The Wandering Arm
In the fiction historical novel The Wandering Arm by Sharan Newman, a view into the life of the Jewish people in 12th century France is given by the accounts of many individuals, Christian and Jewish alike. The general feel of the community can be summed into a conversation had by two of the main characters, Solomon, a Jew, and Edgar, a Saxon Christian. Edgar says to Solomon, "You are not a foreigner, you were born in Paris!" and Solomon replies with, "I was born a Jew, I'm a foreigner everywhere" (page 33). Within Paris it can be seen that the Jews are enforced with rules, regulations, and a lower status than those Christian citizens. This can all be seen through kinship ties and social relationships which are closely tied to a fabulous story of mystery, lies, and deceit.
From the onset of the novel, Christian/Jewish family relations are constantly under the microscope. In the first chapter, Hubert internalizes the problems his daughter Catherine is having with child birth by thinking God was punishing his family because of his conversion to Christianity when the rest of his family was being persecuted and murdered for their faith (page 25). As a young child, he was separated from the living members, and only later finds them, but after having gone through a forced baptism much like the Jews of Spain in the 1400's. The truth of his past comes out, but only to his daughters, Catherine and Agnes, while his son Guillaume is left in the dark. Catherine is the only one to accept the members of the other faith as her family, while Agnes rejects, and even discriminates against them. The feelings that Guillaume and Agnes have towards Jews are considered standard with the Christian community, denying welcome into their homes, declining a place to stay in danger, and even using derogatory terms when talking about and to them such as "those people" and "infidels". To have a Jew in your family is something to keep hidden, it would bring trouble for the Christians and...
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