Jacob and Esau

One of the elements which I didn't get the chance to address in my paper was Jacob's paranoia about the outside world. For example, Jacob always was scared to escape from his captivity or enslavement because of the monstrous, evil creatures which lurked in the woods.

If we incorporate the story of Jacob and Esau from Genesis in the Bible then we'll learn that Esau, Jacob's brother, is a man of the outdoors. He prefers, say, hunting instead of studying in tents, like Jacob. Esau is a much more physically strong, manly, and confident character, and Jacob trusts Esau's courage. Jacob is a part of the inside world, Esau the outside world.

I feel that Isaac Bashevis Singer utilizes this symbolism through Jacob's, from The Slave, worldview. Finally nearing the end of the novel Jacob comes across the ferryman. He had an epiphany on his execution road and decided to not be so scared of the wild because there's nothing scarier than the walk to your death.

Jacob tell the ferryman that "Robbers do not worry him." Robbers entails any evil variables, inferentially including monstrous, evil creatures granted he was walking through the scary woods for some time until he came across the ferryman.

In The Slave it is hard to pinpoint the character who embodies Esau from the Bible's story, but my theory is that he's not in it at all. My final paper advocates that the ferryman has many characteristics, but he doesn't enter the story until Jacob has realized that he doesn't need Esau to keep him safe from the outside world.