Chapter 29 - Class Politics

Summary

To understand the conflicts in many of Roth’s novels, it is important to situate his narratives within the context of class conflict, in particular. Class identity – particularly, Jewish middle-class identity – is an influential factor in the development of Roth’s protagonists. As Ruth Wisse points out in her article “Philip Roth Then and Now,” “Roth’s fictional interpretation of American Jews as a regnant bourgeoisie disturbed as much as it amused,” as it addressed an anxiety about materialism and upper class assimilation, particularly in works like Goodbye, Columbus. Moreover, the striving of a character like the Swede in American Pastoral and the identity of Faunia Farley in The Human Stain can be further understood when considered in light of American class structure the assumptions and promises proffered by American liberalism.