47 pages • 1 hour read
Philip RothThe Plot Against America
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Philip Roth
Philip Roth—who is also the Jewish author of the book—narrates the events of The Plot Against America as an adult. He is a child during the events of the book, living with his family in Newark. When the novel opens, he idolizes his brother Sandy, collects stamps, has a good relationship with his parents, and has no problems other than the typical dramas of youth. When his cousin, Alvin, returns—now missing a leg—Philip’s life becomes filled with uneasiness. This is compounded by Sandy’s inclusion in the Just Folks programs, and the tension this creates with his family. Philip’s actions do not always make sense, even to himself. His mother will call him a strange child after finding him in Seldon’s clothes.
As with many children, Philip’s lack of perspective often leads him to imagine worst-case scenarios for trivial situations. He reacts irrationally, sometimes planning to run away instead of dealing with his relatively minor problems. By the end of the novel, he has a more mature worldview, despite still being a child. He has learned that his father is capable of violence, his mother is a “fellow creature” (339), and has begun to think about concepts such as having a homeland, and the costs of overzealous patriotism. As the novel concludes, he has more of an identity than at the beginning, but still sees himself as Sandy’s prosthesis.
Sanford Roth/Sandy
Sandy is Philip’s older brother. His inclusion in the Just Folks program gives Sandy an air of authority and discipline that is lacking in most children. Roth’s portrayal of Sandy is analogous to the Hitler Youth program. Sandy is courted as a youth, and then given increasing amounts of responsibility, which also works to flatter him. His time with the Mawhinney’s on their farm gives him what he believes to be a broader perspective on the world.
Herman Roth
Herman is Philip’s father. He is the novel’s staunchest American patriot, which is one of the reasons that his horror and pain are so acute during the escalating anti-Semitism of Lindbergh’s administration. His denouncements of Lindbergh are part of Alvin’s motivations for enlisting with the Canadian army. At each new setback, Herman restates his convictions that fascism cannot overtake America, and that the system will right itself. Eventually, he admits that he was wrong and begins making plans to move to Canada, but Lindbergh will disappear and FDR will be elected before that becomes necessary. Late in the novel, he gets into a fight with Alvin, after Alvin spits on him and calls him names. This is the moment when Philip realizes that everyone—even his mild-mannered father—is capable of violence.
Alvin
Alvin is Philip’s cousin. He comes to live with the Roths as a child, after his parents die. During the early stages of the book, he is an idealist. He finds Herman’s insistence that the government will solve the Nazism problem to be naive, which leads him to enlist in the Canadian military and join the fight in Europe. While in France, he loses a leg to an exploding grenade. When he returns home to convalesce in the Roth home, he is bitter and miserable. He loses a great deal of weight and hates his artificial leg. Later, Alvin will grow apathetic about the war and the plight of the Jews, and he will begin working for a group of gangsters. His fight with Herman shows that he always blamed him for the loss of the leg, because he says he would not have gone and fought had it not been for Herman’s constant talking about the Jews.
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