Aristotle said, "We are what we repeatedly do." In the case of Alexander Portnoy he was condemned to repeat his mistakes and to continue to feel the guilt that his parents, his lovers and himself placed on him at every step. Their oppressive nature made him a perpetual child, and his efforts to seize the opportunity to be the authority in every relationship left him more frustrated and eager to control the downward spiral he called life. Judaism was the basis of his family. Their identity was firmly rooted in their religion. For Alex, everything he saw when he looked in the mirror or at other children, at the furniture in their homes, at the way they spoke, was Jewish and non-Jewish. His facial features and name became a source of resentment and things he desperately wanted to change. The thought of being Alton C. Peterson and having a smaller nose consumed him. The pressure his parents put on him to go to the temple and call himself a Jew! Jew! Jew! Jew!, “sucking and sucking at the sour grapes of a religion,” drove him crazy. Frustrated by dwelling on the past and the anxiety of being a perfect Jew, Alex insisted: "I'm a human being too!" Although he wanted to escape the prison of guilt he felt the Jews had locked themselves in, he was continually confused by all things goy. He was raised Jewish and that's all he knows, but the power of religion and his inability to reconcile that power have made it one of the most dominant forces in his life, alongside his Jewish mother. Childhood, for Alexander Portnoy, was a tumultuous time experience. He was intelligent beyond his years, which not only provided pride for his family, but also an opportunity for his mother to brag about him. The love he received from... middle of paper... so he wouldn't have to face the real world was convincing him that his overbearing mother was responsible for all his frustrations and failed relationships. He was happy with how he lived, "he lived big!" despite his mother showing him the way. He could neglect her, he just didn't want to. Works Cited Frank, Thomas, H. "The Interpretation of Limits: Doctors and Novelists in the Fiction of Philip Roth." The Journal of Popular Culture, vol 28. 1995. Hopkins, Holly, R., Klein, Helen, A., O'Bryant, Kathleen. “Reminiscent of the style of parental authority and self-perception in college men and women.” The journal of genetic psychology, vol.157. 1996 Laupa, Marta. "Children's reasoning about three attributes of authority: adult status, knowledge, and social position." Developmental Psychology, Vol. 27. 1991.Roth, Philip. Portnoy's Complaint, Vintage Books, 1967.