in avoidance is considered a primary motive, regardless of whether the pain stems from physical or emotional sources. If the pain cannot be eliminated, then often one chooses to avoid or ignore the pain. Gimpel is one of the people who choose to avoid his pain. Gimpel needs the people who surround him, irrelevant to the way he is treated. Whereas most would have sought revenge on the people, Gimpel made it his life’s goal to succeed in avoiding the pain and humiliation that is placed upon him. And in many opinions, as well as my own, Gimpel was an extraordinary character for accomplishing this feat. For according to one critic, "he [Gimpel] is eminently human, recognizing his continuing need for the affection that he managed to wrest from what would have been an intolerable situation for a more conventionally oriented person" ...
