The Human Stain

1. The Human Stain Philip Roth

2. Conference • Philip Roth’s writing technique and the genre of the book. • Roth’s characters. • What is the Human Stain? • The power of a secret. • The social implications of the ‘Human Stain.’

3. Writing Technique • Last week we talked about the similarities between Philip Roth and Henry James... • Philip Roth covers a conversation from every angle. (pg 80-81). • Changing narrators (pg 155). • Conscious stream (pg 154). • The genre of the book: Fiction/Non-Fiction.

4. The Plot Coleman Silk has a secret. But it’s not the secret of his affair, at seventy-one with a woman half his age. And it’s not the secret of his alleged racism, which provoked the college which hunt that cost him his job. Coleman’s secret is deeper, and lies at the very core of who he is, and he has kept it hidden from everyone for fifty years. Set in 1998, with the backdrop of the impeachment of a president, The Human Stain shows us an America where conflicting moralities and ideological divisions result in public denunciations and houndings, and where innocence is not always a good enough excuse. (Back cover, The Human Stain). The plot is much more complex than this. The book delves into the injustice people face when their “label is the motive” (p. 290) We look at the secrets people guard and the identity they forge and protect.

5. The Characters • All of Roth’s Characters possess a secret or a past that is, (if only briefly) explored in the novel. • No main character has a spotless past or present, they possess hidden desires, secrets and pasts. • Their own personal “human stain” is always shown. • Every main character has a hang-up.

6. The Characters • Nathan Zuckerman Nathan Zuckerman is the ‘author’ (p. 359) of “The Human Stain” and consequently Philip Roth’s ‘alter ego.’ Zuckerman acts as Coleman’s psychiatrist/friend in the book. (pg 41) Every character in the book has background. Nathan Zuckerman is a recluse, he recently had an operation that made him incontinent. We don’t just use Zuckerman as a means to make a connection between Coleman and the completion of this book, we learn things about Zuckerman that are completely unnecessary to the plot of the book, but it allows us to see his ‘human stain.” “We leave a stain, we leave a trail, we leave our imprint” (p.242). Zuckerman may not have a dark secret like Coleman but he has a mark that he uses in the book to define/ mark himself. It is through the mark that he is ‘only human’.

7. Delphine Roux Delphine is a young, attractive, intelligent French woman whom Coleman Silk hired while Dean at Athena. Delphine’s entire existence has been for the recognition of others. She doesn't seem to be in control of her actions, she sent an email and a letter without meaning to. Secrets: • Her ideal man meets Coleman description. • She desperately wants to find someone but she has very high opinion of herself, and a high standard for men. She only wants to date white men. • She desperately seeks approval from her academic mother in France and her colleagues. • She wrote a letter threatening Coleman. • She staged a break-in in her office when she accidentally sent an email.

8. Everyone knows you’re sexually exploiting an abused, illiterate woman half your age. (pg 38)

9. Re: Personal ad Youthful, petite, womanly, attractive, academically successful SWF French-born scholar, Parisian background, Yale Ph.D., Mass.- based, seeks…… Mature man with backbone. Unattached. Independent. Witty. Lively. Defiant. Forthright. Well educated. Satirical spirit. Charm. Knowledge and love of great books. Well spoken and straight speaking. Trimly built. Five eight or nine. Mediterranean complexion. Green eyes preferred. Age unimportant. But must be intellectual. Greying hair acceptable, even desirable…..(pg. 273)

10. Faunia Farley Faunia Farley works as a janitor in the College and as a milkmaid at the dairy farm at which she lives. She was sexually abused by her stepfather and ran away from home. She married an ex-Vietnam officer with PTSD (Les Farley) who abused her in her marriage, and stalked her after the divorce. Her two children by Les died in a house fire while she was in a truck out the front of the house with a man. She claims to be illiterate. She wish’s she were a crow . Secrets: • Faunia can read, she used her illiteracy as a source of power. (p. 297) • She in engaged to Prince the crow. (247) “A woman that doesn't know how to be a woman and a crow that doesn’t know how to be a crow.” • She tried to commit suicide twice (p245)

11. Prince:The Crow • The crow was hand reared. • Prince has a ‘caw’ that wasn’t like the other crows having not grown up around them, therefore Prince is forever doomed to be caged. • The human stain was the stain that was left on Prince that didn’t allow him to go back out into his world. • Possess ‘human behaviour’ (pg.239).

12. Les Farley • Les Farley is Faunia’s ex-husband. • Suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder • Stalked Faunia’s lovers including Coleman. • Ran Faunia and Coleman off the road. (p.259)

13. Coleman Silk Coleman is the main character in the book. We learn about his childhood in East Orange with his rhetoric father, brother Walt, sister Ernestine and his loving mother. Coleman first impersonated a Jew when he was boxing in Doc Chizner’s class. He then filled out his army papers as a white man and never looked back. He locked his family out of his life and married Iris, his wife, the only woman he had a relationship with where he didn’t tell her his true identity. Coleman becomes Dean of Athena, a man with considerable power and whose leadership has transformed the college for the better. When Coleman is wrongfully accused of racism he fights the accusations until his wife dies. Coleman then retires which appears as an admission of his guilt. Faunia’s relationship with Coleman is case of opposites attract. The largest secret Coleman had was his true identity, however, the identity he created for himself suited him better, it’s why he created it.

14. Clinton Vs. Coleman

15. The Power of a Secret The secrets in the human stain are not only made to hide the past. The lies themselves are there to empower the character. Coleman lied about his race, he didn’t do it because he disliked being black and he did not do it because he preferred to be seen as Jewish. (although this was a bonus in the service). Coleman used his lie to make himself free. As his mother said to him “you're as white as snow but you think like a slave” (p.139). Coleman felt empowered harbouring a secret. All he ever wanted, from earliest childhood on, was to be free: not black, not even white- just on his own and free. He meant to insult no one by his choice, nor was he trying to imitate anyone whom he took to be superior…” (p. 120) “Self discovery, that was the punch to the labonz” (p. 108) “The gift to be secretive.” (p.135)

16. The Power of a Secret Faunia lied about the fact she couldn’t read. She did this not to handicap herself but to highlight the barbaric self befitting the world. (p. 297). “Not rejecting learning as a stifling form of propriety but trumpeting learning by a knowledge that is stronger and prior.” (p. 297). Delphine Roux thinks highly of herself because of intellect but is never at ease. She thinks that people are continuously scrutinising her and feels like she can never fit in in America. Her secret disadvantages her more than it helps her. She lied about the email because of what she thought everyone would think. Delphine’s secrets have the power to create the illusion she is complete when she feels inadequate.

17. Social Implications We all have histories that mark us, we carry around personal baggage and we have secrets. This could be described as the human condition. Philip Roth wrote his book in a way that made it appear to be non fiction. It not only covered the lives of the people of Athena, but was linked to situations in the real world: The impeachment of President Clinton. The issues the book raises of: Racism, unfounded accusations, which hunts, mob justice, PTSD, adultery, murder and cultural identity are all present in our own society. The book examines these issues through varying perspectives. I think this book promotes understanding and self/social analysis.