IndexThe role of rhyme, biblical references, and allusionsThe use of foreshadowing and color symbolismConclusionMany rhetorical devices and other formal features exist within Gimpel the Fool to make it an engaging and effective job. Some of these devices include the use of rhymes, animal references, biblical allusions, foreshadowing, and colors. The author uses these various tools to create certain effects within the work, which lead the reader to draw specific meanings and morals from the story. Through this use of formal tools, including rhetoric, Isaac Singer, the author, explains the idea that it is much more rewarding to be innocent, even if gullible all your life, than to be unkind, and that those who shame others they are the real fools. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The Role of Biblical Rhymes, References, and Allusions One of the first rhetorical devices found in Gimpel the Fool is the use of rhyme. The first sentence ends with the word “fool,” as does the next. The fourth sentence ends with the word “school” and the fifth sentence ends with “fool”. The tenth sentence, just two lines later, also ends with the word “school”. In this paragraph, Gimpel, the main character, speaks. The first effect of this use of rhymes is simply to make Gimpel seem like a fool, as the citizens consider him. The word "fool" refers both to someone who is unintelligent and most often gullible, and to a person, such as a court jester, who cracks jokes and is teased for the entertainment of others. Court jesters often use rhymes to make their jokes seem funnier. Gimpel's use of rhymes in this paragraph compares Gimpel to this type of fool. This rhyme scheme also has an ironic effect. The two words that rhyme, as already mentioned, are “crazy” and “school”. The use of rhymes, here, creates a direct juxtaposition between the two words: one who is unintelligent, or foolish, and one who has gone to school. Gimpel expressly states that he does not consider himself a fool. It's also worth noting that throughout the story, Gimpel is the only person specifically mentioned as having gone to school. Everyone else in town simply makes fun of Gimpel and embarrasses him. As the Rabbi says in the story: “It is…better to be a fool all your days, than to be evil for an hour…. He who puts his neighbor to shame loses Paradise himself” (Singer 80). Although Gimpel is naive and is considered a fool, this use of rhyme leads to the idea that Gimpel is the only person in town smart enough to treat others with kindness. The next formal feature of the story is the reference to animals. Throughout the work, various citizens are described by comparing them directly to animals or making animal noises. In the first paragraph the gang mocking Gimpel “cheered, trampled and danced…” thus being compared to donkeys. Paragraph five describes the laughter of some citizens as “cat music.” Later in the story, Gimpel describes his wife as a "sleeping mite" and his lover as making the sounds of a "slaughtered ox." The only time Gimpel refers to himself as an animal is when he says, “Enough of being a donkey…Gimpel won't be an idiot all his life. There is a limit even to the madness of a fool like Gimpel,” (Singer 83). Although donkeys are known to be quite stupid, here Gimpel explicitly says that donkeys are stupid and idiotic, thus showing exactly what the author imagines citizens to be likewhen Gimpel compares them to donkeys at the beginning of the story. The effect of all these references to animals shows how inhumane the citizens are. In the way they treat Gimpel, they are more like dying donkeys, cats, arachnids, and oxen than human beings. Through this rhetorical device, Singer suggests that anyone who treats another human being unkindly and makes them feel embarrassed is no better than an animal. So these references advance Singer's moral of the story that it is better to be foolish than to be rude. Biblical allusions add another element of meaning to Gimpel the Fool. When he approaches Elka to ask her to marry him, Gimpel says, “I went to her house of clay, which was built on sand…” (Singer 80). This is a reference to Matthew 7:24-27, the story of the wise man who built his house on the rock and the foolish man who built his house on the sand. The author here compares Elka to the foolish man, as his house is built on sand. Throughout the entire story, Elka treats Gimpel as if he were a fool. She lies to him about her infidelity and makes him doubt everything he saw and knew to be true. In this biblical allusion, the author explains that Elka is, in fact, the foolish one, and not Gimpel. The house of Elkah, which is built of clay on the sand, is also a reference to Job 4:19 which states: "How much less in those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, which are crushed by the moth?" (King James Bible, Job 4.19.) Through this allusion, Singer explains that Elka's foundation, or her moral standing, is "destroyed before the moth," or incredibly unstable and unreliable. Through both of these biblical allusions, Singer adds further evidence to the moral of his story. It shows that while Gimpel is gullible, Elka is the foolish one who built her life on very shaky ground, making others feel ashamed and embarrassed the others with rudeness are the real fools, while those who are innocent, although naive, are much better off. The use of foreshadowing and color symbolism The fourth formal feature of the text is foreshadowing. Throughout the story, Singer uses numerous times the foreshadowing to predict the end of the story is the biblical allusion just mentioned, the house built on sand, or on dust, does not end well. It is washed away or crushed by a moth. Since the house symbolizes the moral position of the owner, it is clearly foreshadowed that Elka will die and her fate will not be happy. Her life was full of deceit and evil, and so, at the end of the story, she was turning black, paying for her sins, while Gimpel dreamed of seeing her in the afterlife. Another foreshadowing episode is clear when Gimpel and Elka were to be married. Singer wrote, "The ceremony was held at the cemetery gates, near the little body-washing hut" (81). Not only is it a horrible place to have a wedding, but it predicts the death of Elka and the death of the marriage as well. As it turns out later in the story, Elka dies after 20 years of marriage to Gimpel, and their marriage is plagued by infidelity and unhappiness, resulting in Gimpel abandoning Elka's children after her death. Both of these instances of foreshadowing combine to demonstrate that it is better to be like Gimpel, innocent and gullible, than like Elka, deceitful and unkind. Elka died and was then punished in the afterlife for her mortal sins. Because of him, his marriage was unhappy and did not end well at all. Through these fictional events, Singer explains that unkind people are rewarded with suffering, and although the innocent often have to.