Angela Davis Character Analysis in American Pastoral

Angela Davis is a historic figure known for her far-left political activism. A longtime member of the Community Party USA, she was involved in the campaign effort against the Vietnam War. Davis gained notoriety after guns she owned were used in an armed takeover of a California court room, resulting in four deaths. She was charged with three capital felonies and imprisoned for over a year before she was acquitted in 1972. In one of the novel’s surreal sequences, the Swede watches Angela Davis on TV and imagines that she can help him get in touch with Merry, who is by then a wanted fugitive.

Angela Davis Character Timeline in American Pastoral

The timeline below shows where the character Angela Davis appears in American Pastoral. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Five years after Swede’s last encounter with Rita Cohen, a young Black philosophy professor named Angela Davis —a Communist, anti-war professor at UCLA—is tried for kidnapping, murder, and conspiracy. She is accused... (full context)

...capitalism and the U.S. government. Now, he thinks he might have seen something written by Angela Davis there, too, but he can’t know for sure—the FBI confiscated everything when they searched her... (full context)

Now, as though by magic, Angela Davis begins to appear before the Swede in his kitchen. He takes it as a sign.... (full context)

The Swede tells Angela Davis about how Vicky, the Black forelady with two college-graduate sons, was the only one to... (full context)

...in the Guard, but the Swede is secretly grateful (this last part, he doesn’t tell Angela Davis ). The Swede realizes then that Vicky cares as much about the factory as he... (full context)

In the present, continuing his imagined address to Angela Davis , the Swede tells her he attends meetings across the city despite the danger. He... (full context)