A PSYCHOANALYTICAL APPROACH TO PORTNOY’S QUEST FOR HIS JEWISH IDENTITY IN PHILIP ROTH’S PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT

Abstract [English]

As a consequence of his unreserved depictions of assimilated Jews discarding traditional norms, Roth became estranged from Jewish authorities and became known as the quintessential outsider. Simultaneously, his work continues to resonate with Jews today and shaped the self-perception of new generations of Americanized Jews. This essay looks at how Roth treats Jewish development in his writing and suggests that his attempts are an argument in favor of a stronger feeling of Jewish uniqueness and defiance of authority—Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint about the conflict between the self and the outside world. The main character deals with internal, external, and self-versus-world issues. It is revealed that Portnoy has problems with his Jewish friends and family, who serve as a microcosm of the ethnic community he is a member of. He believes, falsely, that his culture is the primary cause of his alienation. He finds it troubling that his sexual enjoyment and his moral values contradict one another. His problems aren’t resolved until the end of the book, even though he starts to realize his moral dilemma. This American novel describes what it’s like to be a Jewish youngster growing up in America. It takes strong action against radical religious beliefs held by American Jewish groups. The Portnoy’s Complaint has a very distinct style. It begins with the traditional first-person point of view and combines it with a modernist mental morality. Roth explores the endless and perhaps unsolvable conflict between man and his basic impulses by entering his species’ primitive mind and illuminating the strange, horrifying, and inexplicable reality of human desires and experiences.