A Simple Story: Szybusz and the Crisis of Parenting

Abstract:This paper takes its starting point from Alan Mintz's depiction of the connections between parenthood, arranged marriage, and moral values in a time of historical transition in S. Y. Agnon's late story, "In a Single Moment." In what follows, the author explores similar themes in Agnon's famous earlier novel, A Simple Story, which portrays the inevitable connection between the abolishment of moral order in Szybusz at the beginning of the twentieth century and the failure of parenthood, both on the level of the family and in the town as a whole. In the Hurvitz family, the moral and parental failure culminates in the arranged marriage and the eventual mental breakdown of the young protagonist Hirshl. The author suggests that the therapy that Hirshl undergoes at Dr. Langsam's sanatorium, which attracted much critical attention, serves to reestablish positive parenthood by reenacting the process of rearing a child from babyhood to adolescence, as well as by evoking the historical memory of moral order.