The Well-Lived Life by Lyndsay Green

Author:Lyndsay Green
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2018-12-05T16:00:00+00:00

What If I Don’t Allocate My Things?

Joshua Harmon’s brilliant play Bad Jews illustrates eloquently how an item can become a stand-in for love and respect, and how a tug of war over its ownership can exacerbate family fissures.10 The setting is a New York apartment after the funeral of a beloved grandfather. As his three grandchildren gather, we learn that one of Poppy’s possessions is imbued with intense meaning for them: his chai. Chai is the Hebrew word for “life,” and Poppy wore his gold pendant chai on a chain around his neck. The chai had belonged to Poppy’s father, and during the Holocaust, when his father knew they would be separated, he gave his son the chai. Poppy managed to survive the concentration camp and was able to keep his chai hidden under his tongue for the two years of his internment.

Granddaughter Daphna, who self-defines as “the most religious” of the group, states that it is the only thing of her grandfather’s she wants. She argues that the chai should be hers because she’s the only one who would value it. She acknowledges that a chai is typically worn by men but points out that it is technically a piece of jewellery. But it turns out that her cousin Liam already has the chai in his possession. Liam says his mother gave him the chai because “everyone knew” that Poppy wanted him to have it, and besides, Poppy’s things are men’s things and should go to men. Liam, who calls himself a “bad Jew,” dismisses Daphna’s argument that the chai should go to her because it is a religious item. He says the chai is “so much more” and mattered to Poppy on “a whole host of different levels.” Liam says Poppy would have wanted him to have the chai so he could use it to propose to his girlfriend in the same way Poppy used the chai to propose to their grandmother.

Liam’s girlfriend, Melody, is a Gentile, and the battle over the chai becomes a deep debate about culture and identity and survival, until it deteriorates into a physical altercation with Daphna ripping the chai off Melody’s neck. Even before the chai tug-of-war, the cousins didn’t like each other much. But as the play ends, their ruptured relationships seem beyond repair. Poppy never bequeathed the chai in his will and what is missing in this debate is any direct evidence of his wishes. In Daphna’s words, “. . . when my mom talked to your mom she was like the kids should work it out, because apparently as it turns out Poppy’s will is like basically useless which I don’t blame him for, at all, but like, no one actually realized that someone would have to actually figure this stuff out at some point but it’s like that point is now here.”11

Regardless of the arguments in favour of allocating your possessions in order to avoid a family fracas, some people would rather leave items up for grabs. Sometimes the incentive is to avoid any hint of favouritism.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.