Conclusion Analysis and Final Thoughts

After finishing the book I was left on kind of a cliff hanger. Although Landsman ends up solving the case after hard work and determination we see him in a spot where it seems like he has gained nothing from this whole experience. After all of the progress he has made throughout the book, it seems as if Landsman is constantly becoming more and more aware of this issue and his depression. I thought that by the end of the novel he would gain everything he had lost but nothing really ends up working out for him except finally talking to Bina about their whole situation. After all this time we find out that Landsman has been causing his own misery constantly beating himself up over the broken off marriage with him and Bina. The entire time he thought he did the right thing breaking up with her because he believed he failed her and he thought that she had wanted this. After all of this misery he had been putting himself through, mainly about this break up, it all end with him getting back with the girl. What is interesting thought is one of the last lines of the book is “Landsman has no home, no future, no fate but in Bina” (399). Thinking that after getting the girl, Landsman would finally take himself out of this depressing life he had been living and finally find his way in life and become this well off person with a successful re-marriage. With this line at the end it left me thinking that this whole journey Landsman had been going on understanding himself better only really led him to getting back the girl who he lost.

Revealing the end of the mystery ultimately ruins the book but the murderer is definitely not who I had expected it to be. Throughout the novel Chabon provides so many different clues and people it could virtually have been anyone. Although the mystery makes the book more suspenseful the whole ordeal with Landsman’s life and problems really make the reader get into the mind of Landsman and see his unfit way of living.

Overall I think it was an excellent book. The whole mystery combined with the religious aspect really made the book worthwhile and interesting. The entire book was very humorous and almost all of the people in the story had a defining personality that separated them from the rest. I really liked that fact that Chabon completely changed history in order to write this book. He looked at history from an alternate perspective and put the Jews in a tough situation as they always end up getting put in. I think that he wanted to show people what kind a community would have looked like after the war, had it been in America. I also liked the whole belief of Mendel Shpilman being this Messiah. It really dove in to a religious myth or legend that Judaism is all about. I think that by mixing religious belief and historical fact, with a little bit of mystery sprinkled in, Chabon ultimately achieves success in making this an entertaining, suspenseful, and worthwhile novel.

Theme

The American Dream is a theme based on the idea that America is a land full of opportunities where everyone has the chance to recreate his or herself. In many instances the American Dream involves being rewarded for hard work and being able to prosper because of it. This Dream gives people a sense of hope and a sense of value in life that could possibly be fulfilled.

Abstractly enough this book related to the theme of the American Dream. Although it may not be the initial plot and issue of the book, there is definitely a sense of America giving these people opportunity. In this book in particular, the Jews had been a discriminated people and were on the verge of facing a complete genocide. The people in this novel were refugees after World War II and everywhere they turned to they had no place to go. Historically, the Jews were given the land of Israel to be there new home but in this alternate reality Chabon changes the situation. After having no place to go, these Jews were presented land as a safe-haven in a small portion of Sitka, Alaska. These Jews were given the opportunity to live a life in America and live the American Dream. They finally had the chance to live in a place where they would no longer be suppressed as they had been in the Holocaust. It allowed these people to be given a chance at restarting their lives after losing almost everything that had been important to them. When these Jews came to America they tended to stay together and form a strong Jewish community. Once the community had established their foundations in America they became a thriving and well off community living the life of the American Dream, recreating their lives and making them the best they could after such a catastrophe. Given this land the Jews formed their own little thriving community that allowed them to live the American Dream.

The Community is also a theme in the book where all of these Jews show a strong sense of family and community. Everyone knows everyone in this community and as many small Jewish communities everyone ends up knowing just about everything about each other. Many of Landsman’s memories as a child have been surrounded by the many people in this Jewish community. Because he ends up becoming lonely with the death of his father and sister, the tight knit Jewish community gives him a sense of being comforted although it may be in a dumpster hotel.

Image Study

This picture is probably the most significant out of the whole novel. In the beginning of the novel, the death of “Emanuel Lasker”, who ends up actually being Mendel Shpilman, is seen as only a simple murder of this random guy. When Landsman investigates the crime scene he is presented with many different clues as to who this man was and how he had died. The chess board in the room, which seems to be a minor detail, ends up being one of the most significant clues leading Landsman to solving not only this case, but finding out a lot about his own self throughout the process.




This picture is very significant because although Sitka, Alaska is in fact the setting of the book, it plays a huge roll in plot of the novel. The novel takes place in 2007, but after World War II Sitka, rather than the realistic Israel, becomes the escape for the Jews after the Holocaust. Facing a conflict that involves these people finally converting to Alaskan culture or getting forced out of this place they had been “temporarily” living in for sixty years, this Alaskan Jewish community has nowhere left to go and has no idea what is in store ahead of them.




This picture basically represents the life that Landsman has been living for the past few years after his break up with his life. He is so mentally weak he basically shrivels up and lives in Hotel Zamenhof which is depicted as a cheap beaten down hotel. Throughout the novel Landsman keeps coming back to this decrepit place and living this life of solitude without caring at all about the quality of his life. This reoccurring image in the novel constantly reminds the reader how mentally and physically poor Landsman is to call this hotel his “home”.




Not only is chess one of the major symbols in the novel it is a reoccurring image that constantly plays in Landsman’s mind. After seeing the crime scene and analyzing the chess setup in the room he goes to chess clubs i.e. the Einstein Chess Club to talk to some of the locals to see if they knew anything about this man. When they eventually find out the real Identity of the victim, Mendel Shpilman, Landsman uncovers how much chess contributed to his life. Chess was basically what Shpliman lived and “died” for as he grew up as a chess prodigy. The image of chess seems to be one of the most important images contributing to the plot and mystery of the murder.

Character Study

Meyer Landsman

“Look at Landsman, one shirttail hanging out, snow-dusted porkpie knocked to the left, coat hooked to a thumb over his shoulder. His cheek needs the razor. He hasn’t had a drink of alcohol since nine thirty this morning. Standing in the chrome-and-tile desolation of the Polar-Shtern Kafeteria at nine o’ clock on a Friday night, in a snowstorm, he’s the loneliest Jew in the Sitka District.” (146)

Meyer Landsman has been depicted since the beginning of the novel as a workaholic detective with depression about his recently broken marriage, an alcoholic who is “married to his shot glass”, and he is constantly reminded and reflecting on the death of both his father and his sister who died a year earlier. When we first meet Meyer Landsman he is washed up in the cheap Hotel Zamenhof seen as having no value in his life, calling this decrepit place his home. With all of the problems he is facing he has good reason to feel the way he does. Despite all of these issues, Landsman uses this murder mystery case to cope with his issues, however, he deals with it under the supervision of his ex-wife Bina Gelbfish. We learn that Landsman had broken it off with her because he thought she should have an abortion to eliminate the baby they believed to have a chromosome deficiency. Every time he sees Bina now, this guilt always comes back to him and this ongoing complication with his ex-wife always irritates him. Throughout the novel there is a great deal of sarcasm portrayed by Landsman displayed in almost every conversation he ends up having. He likes to deal with his problems by making many things in his life a joke to him and to other people. He doesn't seem to have the same capability as other to cope with the multiple problems he is faced with. Although seen as a washed up detective, as the novel progresses, we see Landsman transform his personal identity to one which he believes has value and one worth living. The more Landsman finds out about the case the more and more he understands himself.


Mendel Shpilman

Introduced as Emanuel Lasker, the victim of a murder, Landsman goes out of his way to solve this mysterious case of his death. In the beginning of the novel, not much of his background could be determined until we are presented with the scene of his murder. In order to receive the information they need, Landsman manages to talk to his mother and father. When Landsman is confronting his father, the rebbe of the Verbover Chasidic Jewish community, about the murder, we find out that Mendel was disowned for an unknown reason by his father and he will not give any information about him. However when meeting with his mother, we get more information on who this man was. Mendel was apparently born, as the Chasidic Jews refer to it, as the Messiah. At a young age he had always been surprisingly intelligent and was seen as a chess prodigy. “He had the kind of mind that could hold and consider contradictory propositions without losing its balance” (121). As a child he was very energetic and playful, with an IQ of 170 and learning almost 5 languages by the time he was eight or nine. Everyone who knew him had a special connection with him and loved him dearly. He was not only this intelligent child, he was sweet and kind to everyone he met. Being seen as the Messiah he had been under a lot of pressure and ended up condoning to the use of heroin and became an addict. He seemed to become so obsessed with his addiction that it basically took over his life and his family had not seen him for twenty-five years. He gets so overwhelmed with his life that he does not even want to live anymore.


Berko Shemetz

Berko Shemetz is the Meyer Landsman’s trusty partner. Berko is introduced as the complete opposite of Landsman. He has a great family life, a loving wife, and he is satisfied with the job he has. “Unlike Landsman, Berko Shemets has not made a mess of his marriage or his personal life. Every night he sleeps in the arms of his excellent wife, whose love for him is merited, requited, and appreciated by her husband, a steadfast man who never gives her any cause for sorrow or alarm.” (6). Before being Landsman’s partner he lived in the Verbover community with his wife and small child. Once moving out of that community he becomes Landsman’s trust partner. Everything about Berko seems to always be much better than Landsman. Constantly sarcastically criticizing each other Berko always has Landsman’s back. Berko’s relationship with Landsman, however, seems to be a little more one-sided. He is the one who is supporting Landsman and Landsman takes a little bit advantage of him. No matter how one sided the relationship is, Berko and Landsman work well together and they both have each other’s back.


Bina Gelbfish

Bina Gelbfish is another one of the main character's in the novel. In the beginning she is only described as a part of Landsman's depression but we finally meet her and see who shes really is. Bina is the ex-wife of Landsman who has had similar difficulties in getting through this break up much as Landsman had. As she is introduced we see a very different personality than expected through all of Landsman's prior inquisitions. From all the grief that the author shows Landsman faces,there are not very many good qualities originally established. When coming back from a break she is put in the awkward position of being promoted to the position where she will be in charge of her ex-husband after working with him for so many years. "We're all aware of the awkwardness of the situation here. It could be weird enough that I just used to squad with you both. The fact that one of you used to be my husband, and the other one my, uh, cousin well, shit"(57). As Landsman becomes more involved in the case, the more and more we see the old chemistry that they had together. Bina becomes depicted as a very "in-charge" type of woman who wants things her way. She still seems to be pretty sensitive on the issue of her previous marriage much like Landsman is. Bina and Landsman had known each other for so long, they still have this feeling of comfort around each other. Finally, by the end Bina and Landsman seem to pick up where they left off and look towards the future.

Symbols

The game of chess is a big symbol reoccurring almost throughout the entire novel. In the very first scene when we the crime scene is investigated, Landsman pays particular attention to the chess board that seems to be set up in a very precise way.

“It looks like he had a game going on, a messy-looking middle game with Black’s king under attack at the center of the board and White having the advantage of a couple of pieces. It’s a cheap set, the board a square of card that folds down the middle, the pieces hollow, with plastic nubs where they were extruded.” (4)

The actually set up of the particular game that the man had been in seemed to have a big impact on Landsman. Because there wasn’t much else that was worthwhile looking at in the room this chess board seemed to be his biggest clue.

In the Jewish community, on the Sabbath, since work is not allowed to be done, the only game allowed to be played on this holy day is chess. In fact, almost everyone in this Sitka community seemed to be very familiar with chess. When talking to possible suspects most of them were associated with chess or new Mendel for his chess skills. In the novel chess is almost a way of life. When talking about the skills as a chess player it seems as if they are actually talking about their own character. At the end of the novel when the clues are starting to be put together we see the symbolism of the chess board in Mendel’s life. The particular board he had set up was set up in way where the Black side was forced into a move that ultimately led him to checkmate. The particular situation left the Black side with no good moves at all. This is how Mendel saw his own life. He saw that after all of this he basically has no other good move but to die.

Two other symbols that are present in the novel are the World’s Fair shot glass and his car. In the very beginning of the novel we are introduced to both of these symbols. The shot glass is introduced as “the shot glass that he is currently dating, a souvenir of the World’s Fair 1977” (2). Obviously Landsman is a blatant alcoholic but the shot glass only comes up in particular moments. Whenever Landsman is feeling the slightest bit depressed, he turns to this shot glass to ease the situation because he has no other way of coping with his issues. I think the shot glass basically represents this false life and an escape for Landsman. Every time we see him use the shot glass he is trying to get out of this life that he is living and get this false feeling of contentment when in reality he knows the life he is living should be better.

The 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle Super Sport seems to be another small symbol in the book. One quote can basically sum up how the car is basically symbolic of Landsman’s life.

“Landsman is at the wheel of a 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle Super Sport, which he bought ten years ago in an access of nostalgic optimism and has driven until all its secret flaws seem indistinguishable from his own. In the ’71 model year, the Chevelle went from two pair of headlight bulbs to a single pair. Right now one of these bulbs is blown” (35)

Just from this quote we can see the resemblance of the car and Landsman. The car is ultimately symbolic of the life that Landsman is living. He is a depressed alcoholic who often can’t get his mind out of the past. The car seems to be just as beat up as he is and it seems like there is no turning around for Landsman.