Gimpel the Fool

“I am Gimpel the Fool. I don’t think of myself as a fool, but that’s what folks call me. They gave me the name when I was still in school.”

Gimpel reveals two important insights in this opening statement. First, it is clear from the start that Gimpel is going to be a truly reliable narrator, who will not try to impress the reader or mince words. Gimpel is the archetypal wise fool, a character that appears in earliest literature and permeates every genre and every literary era.

“I was no weakling. If I slapped someone he’d see all the way to Cracow. But I’m not a slugger by nature. I think to myself: Let it pass. So they take advantage of me.”

Gimpel’s choice to examine the lies he is told and to ultimately accept them as truth is a motif that underscores the theme that a human being has freedom of choice, by which they can control their own destiny insofar as how they accept it. They have to power to feel deceived and used or to refuse to be deflated by the apparent abuse.

“When the pranksters and leg-pullers found that I was easy to fool, every one of them tried his luck with me.”

Gimple’s refusal to reject the liars and their lies is a kind of foolishness, or rather self-deception. But his willingness to find a way to believe them shows his empathy, his understanding of human behavior, his wisdom.