Supervised Writing

Amichai’s Humanism view and his perception on God

Common to many of Amichai’s poems is his diverse perception on God; one that does
conform to the regular views of that of society. His perception on God tries to reveal the true
nature of the jewish God, which he learns about throughout his entire lifetime, and especially
through the wars where many jews were left to suffer. Amichai then perceives God to be
unmerciful, a spectator, one who abandons and one who forgets his people. Thus this leads him
to have a humanism view, which focuses importance on humans rather than on supernatural or
divine beings. Through the use of his different poems namely “God Has Pity on Kindergarten
Children” and “The Course of a Life”, Amichai’s theme of Humanism can be seen through how
he reveals of God’s true nature which tries to bridge us away from our interdependence on God.

In “God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children”, Amichai at the beginning portrays God to be
merciful. This portrayal changes as the poem progresses, with God slowly becoming more
biased in the way he pities. God is shown to discriminate, and in the poem the comparison
made is that he pities “kindergarten children” but God pities “school children --- less” and adult’s
not all. This aspect of pity is significant as, when God pities less the people are shown to suffer
as seen in the second stanza where the adults suffer due to God not pitying them. The second
stanza shows adults in a war and are bloodied and are constantly suffering. Although in the third
stanza God is shown to not completely abandon all the adults. The overall perception of God in
this poem is that he is unmerciful and discriminates, thus the final two stanzas formulate an idea
where God is not necessary. The second to the last stanza suggests that Love is better than
God. This shows humanism, where rather than focusing on divine beings, we put focus on
humans. As seen in this stanza love replaces God, showing Humanism replacing God. In the
last stanza, they abandon God because he no longer is necessary. As it can be seen the theme
of Humanism can be seen, where Amichai bridges us away from God and our interdependence
on him and instead focus on human aspects such as Love.

In “The Course of a Life” is a poem which basically tackles the flow of life. It begins with the
youth who are care are carefree and ignorant. In the third stanza there is a separation between
heaven and earth. Afterwards there is a denial of religion of God. As the poem progress and
continues there is a formation of a relationship with God. In the last stanza, it shows that
through death we are free from religion and God. This shows God and religion was
unnecessary. This somewhat supports the idea of Humanism where focus is not placed divine
beings being it is unnecessary and pointless in the end, where in the end where we die we are
devoid from God and achieve freedom from religion.

Overall it can be seen through Amichai’s poem the theme of Humanism, as he tries to create
the idea of a lifestyle where we are not interdependent of God, who in the first place abandons
us and leaves us to suffer. This can be seen in his poems “God Has Pity on Kindergarten
Children” and “The Course of a Life”.