Bernard Malamud is American Jewish writer expressing Jewish sorrows and life in his writing. The German Refugee is one of the significant stories, written by Malamud. The story focuses on the sorrows and identity crisis of German Jews settled in US. This presentation is not a mere creation of the author, as it is based on various sources and purely designed to assist students in their examination. Quality of this presentation cannot be compared with original text and genuine resources. Students are advised to prefer the authentic texts and resources for better results.

4. •the theme of language, letting go,
expression, fear, love, insecurity, conflict and
depression.
•the story is narrated in the first person by a
twenty year old man called Martin Goldberg.
•the beginning of the story the reader realises
that Malamud may be exploring the theme of
language.

5. • Oskar has difficulty learning English. For an educated man he lacks
confidence.
• WWII and what is happening in Germany is something that Oskar
is unable to let go of, despite the fact he is relatively secure in New
York.
• Oskar’s inability to let go of Germany and his wife is due to the fact
that he loves both.
• it is noticeable that he unable to express his love for his wife and
there is some confusion with regard to Oskar’s opinion on German
people in general.
• He detests them and seems unable to differentiate between his
wife and German people.

6. • Oskar is afraid. Not only because of what is happening in Germany
but because his way of expressing himself (German language) has
been taken away from him.
• Oskar does succeed in writing his notes for his lecture and
delivering it in English. Which may
• he feels and the realisation that he loves his wife after all. Despite
not wanting her to travel to America with him.
•

7. • Two distinct stories emerge: Oskar’s anguish and his failure to
learn English, as well as the irony of the narrator’s failure to
understand why. While Martin teaches Oskar English, the
German army begins its summer push of 1939. What the
narrator fails to realize is his student’s deep involvement with
his former country’s fate and that of his non-Jewish wife, whom
he left there.
•

8. • Malamud emphasizes the irony through the references to
Whitman. Oskar ends up teaching the important lesson when
he declares about the poet that “it wasn’t the love of death they
[German poets] had got from Whitman . . . but it was most of all
his feeling for Brudermensch, his humanity.” When Oskar
successfully delivers his speech, the narrator feels only a sense
of pride at what he taught the refugee, not the bonds
of Brudermensch, that have developed between them. When
Oskar commits suicide, the narrator never sees that he is
partially responsible.
•