Gershon uses biblical midrash to reexamine the place of the

matriarchal figure after the Shoah. Both poems center on one

central female from the bible, although one is identified as a

Jew, while one is identified as furthering the lineage of

Christ. Both poems give these women the power of choice, which

they do not have in the typical biblical text. Both poems show

the power of man as motivation over the power of God. Although

there is an absence of the God figure in Ruth, it is present in

"Esther." Gershon enters, through her poetry, these separate

In the first stanza of "Ruth," we learn that Ruth descends from

a line of Christians, which immediately contrasts to the

speaker's religion, in the form of Gershon. Although the speaker

and Ruth share different religions they have many things in

common. The first example of this is in the line "She preferred

exile to being alone," (Gershon, 4) whereby, even though the

exile of Gershon's people was not voluntary, both Gershon and

Ruth share the experience of exile. The idea of being a

"stranger" is shared by both the speaker and Ruth. This is the

The third section furthers the parallel between Gershon and

those who cannot speak for themselves. This is shown in the

shoulders as she hurried on," (Gershon, 31-32) gives Esther the

"upstart orphan," (Gershon 3) refers both to Gershon herself

central question of the poem is in the lines "Or did she also

Esther by having the speaker connect their experiences. As in

on. She uses the idea of doing something natural in an unnatural

stranger even in her sleep," (Gershon, 11) and then repeats the

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1442
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)