Jews Without Money

In Jews Without Money, animals are important symbols of humanity’s emotional capacity. Animals are mistreated, abused, and occasionally lavished with care and attention. However, the vast majority of animals are subject to the terrible living conditions on the Lower East Side. Mangy dogs pick through garbage cans, rats and mice nibble at food, and bugs infest the rundown tenement buildings. The animals are forced to endure the inescapable poverty, and their struggle to survive becomes a reflection of the same struggle they share with the humans. Everyone, from the cats in the alley to the people in the apartments, is simply trying to survive. The humans recognize the animals as fellow strugglers, even if they do not always treat them with kindness. The animals are a metaphor for the way in which human sympathy functions: The humans recognize the animals as similarly suffering, but they become just another part of the cycles of violence and poverty that continue to affect everyone’s lives. The varied ways in which animals are treated shows that they are part of the struggle to survive.

Mike focuses on the cats as the primary antagonists in this struggle for survival. Like the humans, the cats live and breed in the tenement buildings. They are found everywhere, both alive and dead. Cats teach their kittens how to survive in the tenement buildings, passing on their survival techniques to the next generation before dying in the gutter. They are tortured by some humans and occasionally taken in and cared for by others. They make terrible noises, they urinate everywhere, and their dead bodies litter the alleys in the winter. The cats seem to be caught in a constant war with the humans, competing for resources. They are a part of the struggle and a metaphor for the ways in which the entire world becomes embroiled in a bitter fight for survival alongside the humans.

Horses are slightly different. They are beasts of burden, providing economic worth to their owners. They drag carts and carry loads, allowing their owners to make money. However, even this usefulness does not prevent them from being abused: Horses are beaten and shot in the street when they are too injured to work. Like the humans, the horses are exploited in the name of making money. To that extent, they are metaphors for the most exploitative elements of the capitalist society.