Cosmopolitanism and Tragic Silence 177his social denunciation as a Soviet agitator and a traitor to “American
values,” following the publication of a damning and largely spurious
expos é written by his ex-wife, Eve, a book that shares its title with
the novel itself.
Ringold’s “brave” pursuit of his sociopolitical convictions, nar-
row as they are, also involves a conventional left-wing adherence
to the principles of ethnic and cultural egalitarianism. Indeed, this
is another element of Ringold’s character that captures the imag-
ination of the young Zuckerman, who is sensitive to the residual
social stigma (if not outright discrimination) toward those of Jewish
heritage or identity that still exists in postwar America. Identifying
himself as a “Jewish child,” Zuckerman informs us that from an
early age he “didn’t care to partake of the Jewish character,” favor-
ing instead to embrace and play an active role in what he calls the
“national character” (p. 39). When he hears Ringold framing his
ideology in terms that advocate an inclusive, ethnically integration-
ist nationalism, the appeal is quite obvious. Interestingly, Ringold
associates this cosmopolitan dimension of Communist ideology
with the core principles that underlie American national identity, or
what Zuckerman calls “the myth of a national character partaken
of by all” (p. 38). In keeping with his heroic image, Ringold is not
afraid to act upon and demand these mythical tropes of American
nationalism.
At a time when communities in American cities such as Newark
were divided along cultural and linguistic, as well as ethnic lines,
Ringold takes the young Zuckerman into the slum areas occupied
by the newly arrived (and arriving) black community. He explains
how impressed he was by the fact that Ringold “spoke to everyone he
saw” and made socially and politically subversive declarations such
as “a Negro has the right to eat any damn place he feels like paying
the check!” (p. 91). But Ringold also pursues this progressive, cosmo-
politan orientation to the social category of “race” by actively seek-
ing to build friendships with black Americans. Fittingly, he explains
to Zuckerman that this was achieved in his own experience through
the process of working alongside blacks in the sphere of industrial
production. The record factory in which this work took place is
described in highly romantic terms: a place awash with conviviality