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"My bad smell comes from the food I eat. What does his come from?” - Bernard Malamud     
  

                                                 Appearances are deceptive...

           Bernard Malamud in “The Jewbird” talks about Jew immigrants and states that people shouldn’t treat each other according to their appearance but should look inside the person’s soul. In the story Schwartz says, “Everybody smells. Some people smell because of their thoughts or because who they are. My bad smell comes from the food I eat. What does his come from?” By looking closely at Cohen and the Jewbird we will figure out who does really “smell” in this story.

          Even both characters consider themself as Jews we can see how different they are. Both of them are immigrants. Cohen arrived to the USA long time ago and already settled down here. The Jewbird is a new wave immigrant. He is trying to join the Jew community and he indeed looks like a religious Jew. He is dovening and praying in front of Cohen’s family to make them believe, that he is a real Jew. "The bird began dovening. He prayed without Book or tallith, but with passion." Cohen starts to hate the bird. “Mr. Cohen, why do you hate me so much?” asked the bird. “What did I do to you?” He hates him because Schwartz acts different from him as a real Jew. “Because you’re an A-number-one trouble maker, that’s why," Cohen says. “Poor bird, my ass. He’s a foxy bastard. He thinks he’s a Jew.” 

          The author makes us look at these characters beyond their appearance. Jewbird really smells bad, because he eats herring three times a day. Should we treat him bad only because of that? What if we look at him under another angle? What has he done positive for Cohen’s family? He isn’t asked but he helps Maurie with his homework that improves boy’s grades at school. "Schwartz, though nobody had asked him, took on full responsibility for Maurie’s performance in school. In return for favors granted, when he was let in for an hour or two at night, he spent most of his time overseeing the boy’s lessons. He sat on top of the dresser near Maurie’s desk as he laboriously wrote out his homework." He spends a lot of time by listening boy’s violin playing. "He also listened to him practice his screechy violin, taking a few minutes off now and then to rest his ears in the bathroom." He reads the books for him, even when he does not like them at all. And the Jewbird has done a great job since "Maurie’s work improved in school and even his violin teacher admitted his playing was better." Another character, Cohen seems to us like a regular man in the begining of the story, "a heavy man with hairy chest and beefy shorts" but how terrible he appears at the end, "he (Maurie) found a dead black bird in a small lot near the river, his two wings broken, neck twisted, and both bird-eyes plucked clean." We  know who did that with this poor jewbird. Cohen hid a really dark soul under the nice apperance.

           The writer confronts two characters as two personalities. The jewbird sounds very religious, intelligent, well-educated and patient. He said, “Gevalt, a pogrom!” Cohen doesn’t sound intelligent but even rude. When the jewbird flew in the window he said, “Right on the table… Son of the bitch.” And many times after he gave names for the poor bird. How mean he was when he brought a cat at home. Cohen has been deeply assimilated with American culture and criticizes Jewish traditions. He became less religious and more aggressive regarding his own history. 

          The author points the differences in characters' life values based on the conversation about Maurie's future. The Jewbird looks at this boy from the position of Kindness and Humanity. He appreciates the human values like kindness, honesty and hardworking. He says, “He’s a good boy…He won’t be shicker or a wifebeater…” Cohen thinks he can get anything using his power or money. These are his life values. He says, “I’ll get him in any Ivy League college for sure.”

           Jews are known for their charity actions. In opposite, the author presents us Cohen, who is extremely stingy and doesn’t want to share neither food nor home with this poor bird who is asking for help. Cohen says, “What do you want here? This isn’t a restaurant.”

           The writer presents Cohen as a person without of compassion to another people. Cohen asked the jewbird, “Are you forgetting what it means to be migratory?” This is really ironic question because who really forgets all is Cohen himself. He forgot his history, he forgot that he was an immigrant as well and how difficult it was to settle down on the new place. He tries to kick the bird out of his house,“but I’m dead set against it. I warn you he ain’t gonna stay here long.” The author emphases that Cohen is real Anti-Semeet. He forgot his own culture and now disrespects everybody and everything related to it. Cohen was that “crow” that took Schwartz’s eyes out. 

           Summarizing all above I came to the conclusion that the only one who ”smells” in this story is Cohen. After his mother died Cohen had lost his last link to Jewizm or, another words, to kindness, respectness, charity. Meeting with Jewbird was last hope for Cohen to rethink his life position and values. But he lost it killing the jewbird. Scar on Cohen’s nose, making his face ugly, symbolizes his ugly soul. “Look,” said Cohen, pointing to his bloody nose swollen three times its normal size, “what that sonofabitchy bird did. It’s a permanent scar.”  Now he is not ugly inside but outside as well.