The Cafeteria by Isaac Bashevis Singer - Analysis

Written by
Isaac Bashevis Singer

Themes

·       Plentiful food

·       Funeral parlor like cafeteria

·       Experience doesn't change us

·       A happy holocaust survivor

·       Care with emotions

·       Loss of a sense of decency in the war

·       Loss of idealism

·       Afterlife

·       The long-lived effect of Hitler

·       The reparation policies doing more harm than good (just like The Shawl

·       The past haunts the present

·       Personal trauma leads to social trauma

·       Fame of writers
·       Loss of faith

People and Places
·       Aaron
·       Poland
·       Esther
·       Esther's father
·       Toronto


Response
·       A fantasy?
·       Kantian philosophy; regaining faith
·       This story is filled with philosophy

·       He seems to accept that Esther's vision and his vision are real.. that corpses continue to live as people do.. that in the afterlife you make the same mistakes as you do in life…



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