Jerry Levov Character Analysis in American Pastoral

Jerry Levov is the Swede’s younger brother. He’s a former classmate of Nathan Zuckerman. In the novel’s present in 1995, Jerry is a well-regarded cardiac surgeon in Florida and is on his fifth marriage. Growing up under the shadow of the Swede—the Levovs’ and their whole neighborhood’s golden child—has made Jerry bitter and resentful of the Swede, and he’s made it a point to live life on his own terms as a result, refusing to grovel for Lou Levov’s approval. His refusal to grovel for his father’s approval has created conflict within the Levov family. When Jerry and Nathan reunite at their 45th high school reunion, Jerry not only informs Nathan that the Swede has recently died, but he also goes off on a tangent about Merry Levov—whom Nathan didn’t know existed—and all the havoc her violent crime wreaked on the Swede’s life. In Jerry’s mind, Merry’s crime revealed the phoniness and unsustainability at the heart of the Swede’s seemingly perfect life.

Jerry Levov Quotes in American Pastoral

The American Pastoral quotes below are all either spoken by Jerry Levov or refer to Jerry Levov. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Heroes, Legends, and Myth-Making Theme Icon

“My father,” Jerry said, “was one impossible bastard. Overbearing. Omnipresent. I don’t know how people worked for him. When they moved to Central Avenue, the first thing he had the movers move was his desk, and the first place he put it was not in the glass-enclosed office but dead center in the middle of the factory floor, so he could keep his eye on everybody. […] The owner of the glove factory, but he would always sweep his own floors, especially around the cutters, where they cut the leather, because he wanted to see from the size of the scraps who was losing money for him.”

Related Characters: Jerry Levov (speaker), Seymour “The Swede” Levov, Nathan Zuckerman, Lou Levov

Related Symbols: Gloves

Page Number and Citation: 66-67

Explanation and Analysis:

“[…] Quaint Americana. Seymour was into quaint Americana. But the kid wasn’t. He took the kid out of real time and she put him right back in. My brother thought he could take his family out of human confusion and into Old Rimrock, and she put them right back in. Somehow she plants a bomb back behind the post office window, and when it goes off it takes out the general store too. And takes out the guy, this doctor, who’s just stopping by the collection box to drop off his mail. Good-bye, Americana; hello, real time.”

Related Characters: Jerry Levov (speaker), Seymour “The Swede” Levov, Merry Levov, Nathan Zuckerman

Related Symbols: Old Rimrock

Page Number and Citation: 68-69

Explanation and Analysis:

The Swede had got up off the ground and he’d done it—a second marriage, a second shot at a unified life controlled by good sense and the classic restraints, once again convention shaping everything, large and small, and serving as barrier against the improbabilities—a second shot at being the traditional devoted husband and father, pledging allegiance all over again to the standard rules and regulations that are the heart of family order. […] And yet not even the Swede, […] could shed the girl the way Jerry the ripper had told him to, could go all the way and shed completely the frantic possessiveness, the paternal assertiveness, the obsessive love for the lost daughter, shed every trace of that girl and that past and shake off forever the hysteria of “my child.” If only he could have just let her fade away. But not even the Swede was that great.

Related Characters: Nathan Zuckerman (speaker), Seymour “The Swede” Levov, Dawn Dwyer, Merry Levov, Jerry Levov

Page Number and Citation: 81

Explanation and Analysis:

The monotonous chant of the indoctrinated, ideologically armored from head to foot—the monotonous, spellbound chant of those whose turbulence can be caged only within the suffocating straitjacket of the most supercoherent of dreams. What was missing from her unstuttered words was not the sanctity of life—missing was the sound of life.

Related Characters: Nathan Zuckerman (speaker), Seymour “The Swede” Levov, Merry Levov, Jerry Levov

Page Number and Citation: 245

Explanation and Analysis:

“I’m not the renegade,” the Swede says. “I’m not the renegade—you are.”

“No, you’re not the renegade. You’re the one who does everything right.”

“I don’t follow this. You say that like an insult.” Angrily he says, “What the hell is wrong with doing things right?”

“Nothing. Nothing. Except that’s what your daughter has been blasting away at all her life. You don’t reveal yourself to people, Seymour. You keep yourself a secret. Nobody knows what you are. You certainly never let her know who you are. That’s what she’s been blasting away at—that façade. All your fucking norms. Take a good look at what she did to your norms.”

Related Characters: Seymour “The Swede” Levov (speaker), Jerry Levov (speaker), Merry Levov, Lou Levov

Page Number and Citation: 275

Explanation and Analysis:

Jerry Levov Character Timeline in American Pastoral

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

Nathan was classmates with Jerry Levov, the Swede’s younger brother, and would often go over to the Levov family’s single-family... (full context)

...what “shocks” the Swede might have been referring to his letter, Nathan suddenly asks, “Is Jerry gay?” Nathan recalls how in school, Jerry made a repulsive coat from 175 hamster pelts... (full context)

...It’s only after dinner, strudel and coffee, and more crass banter that Nathan realizes that Jerry Levov is among the crowd. (full context)

Nathan is shocked when Jerry approaches him from across the room. Jerry is shocked to see Nathan there, too. “I... (full context)

Family, Responsibility, and Duty Theme Icon

Jerry asks about Nathan’s life, and Nathan confirms that he lives alone in New England and... (full context)

Nathan changes the subject, noting that he saw the Swede a couple months ago. Jerry is surprised—the Swede hadn’t mentioned it. Then he informs Nathan, much to Nathan’s shock, that... (full context)

Jerry continues, describing his father, Lou, as “[o]verbearing.” He recalls how Lou moved his desk into... (full context)

Nathan, confused, asks what Jerry is talking about—Merry? A bomb? Jerry explains that the Swede’s daughter, Meredith “Merry” Levov, was... (full context)

Jerry characterizes Merry’s act as an act against the Swede himself: his success, his “own good... (full context)

In that moment, Jerry recalls, he told the Swede that if Merry truly is dead, then it’s the best... (full context)

In the present, Jerry tells Nathan that the Swede’s “fatal attraction” was to “responsibility.” His whole life, he did... (full context)

...post-Jewish, together they’re going to go out there to Old Rimrock and raise little post-toasties,” Jerry jokes wryly. Jerry explains that “Miss Dwyer” was never satisfied with anything. The Swede set... (full context)

...and to all the other places the story took place. He will want to send Jerry his manuscript, but he’ll think better of it, fearing that Jerry will accuse Nathan of... (full context)

Just then, a grey-haired woman approaches Jerry and Nathan, interrupting Jerry’s monologue. The woman asks Nathan to guess who she “was,” then... (full context)

The Swede needs to talk to someone, so he calls Jerry. It’s half past five. Jerry is at work, but he says he can talk—his patients... (full context)

Jerry continues. For their entire life, the Swede has focused on “decorum,” on keeping conflict at... (full context)

The Swede, feeling upset and betrayed, wonders why now is the time Jerry has chosen to let out what he really thinks of his older brother—to air his... (full context)

Jerry continues. The Swede “wanted Miss America,” and now he’s got her—it’s his daughter. He wanted... (full context)

At his desk at Newark Maid, the Swede is weeping uncontrollably now. He can’t believe Jerry has waited his entire life to say these things to him. But Jerry’s not done... (full context)

...troubled by a letter she has kept hidden in her purse, written from Lou to Jerry’s second wife, Susan, from whom Jerry has recently separated. Sylvia secretly took the letter before... (full context)

Alone, Sylvia confides in the Swede that she doesn’t know what to do. Lou resents Jerry’s creating a second broken home. She knows Lou and Jerry will get into another fight,... (full context)

...Bucky’s support in front of Orcutt. Bucky calls the Swede “Big Swede,” a name only Jerry has called him since high school. All his other new neighbors call him Seymour. (full context)

...strategic about “subduing his own personality” to maintain peace with his father. The Swede’s brother Jerry, meanwhile, “just told their father to fuck off.” Sylvia calmly endures Lou’s tirades. When Lou... (full context)

As the others chat, the Swede imagines the possible ramifications of telling Sheila, and Jerry on the phone earlier, about Merry’s three other murders. He becomes certain that Sheila will... (full context)

But then the Swede realizes that the police probably already know, because Jerry has likely already called them. Jerry has turned on his own brother and turned him... (full context)