Hyman Kaplan

Hyman Kaplan, or H* Y* M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N as he habitually signs himself, is a fictional character in a series of humorous stories by Leo Rosten, under the pseudonym "Leonard Q. Ross", which were originally published in "The New Yorker" in the 1930s and later collected into two books, "The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N" and "The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N". In 1976, Rosten rewrote the two books as one, with many changes, as "O K*A*P*L*A*N! My K*A*P*L*A*N!"; opinions differ about whether the revisions are improvements. Rosten noted that he was frequently asked if Mr Kaplan was his alter ego, and that he often felt it was the other way around.

In the late 1980's, the books were made into a musical play, "The Adventures of Hyman Kaplan."

Mr Kaplan is an immigrant and a pupil at a New York night class in English. He is extremely diligent and enthusiastic, but completely incapable of learning: the teacher, Mr Parkhill, is eventually driven to conclude that, although Mr Kaplan admits that English has rules - "good rules, sensible rules" - he is quite unable to admit that the rules apply to "him."

Mr Kaplan is extroverted and highly assertive, particularly when his moral sense has been outraged by some perceived injustice in class or in American history, and he frequently gets into noisy disagreements with other members of the class.

Mr Kaplan usually signs his name in colored crayon with stars between the letters. In the last story of all, "Mr K*A*P*L*A*N the Eumoirous", he signs a note to his teacher simply "Hyman Kaplan", but addresses it to "Mr P*A*R*K*H*I*L*L". Mr Parkhill wonders if he will ever again be so honored.

Mr Kaplan was born in Kiev, has lived in America for fifteen years, and claims (on Columbus Day) that his birthday is 12 October. From his pronunciation of English (the characters' various idioms are a major source of the stories' humor), it appears that Mr Kaplan's native language is Yiddish.

The teacher

Mr Parkhill is the point-of-view character in the stories, a staid, kind-hearted, mild-mannered teacher with a tendency to think of his pupils in terms of classical literature. Mr Parkhill is rigorously fair-minded, often to his own detriment when faced with Mr Kaplan's very individual brand of logic. He is also a lonely and rather tragic character: when the class present him with a new briefcase with the initials "M.P." on it as a birthday present, he is at first puzzled since his first name does not begin with M; then realizes that the letters stand for "Mr Parkhill" and that he cannot remember the last time anyone addressed him by his first name.

Other members of the class

*Mr Norman Bloom (in the first book) and Mr Reuben Plonsky (in the second book; renamed Olansky in the combined version), both of whom are better than Mr Kaplan at grasping the rules of English, but who somehow end up on the losing side of the arguments that erupt between them.
*Miss Rose Mitnick, a quiet, shy young woman whose grasp of English is almost perfect, but who generally withers before the force of Mr Kaplan's rhetorical passion.
*Mrs Sadie Moskowitz, characterized by Mr Parkhill as "the Niobe of the beginners' grade", a large, lugubrious middle-aged lady who is baffled by the English language and spends much of the time asleep, waking only to punctuate a particularly intimidating fact with a despairing exclamation of "Oy!"
*Miss Olga Tarnova, an emotional young Russian woman.
*Mr Sam Pinsky, a loyal ally of Mr Kaplan.
*Miss Carmen Caravello, an Italian woman prone to loud disagreement with Mr Kaplan.