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• 1 2016-03-07T23:28:49-08:00 This man is my enemy 15 First disagreement between Gilley and Levin plain 2016-03-15T19:40:25-07:00

  A closer look at Malamud's editing process: 

  Levin, found himself shaking in his clothes, yet he somehow managed to make tried to steady his voice sound calm. “Did you—ah—transferred him? Why, to get at his theme?” 

  “No,” said Gilley uneasily rubbing his hands with a paper towel., “Hhe wanted came in and asked to be taken out of your class.—said you disliked him, so I made the transfer. I did it because, as I’ve said before, Tthere’s no point to in perpetuating animosities bad feelings between students and instructors.” 

  “Don’t you understand that by doing this sort of thing see,” Levin said, you are undermine destroying my authority and integrity?” 

  “Now Ttake it easy, Sy. I’ve done nothing of the kind. I respect your point of view but Iit’s just best not psychologically a bad thing to have a student kid stuck in a the class of an person instructor he hates. He The student shows his disrespect in his attitude,. hHe might spreads all kinds of rumors or lies about you, it’s would be bad for class morale. You’re well rid of a troublemaker.” 

  Levin, infuriated, felt like cursing Gilley for a fool but stood there in silent anguish. 

  This man, he thought, is my enemy, Levin thought. 

  He laughed brokenly.  

  Sample Analysis:  

   

  This exchange between Gilley and Levin doesn’t appear to change much between versions, but subtle changes in the way that Gilley speaks to Levin as well as the gap between Levin’s thoughts and actions toward Gilley reveal increased tension. In the original draft, Levin strikes a more casual tone when he asks Gilley about the reasoning behind Birdless’ transfer out of his class. The question is in two parts, confirming Gilley’s words and testing his hypothesis. In the published draft, despite the sentence interruption, the question is much more direct. The removal of ‘uneasily’ following Gilley’s response establishes Gilley’s own sense of authority in the situation. Malamud’s addition of movement after the response further enforces this; Levin’s direct question does not phase him. Levin’s response is also more direct in the published draft and he implies that Gilley does even further damage to his credibility. He doesn’t not limit Gilley’s behavior to one instance; he implies that Gilley is engaged in the continuous act of ‘destroying’ his credibility. In both drafts, Gilley responds to a past tense accusation, that he has affected Levin’s credibility in one instance by transferring a problem student out of his class. Again, confident of his own authority, Gilley talks himself out of this by falling back upon his general policies. Overall, Gilley appears surer of his authority in the published version as opposed to the original.  

  The establishment of Gilley as an enemy remains consistent in both versions of the novel, but Levin’s reaction changes considerably. The change seems to indicate this desire to remain amiable with Gilley, even after recognizing him as an enemy. His laughter signals to Gilley that he has removed the tension by subduing Levin, but ‘brokenly’ conveys Levin’s frustration to the audience, where Gilley remains oblivious to Levin's blossoming animosity. This foreshadows the future shift in power dynamics between Levin and Gilley.