Explore conflicting accounts of Jewish Identity in

The first 200 words of this essay...

Explore conflicting accounts of Jewish Identity in "The Mandlebaum

Gate".

The Mandlebaum Gate is a novel by Muriel Spark set in the territories

of Jerusalem and Jordan during the Eichmann Trials. Within the novel

there is a character "Barbara Vaughan" who is a Gentile Jewess. She

travels within Israel and Jordan on a pilgrimage to see the holy

shrines and has various adventures and encounters during her trip. It

is clear from the first few pages of the novel that Jewish identity is

a key theme and continues to be as such throughout.

The first chapter "Freddy's Walk" immediately helps to set the scene

as we see him travelling through the "amazing alleys of the Orthodox

Quarter of Israel's Jerusalem"[1][1] During this chapter Freddy

collides with a small boy whose mother immediately reacts by scolding

the child, "evidently trying to impress upon him the undesirable

nature of Freddy". Freddy believes that the mother reacts in this way

because she presumes him to be "a modern Jew, one of the regular