Chris AugustinEnglish 102 Monday/Wednesday 8:30am February 23, 2014 Essay on the Transformation of Gimpel The FoolGimpel The Fool is a short story by Issac Bashevis Singer. The entire story revolves around the main character Gimpel. Gimpel the madman, as they call him in the Jewish town of Frampol, is always teased and even made fun of by them. Gimpel's transformation through difficult situations and his strong beliefs help enhance his development as a character, they just don't make him a fool. Gimpel is not simply a fool for the way he handled difficult situations in his early years at Frampol. Like when Gimpel was very young everyone in town made fun of him because everyone thought Gimpel was gullible. They called him a lot of names, like imbecile, donkey, bowhead, fool, quiff, fool, and fool. People called him these names because he believed what everyone told him, which they took advantage of. But in that situation Gimpel is not a fool because he acted maturely based on what people think of him. Gimpel didn't let the insults bother him too much. The real madness is to act irrationally and start being aggressive towards everyone. “I wasn't weak. If I slapped someone, they would see me as far away as Krakow. But I'm actually not a slacker by nature. I think to myself, forget it. So they take advantage of me." These are not the words of a fool, but are the words of a very confident and trustworthy character. Here he shows that Gimpel does not have to give in to the people of the city but chooses to do so. Everyone in town lies to him, but Gimpel acts mature about the way they treat him. Many citizens play tricks on him but he has never let himself be bothered. The way the citizens tried... middle of paper... she realized she was the fool for the way she acted and treated Gimpel all this time. Elka tells Gimpel everything like her adultery and also tells him that those are not her children. One night he had a dream of the devil, the devil persuading him with whoever had deceived him. "In short, I was persuaded." This dream is very interesting because he is very tempted to deceive anyone, this shows his transformation, not believing in the world and not trusting in what is decent and good-natured. When Gimpel's devil tells him there is no God, we see Gimpel's subconscious question the afterlife he so faithfully believed in. Effectively following the devil's orders and attempting to deceive the citizens, Gimpel reveals that he no longer cares about good. being of society, and thus a detachment from that society is achieved.