A Contract with God is a graphic novel by Will Eisner.  In the story the main character Frimme Hersh becomes a respected leader in the Jewish community in New York.  He attributes his success and power to a contract between himself and God that was written by him on a small stone while fleeing war in Russia.  Frimme was a doer of good deeds who devoted his whole life to God, but when his daughter died suddenly, he went insane because he felt that the contract had been violated and he had been betrayed.  Frimme takes his anger out on the Jewish community and uses his power to take advantage of others for his own personal gain.  The purpose of A Contract with God is to show how power can negatively change or corrupt a person and ultimately lead to their demise.

Eisner demonstrates this point to readers by revealing Frimme's humble beginning.  Before Frimme was the leader of the Jewish community in New York, he lived in a small village in Russia called Piske during war.  Despite the war and his village being destroyed, Frimme managed to go around helping others, performing kind acts such as building shelters for some of the villagers, providing lumber and fire to keep them warm during the winter and even fighting off some enemy soldiers.  On page 109 there are pictures of Frimme walking miles through a disastrous blizzard holding lumber to give to an elderly villager to help him stay warm through the harsh conditions of winter.  These pictures truly capture Frimme's generosity and determination to help others.  At the beginning of the book, Eisner shows us that Frimme is a kind and compassionate person who is willing to make sacrifices for the good of others. This is not at all the case when the book concludes.   

Eisner then supports his point by showing us how Frimme's personality has changed after he gains power.  The first example of Frimme's corruption is when he uses the synagogue's bonds that were entrusted to him to purchase a tenement building for personal profit.  Before he gained power, Frimme helped the weak and under privileged villagers.  When he uses his power to steal money from the synagogue it is apparent that he has changed and has become evil and selfish.  

Another example of Frimme's corruption is when he alters the conditions of the tenement building to negatively affect the Jewish people who live there.  Frimme placed a financial strain on the tenants living in the building by raising rent, cutting back on the heat and forcing the tenants to make their own repairs.  By doing this, it again shows how he has become corrupt.  When Frimme is introduced to the reader at the beginning of the book, he did charitable work such as providing shelter and lumber for warmth to people in need. After losing his daughter, the reader sympathizes with him but his lack of empathy for the people living in the tenements is proof that Frimme is steadily making the transformation from good to evil.

Eisner gives us one last crucial point that supports the notion that Frimme has become corrupt and lacks morals. Frimme uses the money he earned from the tenement building to bribe the Jewish elders into constructing a new contract between God and him.  When Frimme's daughter died he blamed it on God for violating their contract.  By Frimme using the money he stole to bribe the Jewish elders clearly proves he has changed from a kind and humble person into an evil tyrant.

The new contract not only symbolizes Frimme's downward spiral, but it also represents how consumed he has become with being in control and how he believes he is superior to God.  In Frimme's eyes, it is God that violates their contract and because of this infraction, Frimme believes he has authority over God.  There is a picture of Frimme shouting at God after his daughter dies "NO! NOT TO ME YOU CAN'T DO THIS  WE HAVE A CONTRACT" (Eisner, 117).  He shouts his opposition at God which shows that he truly believes that he can tell God what to do, when realistically no one can.  In this image there is a black shroud that surrounds him as he screams.  The color black symbolizes evil, darkness and power but is also symbolic of Frimme's imminent death.  Frimme's hatred for God is what leads to his self destruction. 

Eisner wants his readers to learn from this story that power can get to our heads and destroy us.  At the end of the story Frimme is shouting at God while holding his new contract.  Mid sentence and without warning, he has a heart attack and dies.  Using his power under false pretenses lead to his collapse.  There is a picture of Frimme yelling out to God "THIS TIME, YOU WILL NOT VIOLATE OUR CONTRACT! THIS TIME, I HAVE THREE WITNESSES" (Eisner, 127).  On the same page there are three more illustrations but these images are small rectangles which show Frimme going through each phase of his heart attack and on the bottom of the page, there's another illustration that shows him dead.  The three images represent each one of his dishonarable deeds.  Frimme's death also symbolizes that anybody who believes they are superior to God will be punished, and in Frimme's case, the punishment was death.

In conclusion, Frimme had become so power hungry that he did many terrible things. He started as a good man but when faced with a tragic event in his life, he chose to live his life without integrity or honor which became a path to self destruction.  He evolved into a narcissistic miser and led himself to his own downfall. This is what Eisner wanted his audience to learn from reading A Contract with God. Wally Lamb once said "Power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed." (Wally Lamb, I Know This Much Is True).  When Frimme gained power he used it to hurt the Jewish people but what he didn't realize was the person he hurt the most, was himself.

