Question 1
Introduction
The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness is a story based on real life experience. It actually revolves around the life of Joel Ben who at the same time serves as the storyteller. Each chapter of the book begins with an international tales or a story or from places such as India, Middle East or China or the Chelm (Jewish town).These tales actually contribute a lot to building a good understanding of the narrator’s life. Joel shares different phases of his life as a husband, father, and cancer patient. Through his life, readers get to learn various life lessons, perhaps even our personal lessons as well. Story telling is Joel’s inseparable habit since her child hood times. Despite the many hardships he goes through, Joel affords to make his family happy. The biggest blow to his jovial life was the loss of voice during surgical operation aimed at healing him from thyroid cancer. Holding the fact, that story telling was one of his greatest hobbies this was a very big blow. However, this does not pin him down as we see him recollecting his happiness in life.
Although the book revolves his life, Joel does not feature anywhere in the book as a character. The character aspects of the book area taken care of by four major characters that is; his wife-Taly, his dad, his teacher- Lenny and his mother Gladys.
Taly (Joel’s wife) is one of the most important characters in the book. Her encouragement throughout Joel’s life helps him to face different challenges he met in his life. Despite discouraging her on the first day they met, she is turns out to be the source of motivation in Joel’s life. She is actually disturbed by Joel’s illness than Joel himself. The two raise a happy family, far away from the suburbs. Taly contribution in the thematic effects of the book is huge. She carries the themes such as devotion to marriage and the role of a wife in a family.
Lenny is Joel’s ex-teacher she also does marvelous inn carrying the thematic aspects of the book. She is the testimony of what a student-teacher relationship should be. There teacher –student relationship extends farther beyond school. The teacher has get contribution to Joel’s life during her hard times with cancer .Lenny gives him courage to face life despite the challenges he was facing.
Similar to other characters in the book, his parents also contribute to style and theme aspects of the book. There is a flash book of how Joel used to tell his mother stories in his childhood. His father plays fatherly roles, which catch the admiration of every person who reads the book.
Every single character in this book has a very important role. However, there are characters in the book that play a more important role than others and whose contribution to the story’s plot is more. An example of such a character is the main character Joel’s father. Joel father’s name is not given in the story. Personally, he is my favorite character in the entire story and he is the one that I can relate to most.
He was not really a story narrator. In addition, he did not have the time to narrate stories to Joel and his singings when they were younger. This is clearly expressed in the novel when Joel states that the house that the house that he grew up in was not exactly filled with a lot of storytelling. He further adds that his parents spent most of their time trying to make ends meet and provide the basic needs for the family including food and shelter. In addition to the extreme poverty that the family was experiencing, his father was also ailing.
Joel’s father contribution to the story is through his failing health. The fact that his father’s health is failing is what motivates the Joel to start narrating or telling stories. At fast, Joel only tells the stories to distract his mother from the failing health of his father. The point of turning occurs when Joel is accompanying his mother to the supermarket. He notices how miserable she is because of the bad health that has plagued Joel’s father for a long time. Joel is deeply troubled by his mother’s misery. He wonders what he can do to lift her spirits. Joel at that moment makes a resolution to make his mother happy even if it is for a very short period. He likens an eggplant located the supermarket’s produce section to Nixon. This makes his mother’s face brighten up and for a small moment, she forgets the troubles and worries that she has.
This is the time when Joel makes the decision to start collecting various jokes and stories and narrating to his family occasionally especially when the family makes visits to his father in the hospital.
Another way in which Joel’s farther contributes to the story is by his use in presenting the poverty theme. It is said that the family lived in poverty and Joel parents worked every day to ensure that the family always had food on the table. This is further amplified through his desperate attempts to receive the life determining or changing call like Joel vividly describes it.
These are just some of the reasons why this character is my favorite and is the one that I can relate mostly to. His devotion to his family’s well being despite poverty and ill health is unmatched. Nowadays, it is very hard to find people with that kind of devotion to their families.
Another inspiring fact is that his misfortune actually facilitated or led to the emergence of good things in others specifically his son Joel. Joel was able to discover his love and gift for narrating or telling stories in the period that his father was ailing. Although his initial attempts at story telling were mainly aimed at making his r happy, he found that he actually enjoyed telling stories. This becomes a form of earning his livelihood and it enables him to discover his true happiness secret. It would totally have been a different scenario had Joel’s father health not been compromised.
In conclusion, Joel father’s role in the plot is very visible. Through his interaction with other characters in the story, we are truly able to see his contribution to the plot of the story and the ways in which his actions and his life in general affects the other characters including Joel, his mother and his wife. This is once again why he is my favorite character in the story.
Work cited
Izzy, Joel. The Beggar King and the Secret of happiness. USA: Paperback, 2005. Print.
