The Red Tent: My Reaction :: essays research papers

In her book, The Red Tent, Anita Diamant attempts to expound upon the foundations laid by the Torah by way of midrashim. In doing so, parts of her stories tend to stray from the reli up to(p) biblical text. The following essay will explore this and several different aspects of the book as they relate to the Torah and modern midrash.One of the first differences I recognized was the description of Leahs eyes. In Genesis 2917, Leahs eyes are described as weak. Diamant dispels this rumor, saying that Leahs eyes, one blue and one green, made others weak because most wad had difficulty looking her in the face. By making this small adjustment, Diamant is able to create a connection between Jacob and Leah that the Bible neglects. The Bible says yet that Jacob extold Rachel more than Leah, which tends to give the impression that Leah was unloved. Diamant says that Jacob was able to look Leah in the eye without any trouble and never made any stimulus regarding them. This is significant because it shows that Jacob overlooked a flaw in Leah that most others seemed ineffective to ignore, and the physical attraction between them that she later addressed in the 7 days following their marriage (which was a single night in the Bible) seems to make more sense. In addition, their discussion in the tent net that Jacob was to emerge after the week feigning anger is a midrash provides an comment as to why Jacob slept with Leah and still complained to Laban that he had been tricked. Diamant makes Jacob appear to be more of a gentleman than the Bible does, and thus, a more likeable important character in her novel.In The Red Tent, Diamant created people not mentioned in the Torah. One such person was Ruti, Labans last wife. Laban beat Ruti soberly and frequently for no apparent reason. In Diamants book, Rutis jolly small role serves as a clear reason for the proofreader to dislike Laban. Until Ruti is introduced, besides being a drunk and making love to sheep, we find Laban to be little more than pathetic. Including Ruti in the story adds other dimesion to Labans character one of cruelty and aggression. At this point, Diamant makes Laban begin to look into the novelistic bad guy mold quite well, and the reader finds him more execrable than ever before. His daughters pay little attention to Ruti and ignore the evidence of their sticks abusiveness because Ruti is the mother of their sons rivals, their material enemy.