In The King of the Fields, Singer composes a vague blend of references to time, melding the cultural traits of hunters, farmers, and city-dwellers into an almost timeless antiquity. His pagan male characters tend to seize what they want whenever they want. The female pagan characters generally serve the impulses or interests of the male.

Nosek, the intellectual, worldly-wise Pole, displays political opportunism, but prefers a relationship with a young man to the exploitation of the available women.

In the sole Jewish character, Singer cannot fully develop the full range of viewpoints he knew in his early life among Hasidic Jews in Poland, but the characteristic impulse to separateness from Gentile society, paralleling an absolute devotion to God and Torah, is evident.

While the fate of the Jewish character is Singer's typical interest, the time and description given to the Gentiles in The King...