We might say that the Jewish-American short stories in The Schoken Book of Contemporary Jewish Fiction represent identity art. This is mainly because a majority of the themes center around identity, its loss and its discovery. For example, Allegra Goodman’s Variant Text is a satire on Orthodoxy and its limitations on individuality. However, the works of the Jewish-American writers are connected through more than theme and subject matter, they are connected stylistically in many ways. The four writers and stories to be compared and contrasted stylistically are: Allegra Goodman, Variant Text; Deirdre Levinson, April 19th, 1985; Nessa Rapoport, The Woman Who Lost Her Names; and, Robin Roger, The Pagan Phallus.
In The Pagan Phallus we see the use of sarcasm, satire, symbolism and irony. In the beginning of the story Terry, a Jewish copywriter, is asked to work on the Salvation Army account. She is sarcastic when asked “All of our clients worship something. God’s as good as anything else” (Solotaroff and Rapoport 237). Later, she asks Bill “Do you think they use the missionary position!” (Solotaroff et al. 238). We also see the use of symbolism in the story. When looking for a copy of the New Testament, a young man tells Terry “That’s the sword!” (Solotaroff et al. 240). The sword to Terry symbolizes what is held within a pair of men’s underwear. The sword to the Salvation Army is the Bible. Further, the phallus, either cut or uncut, represents Jewish tradition in the case of the former and gentile taboo in the case of the latter. At the end of the story Terry thinks the Commissioner wants sex, but she is repulsed by his attempt to be Jewish because his penis is circumcised. However, he wants to convert her to Christianity which is ironic considering her expectations “She clasped her hands together and held them to her lips. He wanted her soul, she wanted his . . . God, she’d been stupid” (Sol...