At one time or another, everyone, in their life, has looked down upon someone because that someone isn't as rich, attractive, or even as intelligent as most people. People do this without any regard to the people's feeling, and without ever imagining what it is like to be in that person's shoes. In Isaac Bashevis Singer's "Gimpel the Fool", a man named Gimpel was harassed and teased because of the fact he was gullible, or so the people believed. The townspeople looked at Gimpel as if he was a fool, which leads to them taking advantage of him, but overall, Gimpel wasn't as foolish as the people had him out to be.

Was Gimpel really a fool? The townspeople sure thought so. The story opens up with Gimpel saying he's a fool but not really agreeing with the statement. Gimpel gives his own reason when he says, "What did my foolishness consist of? I was easy to take in" (Singer 1071). He says this meaning that anything that someone says to him he believes to be the truth, no matter how outlandish it may be. His life was full of lies that people told him and it made no difference how many times he was made a fool, he still let on that he believed them. One example, and the one

Is it possible for a whole town to be foolish while one man is the only non-fool among them? Gimpel didn't believe more than half the stuff the people told him, what made him go along though? Alexander writes, "...two impulses keep him from asserting his dignity - and his incredulity. One is his incapacity for righteous anger, hatred, and incapacity...The other is his instinctive sense that belief is not a matter of evidences but of will." Looked upon like this, Gimpel doesn't seem so stupid, but more of a man that fears not believing something that is true. Often the negative saying, don't believe until proven right, is thought by others. But because the majority thinks one way doesn't make it more intelligent of a choice. "Those who delight in victimizing Gimpel are themselves victims of their incapacity to believe with him that 'everything is possible'" (Friedman 190). It doesn't make Gimpel a fool because he chose to believe the people, he knew for himself that none of the things said were anywhere near the truth. He believed because he wanted to believe. He married that woman because he wanted to, not because he believed she was virgin pure, or because he believed that her son was actually her brother, but again, because he wanted to.

Gimpel looked to be the fool, was taken advantage of, but in the end he knew that he wasn't as stupi

Some common words found in the essay are:
Gimpel Fool, Gimpel They're, Looked Gimpel, Gimple Fool, gimpel fool, , son son, teased gullible, looked gimpel, people told,
Approximate Word count = 917
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)