"Panther in the Basement"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, even though Amos Oz's "Panther in the Basement" is a story of a young boy, it is also the story of Israel, which not only deals with problems Israel faced in its development but also tackles issues, which directly affect Israel today and into the future. The author points out that, throughout the book, the theme of betrayal and conversely loyalty seems to be most important to Oz. The paper relates that the protagonist child Proffy represents the new Jewish state, but like Israel, he is not free of problems; he has to confront the stereotype he holds about the British, just as modern Israel has to examine the view it has of the Palestinians.

From the Paper:

"The novel is written from the point of view of a man looking back on the summer he was twelve. It begins with the boy, Proffy, finding the words, "Proffy is a low-down traitor," (1) written on the side of his house. Most of the rest of the book is then the story of how this sentence came to be written. Like most Jews in the area, Proffy dislikes the British and sees them as the source of all problems. His parents are involved in the resistance movement, and at night he often hears injured fighters arrive at the apartment to be treated by his mother. His parents are also intellectuals, however, and Proffy has inherited many of his father's interests in knowledge, especially the study of language."

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