heart is still there to be touched throughout the story. With all these moments of Nathan Marx looking back through his memories, Roth uses its quality of stillness to make the very raw and emotional side of a man who claims to be heartless tangible.
Roth makes possible nonactive moment. He creates nonactive moments in his fiction with meanings. The meaning describes the past compared to the present of the character, Nathan Marx. According to the story, the meaningful moments are presented by Marx’ stillness. “ When I open the door…”(168) and another one in page 170, “ Even after they had disappeared over the parade ground,…”. Marx just stands still there while light and everybody are moving.The meaning of stillness, the moment of touching in 2 years comes along,“ it suddenly touched a deep memory — as did the slant of the light”.(170) Stillness also describes the idea to stand still of Marx recalls his old memories, the circumstances when he was in the battle field and how he became a soldier, like Marx says in the story “It had to reach so very far to touch me! It had to reach past those days in the forests to Belgium,”(170). And its great power affects the whole story that makes him nostalgias.Those nostalgias also affect the characters, Grossbart and his friends, Halpern and Fisbein. It is connected in the way when Grossbart come into Marx’ life. It might say the relationship between these two begins because of the nostalgias, to remind Marx of himself as a child. To think about the past brings kindness inside Marx’ mind out. His heart is softened by stillness and then Marx discovers his hidden mercy, to care about other’ feeling. And when Marx makes a decision, he uses his mercy to sign the pass for Grossbart and his friends which I look as a result of stillness.
In Philip Roth’s Defender of the Faith, stillness has an important role as a moment of reflection. Though, as a story about war—psychological, the readers encounter series of actions made by each character, stillness compliments the action and creates a whole perspective of Nathan Marx’s experience. Years after war have made Marx think that he has developed an infantryman’s heart. But, in fact, moments of stillness in the story shows the opposite. Marx has a kind heart. This becomes a factor that creates his internal conflict during the remainder of the war at the “new front” in Missouri. At Camp Crowder, military Marx and the pre-war Marx fight against each other for a place.
Marx is not an emotionless human weapon. Childhood, years before war, is the source of kindness, as his recollection of childhood makes him recall his grandmother’s moral that “mercy overrides justices (183). He sympathizes with others, especially the Jewish trainees. Though he acts tough; as for example, with Grossbart, he does not agree to make official order for Jewish officers to go to services (Roth, 163); however, he admits to himself after speaking to his C.O. that he is “not so much explaining Grossbart’s position as defending it (166).” He also reflects on his relation to others, which contradicts his own words that years during war has made him “shut off all softness I might feel for my fellows.” (170) Marx remarks Sheldon gesture after his conclusion about G.I. party and worries that the trainee might be crying (163).
War should have made Marx abandon all his sense of being Jewish, but triggered by Grossbart, Marx not only shows empathy towards the Jewish officers but also his longing to belong. The ‘sir’ incident is the result of Marx’s years serving. The communal attachment among one of the same group is lost under the condition in which each struggles to survive. Marx attempt to maintain the military rank with the Jewish trainees, to be an emotionless soldier with no sense of belonging, which has save him from the cruel condition in European theatre. However, the “pleasant memory for a young man so far from peace and home (170)” evokes his wish to belong—the sense of familiarity and alliance with the Jewish officers; for example, he suddenly asks Grossbart to call him ‘sir’ (190) or allows passes to the three Jewish boys or feels shocked by the news that they are being sent to the Pacific.
Stillness in Philip Roth’s Defender of the Faith reveals the unspoken aspects of the veteran of the European theater. War has not deprived a soldier of his emotion. Moreover, the emotional aspect causes a new battle, an internal one. War in Europe has ended, but not in Marx, which makes the day at Camp Crowder a real “remainder of the war” for Marx. As Roth places stillness throughout the story, he is revealing the whole aspect of a person who had been through inhumane condition.
In Roth’s “Defender of the Faith”, stillness is used throughout in the story as an important factor in order to illustrate the changing and developing of the protagonist’s, Nathan Marx, mind and thought. The moments of non-active in the story affect Marx in many ways, for example, at the beginning of the story, the stillness allows Marx to arrange his past experience and sum up that now he is tougher and become more emotionless than before (161) even though, in reality, he is not. Moreover, the moment of stillness reminds Marx that even if he has acted like other christian soldier, the fact that he is Jew still alive in his mind. For instance, when Marx go to shul with Grossbart and friends, the atmosphere throws him back to his past war and his jewness “I, as a Jew” (170). Stillness is also used as a weapon of Grossbart against Marx’ mind. When Marx angers because of Grossbart’s letter, Grossbart uses stillness by ignoring Marx, giving Marx a time to change his mind and forgive him about what happened (185). Because the background of this story is world war, Roth also uses a little moment of peace as a stillness in this story in order to show the Marx’s condition. When he get used to his current duty, administrative task, he realize that he has changed “I had truly become a noncombatant” (185), this stillness of peace lets Marx to accept that the war which still continuing at that time is not his war, in the other hand, the moment of Marx’s calmness in the last paragraph of the story also let him accept again that his war is not end and he has to complete his duty. Stillness plays an important role to show Marx’s mind. It gives Marx a time or a condition to think about himself. Who he is and what he will do after that moment of stillness.
In Philip Roth’s “Defender of the Faith” the moments of stillness appears in many parts of the story which each moment has different significance and powerfulness to the story and the character as they are used to create realization and build tension of the story. First of all, one of the stillness in the story is used as moment of self-rediscovering and thinking over Marx’s self and his past. This stillness is when Marx remained still and reminiscing his past; “…and I was remembering the shrill sound of Bronx playground where… (170)”, which is that moment that creates a realization in an identity of the character Nathan Marx as a Jewish and also creates sympathy between Jewish and leads to an inequality and a bias between races. For example, Marx treated Jewish soldiers like Grossbart, Fishbein and Halpern better than others by signing a weekend pass for the three (192). This moment is powerful as this is beginning of when his identity as an individual overcomes his identity as a soldier. A moment of thinking over one’s self also appears in another part of the story; …Behind me, Grossbart swallowed hard, accepting his. And then, resisting with all my will an impulse to turn and seek pardon for my vindictiveness, I accept my own. (200). This stillness also creates another way of realization as well, which is a realization in action and the result. The power of this moment is that it is the still moment that represents characters’ acceptance in their own action or their own faith as Marx said “…seek pardon for my vindictiveness, I accept my own” (200).
Stillness is used to build the tension of the story and to develop character’s emotion. After knowing that Grossbart didn’t use the pass to visit his aunt’s house for Jewish ceremonial dinner, Marx physically remained in stillness for just a moment which is the moment before the act of violation started. This stillness is powerful as it’s the silence that builds tension to the situation and develops Marx’s anger which later exploded in form of violation as shown in the part that says “I let him free and when he walked from the room, I wanted to spit on the floor where he stood. I couldn’t stop to fury. It engulfed me, owned me, till it seemed I could only rid myself of it with tears or an act of violence.”(196)
In conclusion, the author makes possible of stillness by making the stillness carries out different function which is differently significant to the story as being a moment of self-realization and being moment that builds tension to the story.
In Philip Roth’s “Defender of the Faith”, there’s a scene where Roth has crated stillness which has a great power in it. While there is a battle between Grossbart and Nathan Marx, which is supposed to full of speech and action, the stillness is created and emerged during the fight. “…then made a gesture with his hand. It was very slight – no more than a movement back and forth of the wrist – and yet it managed to exclude from our affairs everything else in the orderly room, to make the two of us the center of the world. It seemed, in fact, to exclude everything even about the two of us except our hearts” (163). This scene clearly shows the power of stillness since there is no movement in the room; everything in the room is motionless, a little move from Grossbart is, therefore, noticeable and make a great impact. The orderly room can be a symbol of stillness. If things are put in an orderly way, it means that everything is kept properly; nothing sticks out and this creates a boring motionless scene. Also, the room must be very silence because the narrator states that in the room, he feels like Grossbart’s action excludes everything except “the heart” which means that the room is so quiet that nothing but only the heartbeats can be heard. This non-active scene has a great power since Roth can creates stillness even in the field of battle and makes the fight more intense since it excludes everything and make Grossbart and Marx become the center of their stillness.