An Umbrella (Symbol)
An umbrella is a symbol of protection against possible misfortunes. Jack has always been living in fear of the future. “Alex,” he says, “a man has got to have an umbrella for a rainy day.” His life is not easy. Unlike his son, he hasn’t got a chance to go to school, thus his perception of the world is rather limited. He sees only hatred and racial discrimination. Being a husband and a father, Jack knows only one thing: he doesn’t leave “a wife and a child out in the rain without umbrella.” He wears himself out to make sure that his family won’t perish.
Children (Allegory)
Children are an allegory of the future. How often do we hear stories in which parents sacrifice their own happiness for their children’s sake? Some people are ready to work non-stop to provide their children with everything they didn’t have themselves. The best schools, extracurricular activities, fine clothes, and whatnot. Jack is that kind of a parent. ”Where he had been imprisoned,” his son “would fly.” This is his biggest dream. In Alex’s “liberation” would be his. Jack will be liberated from “ignorance, from exploitation, from anonymity” through Alex.
Generational Conflict (Motif)
Jack’s main dream comes true. Alex is a straight-A student, good-looking, adored by his teachers, and, what is more important, not taunted or persecuted for being a Jew. The biggest problem is that Alex refuses to live in accord with his parents’ rules. First of all, he states that he “doesn’t believe in God” and he doesn’t believe “in Jewish religion.” Jack understands how big and deep the pitch between them when Alex refuses to dress properly on Rosh Hashanah. Sophie and Jack are trying their best to show their son the right way, but Alex, who is an adult now, doesn’t need it. He wants them to leave him alone. “Castrating mother.” “Benighted father.” He asks himself, “what was it with these Jewish parents, what, that they were able to make us little Jewish boys believe ourselves to be princes on the one hand” and “such bumbling, incompetent, thoughtless, helpless, selfish, evil little shits, little ingrates on the other hand?”
