Tevye, the Dairyman (Aleichem)

Discussion Questions
1. Tevye often contradicts himself. For example, he says, "...it happened early one summer, around Shavuos time. But why should I lie to you? It might have been a week or two before Shavuos too, unless it was several weeks after...." (P 3). How does this affect his credibility as a narrator? This admission of doubt comes at the beginning of the novel. How would it change your feelings about Tevye if it came at the end?

2. In "Tevye Blows a Small Fortune," the reader is told the outcome at the beginning of the story, indeed in the title. Given this, what provides that tension in the story; what makes you keep reading it?

3. Tevye talks a lot about undergoing personal change. In "Tevye Strikes it Rich" he says "I was the same man then that I am now, only not at all like me; that is, I was Tevye then too, but not the Tevye you're looking at." (P. 4), and in "Today's Children" he says, "I'm no longer the Tevye I once was." (P. 35). Is this simply a literary device intended to capture Tevye's voice, or does it have significance in the story? If significant, what does it tell us about Tevye?

4. These stories are told from Tevye's point of view, as if he were relating episodes of his life to Sholem Aleichem. How does this narrative structure shape our perceptions of Tevye? Sholem Aleichem wanted to create a new voice in Yiddish fiction; in what ways does he succeed?

5. Unlike in Fiddler on the Roof, the film/play based on this novel, Tevye does not live in Anatevka, or any sort of insular Jewish community. How does this affect any notions of shtetl life that we might have received from watching the film or play? Why do you think Sholem Aleichem decided to place Tevye where he does in the world?

6. Tevye disowns Chava for marrying Chvedka, a Christian. Intermarriage is common today, but it is oft sited as one cause of the decline of American Judaism. Tevye asks, "What did being a Jew or not a Jew matter." (P. 81). Perhaps intermarriage is not the end of the world, but is it something we should worry about? What do you think Tevye would say about this?

7. Bielke is Tevye's one daughter who marries for money, yet Tevye actually counsels her against it. Has Tevye changed his mind about how good it is to be rich? If so, what causes this change? What does Bielke's condition tell us about Sholem Aleichem's opinion of the rich?

8. How would you characterize the relationship between Jews and non-Jews in this novel?

9. Hillel Halkin, the translator, claims that the Jewish humor of this period and especially the humor in Tevye the Dairyman served the purpose of "...neutraliz(ing) the hostility of the outside world, first by internalizing it ('Why should I care what the world thinks of me, when I think even less of myself?') and then by detonating it through a joke ('Nevertheless, the world doesn't know what it's talking about, because in fact I am much cleverer that it is—the proof being that it has no idea how funny I am and I do!')..." (P. xvi). What do you think about this theory? Is this why Tevye is funny? (Is Tevye funny?) Do you think that this sort of humor is a useful psychological tool for a people facing oppression?

10. The stories that comprise Tevye the Dairyman were written over the course of several decades with little or no overall plan for their structure. Do they comprise a novel, or are they simply a collection of short stories featuring the same main character? What is the evidence in favor of and against each possibility?

11. With the exception of the first episode, Tevye suffers nothing but one misfortune after another. Do you consider him to be a tragic hero? Why or why not? In what ways does Tevye bring his suffering on himself?

12. Consider both Tevye's Jewish observance and his relationship with God. Is Tevye a good Jew?

13. Several of the episodes in the novel are not included in the play/film version. Why do you think these particular scenes were cut from the story? How do you think Sholem Aleichem's conception of his novel and characters might differ from that of the filmmaker's?

(Questions, prepared by Laura Sheppard-Brick for The National Yiddish Center.)

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