To what extent is Swede to blame for his own downfall?

(American Pastoral by Philip Roth)

Americans are more commonly recognised as self-righteous, confident and have a strong sense of superiority by the non-Americans; But Philip Roth has shown that side of a true American which is often not brought into lime light, a side which is a result of long insecure introspection, which depicts quite brilliantly what it means to be a true American.

This story of a true American, Seymour ‘Swede’ Levov, is a story of his rise and fall. He was always envied for his generous life. He had everything; he had a heroic personality and charisma to match it. He took over his father’s glove factory, served in marines, married the Miss New Jersey 1949, Dawn Dawyer, and refused to relocate his factory in the post-riot of 1960’s Newark. This American hero was a star athlete in High School and was called ‘Swede’ because of his flowing blond hairs, a unique trait to have in the dark haired countryside of New Jersey.

‘Swede’ and his trophy-wife lived in Old Rimrock, New Jersey. It was an old countryside comprises of colonial homes and farms far from Newark. This books builds the character of the true American Hero and his perfect life, a true pastoral, but then because of socio-political scene, and the characters own shortfalls, this story turns in to a tragedy.

Downfall of a man is not because of one single act he has done, but it is more like a chain reaction. The downfall, the tragedy that ‘Swede’ faced was the result of not just one but a whole lot of different reasons. It is a mix of bad choices, wrong decisions, impulses, social and political scenarios, his upbringing and his own parenthood. Of course the biggest blow he received was because of the disastrous turn out of his daughter, Merry, but she is more of a result of what he has done all his life that has shaped in this disfigured character of her daughter. Her daughter’s stained life is more of a revelation of his failure than anything else. In this paper , we are going to discuss the character of Seymour ‘Swede’ Levov, and are going to analyze how deeply he has to be blamed for his own downfall, was he himself responsible for it or not.

It is believed that home is a fixed place for ethical identification and ‘American Pastoral’ challenges it. When Swede left his home in Newark and relocate his family to the suburbs of Rimrock, which was a haven for wealthy NewJersians, who likes to live in the fine country side old stone houses, he believed that he has deserted all things connected to his Jewish background and has completely transformed in to an American. He even warns his daughters that she should not go to any unsafe place like New York and should stay here in Rimrock , he told Merry; “There are drugs, there are violent people, [New York] is a dangerous city” (pg:111) and again that; : “You can be active in the antiwar movement as you like here in Morristown and here in Old Rimrock” and “Bring the war home, Isn’t that the slogan? So do it” (pg: 112).

He thought that here in Rimrock they are safe in the post war scenario. He believed that it is the safest place in America but his world tumbled down when his daughter joined a political terrorist movement and bombed a local post office in which an elderly Doctor got killed, and later his wife confessed that she never liked living in Rimrock. It is viewed that the relationship with home for Swede and Merry is totally different, to Swede home is a place far from all the hustle bustle of life where one can forget about his past but to Merry home is not only in one place. It is also noticed that to American Jews, like Swede and Merry, home is not in one place but it can be in many places and unpredictable. ( Shih, pg 188)

Nathan Zukerman, often taken as Roth’s alter ego, is the narrator of the story. He was a friend of Swede’s brother and met him accidently years after their school, there he learned that Swede has recently passed away. He started to analyze Swede story, which was once a heroic character ,whom he himself has always looked up to, fell from grace. He bit by bit unravels his story and tried to understand his downfall.

Zukerman stated in the novel that Merry soon afterwards the bombing disappeared, which left Swede totally traumatized, he was often caught wondering what went wrong in Merry’s development, what has caused her derailment. He believes it was his own appropriate ‘kiss’ on the mouth of that child, the anxieties of Dawn, her mother, her own adolescent, her anger towards the Vietnam War, which were all revealed in her psychiatrist’s theories. Swede often ponders about his conversations with his disturbed young girl, who had too much anger against the system, he feels himself responsible for not taking care of the situation, for not handling her dear daughter well enough. (Richey, Debora, pg. 2)

The incident on which Swede ponders the most is ‘the kiss’, he believes that it was the parental mis-step that he shouldn’t have taken. When Merry was eleven years old, she was feeling all grown up, and in her pretentious manner she asks “"Daddy, kiss me the way you k-k-kiss umumumother"(pg: 89), he without thinking much kissed her stammering mouth in a way she wanted, but shouldn’t have. Although that kiss lasted only a few seconds but that kiss changed Merry overnight and for good. After that she stopped following normal speech patterns, and became very angry, she even started hating her privileged life and perfect family setup. Merry found an absurd way of letting her emotions out, she found her freedom of speech in a political form by protesting against the Vietnam War which she believes was because of the wrong doing of her father’s generation.( Eagle, pg: 20)

Apart from Swede’s mishandling his daughter and not being able to support Merry when she most needed it, the point to analyze here is his own characters short fall. What has happened to change him to such a level that he was unable to chose right from wrong? In my point of view it has a political colour to it. His personality disfigured over the course of many years because of the ever changing socio-political scene and he himself was unable to identify it.

Swede’s character right from the start was a character of a righteous person, he was an star athlete and all his action were right and pure, he believed that his and America’s all action are right and pure, later he went to join the marines and serves his nation in World War II. Then the righteousness of American action in war is questioned and it all turned in to hell in the new Vietnam War. This war was being fought on streets, and it was fought on someone else nation and against their values. Suddenly it all felt so wrong. America’s national confusion was shown in the deforming character of Swede. Before he used to believe in good suddenly he started to question his own values. He began to doubt everything and everyone including himself. In this changing atmosphere, Americans changed from rescuers to tyrants. And a heroic character Swede who doesn’t have any inclination towards violence, produces a girl who takes refuge in bombing, protesting and killing fellow Americans.( Conejos, pg:3)

It is also noted that the upbringing that Swede received also takes part in his character formation. Merry had troubles with her father Swede, and his parenthood results in the creation of a disturbed young adult, who later on changed in to terrorist and ended up killing four individual over the course of the years. Swede also had trouble with his father Lou Levov, when he was growing up; he was fortunate enough to come to terms with his anger and learned to deal with his father’s difficult mannerism. Both Swede and Lou provided the best possible facilities for their kids. They obviously loved their kids but their pure intentions accompanied by their oppressive nature, repels their kids to greater heights. Was it all the result of the bad parenting by fathers? Does this all have to do something with the wrong upbringing and parenthood?. The role of a father is elaborated in this novel, as Zukerman described the character of Mr. Lou Levov to the readers, was;

“Mr. Levov was one of those slum reared Jewish fathers, whose rough hewn, under educated perspective goaded a whole generation of striving college educated Jewish sons, a father for whom everything is an unshakeable duty, for whom there is a right way and a wrong way and nothing in between.”(pg: 37)

With a critical angle, Sandra Stanley states, in her review on the book, that there was a sense of shared responsibility across generations in the book, she calls it ‘the rapture in legendary basis of American Dream’. She was also critical that although Roth was clear and crucial in advising Merry’s dissatisfaction for everything, yet he was very conscious that it was Swede who is responsible for the upheaval in her daughter by constantly forcing the American Dream and legends in her. (Stanley, pg: 3 & 6)

This disorder in poor Merry’s behaviour forced her towards the changing political atmosphere, Americans who were once celebrating their victory in World War II, of whom Swede Levov was a part of, were now found protesting on the streets and setting themselves ablaze against the Vietnam War. Merry found her refuge in these protest, she found her lost voice and herself by protesting, and later she was being used by these political terrorists groups to bomb the local authorities and found there revenge. Jerry Levov, brother of Swede found the connection between the two; her disorientation from the family, her father and the political asylum she took. He said to Swede; "you made the angriest kid in America. Ever since she was a kid, every word she spoke was a bomb" (pg; 279). (Eagle, pg:23)

Thus it is concluded that Swede is responsible for his downfall entirely. This is what the author tries to tell us. He wanted to educate how we should not forget where we come from and how we should not run after a dream which was never ours to begin with. The trouble with Swede is that he lived by the old system all his life yet he was crushed by that very system because he broke many rules, first; although being a Jew he married an Irish Catholic, then he didn’t raise his daughter in Jewish faith, He aspired for the American Dream, and lastly he left his community to live among the American gentry. Roth himself states in the book ‘The old system that made order doesn’t work anymore’ This book shows the generation gap that emerged in the sixties because of the radicalism, how one generation wanted to belong to America and one generation refusing to. Roth portrays the character of Swede in such a way that it shows the rise and fall of a hero who fails to achieve his desired glory for himself and for his next generation, all because of some mis-calculations, missteps in parenthood, and mis-interpreting the changing political scene.

The author Philip Roth, tried to give a lesson in this book by the character of Swede, he showed how a person’s life who does everything right could turn out so wrong. He strongly grasped the clear picture of American life; he narrates the story of Swede and showed us what will happen if our dreams can’t come true, how we are unable to vent our anger against injustice. As Roth said, referring to the changing face of Americans at that age, in the book; "the counterpastoral [...] the indigenous American berserk"(pg: 86).

Work Cited

Philips Roth ‘American Pastoral’ 1997, New York, Vintage, Print

Richey, Debora J., Kratzert, Mona Y.,’American Pasterol’, Master plots, Fourth

Edition, Retrieved from EBSCOHOST database

Ching Ling Shih, No Place to Fix Identity: Philip Roth’s AMERICAN PASTORAL, The

Explicator, Vol. 70, No. 3, 187–190, 2012, Retrieved from EBSCOHOST database

Christopher Eagle, Angry Because She Stutters": Stuttering, Violence, and tine Politics of

Voice in American Pastoral and Sorry March 1^st, 2012, Retrieved from EBSCOHOST

Database

Antonio Conejos, ‘Truth, Justice and The American Way’, 29^th July, 2011, Retrieved From EBSCOHOST database.

Sandra Stanley ‘A critical Review on American Pastoral’ Nov, 2011, Retrieved from

EBSCOHOST database.