The Plot Against America

by

Philip Roth

The Plot Against America: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Philip tells the story of how Alvin came to “have it in” for Sandy. One morning, before his stump had healed, Alvin was home alone, walking around the house on his hated crutches. For a moment, he forgot about the crutches—and about his amputation entirely—and tried to walk normally. He fell over, and, in great pain and with no one home alone to help him up, dragged himself to the bedroom. There, as he prepared to haul himself into bed, he spotted Sandy’s portfolio beneath the bed—flipping through it, he found the drawings of Lindbergh.
Alvin is enraged by his discovery of Sandy’s drawings of Lindbergh—and, it stands to reason, Sandy’s lingering admiration of the man. Alvin hates Lindbergh and feels betrayed by Sandy, who no doubt admires the aviator-turned-president for the wrong reasons.
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Alvin realizes that Sandy—and many other Jews in Newark—don’t just tolerate but are beginning to actively support Lindbergh, given that none of the fearful things Jews predicted when he ascended to office have come to pass. This makes Alvin angry and withdrawn. Many local Jews attribute Lindbergh’s even treatment of Jewish people to the influence of Rabbi Bengelsdorf—the man who is about to become an uncle by marriage to Sandy and Philip
Alvin is frustrated that just because anti-Semitic legislation hasn’t passed and anti-Semitic violence isn’t noticeably on the rise, those around him think everything is fine. Alvin doesn’t want to forget the truth of the times he’s living in—or what he’s sacrificed in hopes of changing them.
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Alvin is rarely home anymore—Philip misses Alvin and realizes that he had begun to use Alvin as a kind of stand-in for the aloof Sandy, who is now constantly off on speaking engagements with Aunt Evelyn. Now that Alvin is recovered, he has taken up dangerous habits which perturb Philip—but Philip can also recognize that Alvin is just trying to get out of the house. Alvin himself is disturbed by Herman’s increasing obsession with reading grim war reports aloud each night after dinner. Herman interprets Alvin’s avoidance of these sessions as his nephew’s indifference.
This passage shows how the Roths begin to divide and break down even further as unspoken resentments and attachments fester and change. Alvin is perturbed by Herman’s behavior, while Philip is, in turn, perturbed by Alvin’s absence from the house in favor of hanging with a gang of youths. The Roths, on edge due to the strife in the world, find their relationships with one another strained and altered.
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One March afternoon, Philip wanders to the abandoned street near the school playground where Alvin often shoots craps with his friends. Alvin is there gambling with six other boys—among them is Alvin’s friend Shushy Margulis, a 30-year-old runner for a local bookie who works out of an office near a Catholic orphanage which stands on a large patch of land owned by the local diocese and populated by several horses. Shushy’s uncle is the “Pinball King” of all illegal slots in Philadelphia.
Alvin is hanging with a rough crowd—yet Philip, who admires and looks up to Alvin, finds himself drawn intensely to Alvin even in the face of his cousin’s upsetting new habits and mysterious new lifestyle.
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Months ago, Alvin taught Philip how to shoot craps one night after everyone else in the house had gone to sleep. Though Philip wanted to learn the tricks of the trade then, as he comes upon Alvin now with his crooked friends, Philip is flooded with anger on behalf of his parents and his brother—he hates that they must all endure so much for Alvin to throw his life away with his little gang. Still, when Alvin asks Philip to blow on his dice for him, Philip obliges him. After his roll, Alvin wins the pot, and after pulling himself up slowly—his prosthesis, Philip can tell, is ailing him—he gives two $10 bills to Philip.
Even though Philip admires Alvin and hangs on his every word, his allegiance is still to his parents—and he feels that Alvin is spitting in the face of their generosity and good faith by wasting his time. For Alvin, shooting craps doesn’t even seem to be about the money, evidenced by how he gives his winnings away to Philip—he just wants the companionship and the distraction.
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Philip walks home alone, leaving Alvin with his friends. He stops to pet the horses, wishing he could ride them far away. Philip bursts out in anger, screaming “Nazi fucking bastard Lindbergh” at the horses before turning and running away, heading for home as fast as he can.
Philip’s rage boils over in this short scene as he directs his anger, confusion, and uncertainty at an empty field. Just as Alvin uses craps as an outlet and Herman uses the news, Philip must find a reservoir for his anger, too.
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As Philip rounds the corner onto his street, a man in a suit sidles up beside him and addresses him by name. The man tells Philip that he works for the FBI, and he even pulls out a badge. Philip insists that he can’t answer any questions—he’s on his way home. Philip is afraid of the agent finding the money Alvin has given him. The FBI agent assures Philip that he’s on Philip’s side—he just wants to ask him some questions about how Alvin is doing. He asks if Philip has come from the playground where Alvin and Shushy are shooting craps and if he’ll tell the agent what the boys were talking about, specifically asking if they mentioned the president or about running away to Canada. Philip, anxious and tongue tied, says the boys weren’t talking about anything of the sort.
In this passage, another surreal figure of Americana—the shadowy FBI agent—creeps into Philip’s life. The agent is clearly interested in Alvin’s activities and ideals—and whether he and his gang of crooks are cooking up an anti-government plot. This passage shows just how distrustful the government is now of its Jewish citizens—far-off fears have become stark reality.
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The agent continues pressing Philip, asking if the boys mentioned Hitler or called anyone “fascist.” Philip becomes afraid that the agent overheard him swearing at the horses. As the agent continues questioning Philip about Aunt Evelyn, Philip gives short, simple answers—the agent tells Philip that he knows Philip is too clever to reveal too much. He urge Philip to “go home and eat [his] matzohs.” Philip runs as fast as he can toward home.
The FBI agent’s relentless questioning of Philip about several members of his family—and his anti-Semitic stereotyping about Philip eating his matzohs (Jewish dumplings)—suggests that Philip is not safe any longer even in his own neighborhood walking the streets he’s called home since birth.
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As Philip arrives at the house, he sees three police cars and an ambulance parked out front. Philip has never seen all the neighborhood kids gathered as they are now on the street, huddled together and looking frightened. As Philip approaches them, he learns that Mr. Wishnow is dead—he has hung himself in his closet, and Seldon was the one who found the body. The kids report that the body has not yet been brought out from the house—they’re waiting to see it.
The afternoon’s surreal events continue to take turn after turn for the worse when Philip arrives home to find the chaos of Mr. Wishnow’s death has subsumed the neighborhood. Philip is disoriented and frightened as he is confronted with image after image of the surreal and unimaginable. The chapter’s title, “Never Before,” is fitting: it is full of things that would have never seemed possible before life under Lindbergh.
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Philip is shocked when, moments later, Bess emerges from the Wishnows’—Philip fears for a moment that it is his own father who has committed suicide. As the coroners wheel a body out of the house, Philip runs toward it, crying. Bess grabs him and comforts him, insisting that Mr. Wishnow died of complications from his cancer. She assures him that his father will be home soon and that there is nothing to be afraid of.
Philip is so disoriented and frightened that he believes the worst has happened. With everything all around him so unstable and unprecedented, it makes sense that Philip’s fears spiral out of control easily.
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There is, however, plenty to be afraid of. Philip learns that the FBI agent who questioned him has also stopped by his mother’s work to question her and his father’s office to question him, and even boarded Sandy’s bus home from Aunt Evelyn’s office to question him—all because of Alvin’s association with Shushy. Bess feels sad for Alvin, who has become lazy and bitter because of his injury, but Herman insists that if Alvin continues running with a bad crowd, he’ll have to move out.
The FBI agent’s questioning of each individual member of the Roth family sets them all collectively on edge. While the agent claims to be questioning them over their connections to Shushy, the Roths are living in frightening and unpredictable times—they know that there could be many other reasons for their collective and individual suspicion.
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After dinner, Bess and Herman take food to Mrs. Wishnow and Seldon. Philip tells Sandy the rumor he heard about Mr. Wishnow having committed suicide. Sandy is skeptical and tells Philip he’s wrong. Philip admits to himself that he doesn’t know up from down or bad from good anymore. Lately, everything lately feels like a dream. Philip feels he is going to faint, though he never has before. Philip feels that “never before” is “the great refrain of 1942.” Philip vomits into the sink, then takes to bed with a high fever for over a week. 
The “great refrain” of 1942 is “never before”—and the phrase makes clear the thematic underpinning of many of this chapter’s disconnected events. This is a time of rapid, terrifying change—anything could happen at any moment. At such a young age, Philip is unprepared to handle the emotional instability, and so he suffers a small breakdown.
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The following Sunday, Philip wakes up alone in his room. He can hear Alvin and Uncle Monty talking in the kitchen—Monty is again attacking Alvin, calling him a bum and a good-for-nothing. Philip listens as Alvin wearily accepts the job at the produce market and agrees to stop hanging around with Shushy and gambling, then bursts into tears and apologizes for his terrible behavior.
While Philip has been sick in bed, it seems as if things have changed for the better. It appears that Alvin at last wants to take control of his life and that his family’s concern has finally gotten through to him.
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A week into Alvin’s job at the market, the FBI agent arrives at the grocery with several other agents to ask around about Alvin, insinuating to everyone who works there that Alvin is plotting to assassinate Lindbergh. Alvin is fired on the spot. Herman calls Monty to ask how Monty could have capitulated to the FBI’s ludicrous charges—but Monty states that because of Longy Zwillman, a Newark gangster who runs the rackets on truckers and merchants like Monty, Monty had no choice but to fire Alvin and keep the FBI from snooping around a business that’s in cahoots with Longy. Within 24 hours of losing his job, Alvin clears out and moves to Philadelphia to work for Shushy’s uncle.
The episode which takes place in this passage completely shatters Alvin’s faith in the straight-and-narrow path. If he could be accused of a plot against America simply for expressing discontent with Lindbergh and heading to Canada to fight for what’s right, he reasons that there’s no reason to toe the line—he might as well surrender to a life of crime.
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In the spring of 1942, President Lindbergh and Mrs. Lindbergh hold a state dinner at the white house in honor of the Nazis’ Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop—the negotiator who was at Hitler’s side during the drafting of the Iceland Understanding. The liberal press decries the White House’s decision, and even Roosevelt makes his first nationwide address since leaving office to urge the administration to rescind their invitation. Vice President Wheeler—a former Democrat turned founding member of the America First movement—mocks Roosevelt’s “irresponsible” entry into the issue.
As Lindbergh’s administration continues making shows of good faith to the Nazis, divisions throughout the country deepen and widen. Many believe the White House’s tolerance of Nazis is unacceptable—while others loyal to Lindbergh malign any of his detractors.
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The weekend after the White House’s announcement, the German American Bund holds a rally at Madison Square Garden—over 25,000 people turn out in support of Lindbergh. The Bund is a fascist fellowship disguised as an anti-Communist organization rather than a pro-Nazi one. Though their anti-Semitic propaganda including banners calling for the smashing of “Jewish communists” and buttons decrying the “Jewish war” have been band from the rally, the energy of the gathering is no less frightening than the group’s former rallies have been.
This passage shows how the White House’s legitimization of the Third Reich and its extension of courtesies to the Nazis allows for anti-Semitic organizations to flourish and thrive in the open, believing they have been given the green light by their own government to spew messages of hate.
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Quotes
Soon after the Bund rally, the Democrats hold a Madison Square Garden rally of their own. FDR himself speaks out against both Lindbergh and Hitler decrying the former’s “shameless courting” of the latter. In response, Lindbergh goes on a flying tour of America, giving speeches across the country in which he boasts that not a single American has had to go to war because of his policymaking. Lindbergh never once mentions von Ribbentrop, the Nazis, or Hitler.
Even as many Americans wake up to Lindbergh’s feckless policies, Lindbergh himself seeks to defend himself to his supporters—the very same antiwar, America First voters who value American exemption from the war above all other ethics and ideas.
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Shepsie Tirschwell, one of Herman’s childhood friends, is a projectionist at the Newsreel Theater—Newark’s only all-news movie house. Shepsie and his coworkers daily splice together new reels to keep their patrons up to date on worldwide happenings—Herman goes about once a week to see a show and often brings Sandy and Philip along, as Shepsie lets the boys in for free. Philip, now nine, loves these outings to the theater—even now, as an adult, the broadcasts of the Bund rally, FDR’s own Madison Square Garden rally, and Lindbergh’s plane tour stand out in his mind. Sandy, however, doesn’t enjoy going—he only accompanies his father when he’s made to do so.
While many neighbors and old friends like Herman and Shepsie continue to bond over their shared anxiety about the direction that not just America, but the entire world, is taking, others like Sandy choose to keep their heads in the sand because it’s easier to do. Philip finds himself mesmerized by the news—his terror, it seems, has given way to sheer disbelief.
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Philip, influenced by something Alvin said before leaving home, has come to see Sandy, Aunt Evelyn, and the “great” Rabbi Bengelsdorf as opportunists. Philip believes that Sandy, having realized his unusual potential to be someone of importance, is greatly enjoying extolling the virtues of Just Folks and the OAA.
Philip has learned the vocabulary to describe his frustration with Sandy, Evelyn, and Bengelsdorf from Alvin—but the dissatisfaction and disappointment are all his own. Philip doesn’t believe in selling out one’s identity or beliefs for fame, fortune, or favor.
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Quotes
In March, Rabbi Bengelsdorf and Aunt Evelyn receive invitations to the White House’s dinner for von Ribbentrop. Bess and Herman, having already tried and failed to convince Evelyn to keep her distance from the Lindbergh administration, don’t know what to do to keep her from going. They write Evelyn off as crazy, but when she calls to tell them that she wants for Sandy to accompany her as an emissary of Just Folks, Herman flies off the handle and tells her to leave their family alone. He forbids Sandy from going to the dinner—even as Sandy protests that it is a “great opportunity.”
This passage shows that just as Evelyn and Bengelsdorf have been dazzled—some, like Alvin, would say bought—by the Lindbergh administration, Sandy, too, longs to abandon his identity and enjoy the praise and the spotlight that the OAA has given him. Sandy is only interested in his own advancement—not in solidarity with his people, his community, or his family.
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Later that night, Evelyn shows up at the house demanding to be let in. She tries to explain what an honor it is for Sandy to be invited to such an event, but Herman insists that as long as a Nazi is president, he doesn’t have any interest in it. Herman and Evelyn quarrel terribly, and eventually, Herman opens the back door to the stairwell and orders Evelyn to leave his house and never come back. Bess begs Herman not to react so intensely—but she, too, turns to Evelyn and urges her to go home. Bess walks Evelyn out the door as Herman slams it shut on both of them.
This fight is yet one more example of the profound moral and ideological rifts that have erupted within the Roth family. Herman cannot bear Evelyn and Sandy’s opportunism or their rejection of their pasts, their culture, their family, and their community.
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When Bess does not return, Herman, Sandy, and Philip—none of whom have uttered a word to one another for over an hour—go out looking for her. They go down to the Wishnows’ and ask if they’ve seen Bess, but Seldon and Mrs. Wishnow say they haven’t. Philip’s aversion to Seldon is worse than ever—he avoids him at school and in the building, and he’s unhappy to see him now. Philip experiences a moment of deep fear in which he imagines that his mother has run away forever, leaving Herman to marry Mrs. Wishnow and make Seldon a part of Philip’s life forever. Philip wishes he could run away with Alvin.
Though Philip hasn’t abandoned his family emotionally or ideologically, he’s now witnessed three people who have—and at even the imagination of the slightest change or inconvenience, Philip’s instinct is now to flee.
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Hours later, Bess calls the house—she has brought Evelyn home and put her to bed. She reports that she has spoken with Bengelsdorf on the phone—he has implied that he will never forget how Herman has treated Evelyn after all he has done for Sandy. Herman goes out in the car to pick Bess up. When he brings her home, she comes into Philip and Sandy’s room and sits on the edge of Philip’s bed. She can tell he is exhausted. She calmly tells Sandy that they need to talk things out. She explains that Aunt Evelyn has made a mistake getting involved with Bengelsdorf and the OAA—Bess doesn’t want Sandy, like Evelyn, to become “overexcited” and lose all perspective. Bess kisses Philip goodnight and leaves the room.
Bess tries to be calm and even-handed as she confronts Sandy about the gravity of his choices—and Aunt Evelyn and Bengelsdorf’s choices, too, for that matter. However, this passage implies that Sandy will not respond so generously to Bess and Herman’s ruling—being in the OAA has allowed him to feel special and admired for the first time in his life, and he does not want that feeling to go away.
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The next morning, Philip and Sandy are surprised when they go into the kitchen for breakfast and find that Herman hasn’t left for work yet. He’s stayed home a little late, he says, to explain thoroughly to Sandy why he is not going to the White House—and why he is no longer to participate, in any way, in any programs sponsored by the OAA. Herman insists that one day, Sandy will understand the depths of evil to which every member of the Nazi Party has sunk. Sandy, however, replies only that he’ll never forgive Herman.
Sandy cannot grasp the gravity of what his involvement with the OAA signifies no matter how many times his parents attempt to get through to him. Sandy’s resistance allows Roth to illustrate the allures of morally corrupt people like Bengelsdorf and Evelyn and ideologically corrupt institutions like the OAA—their aims are nefarious, but their veneers are attractive and enveloping.
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Bess warns Sandy that what Herman is saying is true, and that it’s time for their family to try returning to normalcy. Sandy counters by asking when Bess is planning on moving them all to Canada based on her deluded belief that they’re being persecuted. Herman orders Sandy to shut his mouth. Sandy tells Herman that he is a “dictator worse than Hitler.” Herman, stunned, turns away—but Bess reaches out and strikes Sandy across the face. It is the first time either Sandy or Philip has ever been hit. Sandy turns to his mother and tells her that he is going to the White House with Aunt Evelyn whether “you ghetto Jews like it or not.” Bess hits Sandy again, this time harder, and Sandy bursts into tears. Philip grabs his backpack and runs out of the house.
The violence and anger that seize the Roths in this scene is painful to behold—too painful, in fact, for Philip to bear. Sandy is furious with his parents and uses the worst language he can imagine to try and insult and hurt them while simultaneously differentiating himself from the people he perceives as paranoid and ghettoized, or cut off from the rest of society.
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A couple of weeks later, Herman goes to the Newsreel to watch the footage of the von Ribbentrop dinner. When he arrives, he learns that Shepsie and his family are planning on fleeing to a Jewish community in Winnipeg—his constant exposure to the footage from around the world has convinced him that fascism will soon come to America. When Herman comes home that night, he doesn’t tell his family about Shepsie’s decision—but he lambasts the smug, happy way Evelyn and Bengelsdorf looked in the footage from the White House’s dinner. He questions how such horrible things could be happening in America. Sandy declares that nothing is happening in America and leaves the table.
Even in the face of the real-life consequences of America’s conciliatory relationships with fascists, Sandy refuses to believe that anything tangible or real is happening to change the country. Sandy has been blinded, as many have, to the more insidious threats of anti-Semitism and isolationism, and his mind cannot be changed. For many Jews in the Roths’ neighborhood, however, the unbelievable emotional truths they’ve feared are quickly becoming reality.
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Philip is unsettled by Sandy’s behavior. He begins to worry that Sandy will soon run away from home and perhaps flee to Kentucky to live with the Mawhinneys. After dinner, rather than following Sandy to their room, Philip stays in the kitchen to do his homework at the table. He overhears his father quietly telling his mother about the Tirschwells,  stressing that the anti-Semitic leaders who run the government want Jewish families to flee. Herman believes their family should stay put—he still has faith in America and American justice. Bess is upset. Herman tells her that if the congressional elections in November tip the courts and the House to the right, they can consider leaving. 
In spite of everything—even the Tirschwells’ imminent departure—Herman still stubbornly believes that he should not have to relinquish his right to an American life. Herman is clinging to his belief that things can be redeemed—but for Bess, waiting for the worst to happen feels endless and increasingly unsustainable.
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The next day, after school, Philip goes to the Newsreel Theater instead of heading home, desperate to see the footage of Evelyn at the White House. He is appalled that someone in his own family could behave the way Evelyn is behaving. At the box office, the attendant refuses Philip a ticket until he claims he lives at the nearby Catholic orphanage. He has even carefully written out a permission slip from a nun. He pays for his ticket with one of Alvin’s $10 bills, receiving $9.50 in change, and hurries to take his seat in the theater. As he watches the “horrors” on the news, he becomes frightened and disoriented. When Evelyn and Bengelsdorf at last appear on screen during the coverage of the dinner, Philip feels that they are less real and more unbelievable than anything else he’s seen.
As Philip watches the show at the Newsreel, he finds himself somehow more disoriented by the images of his Aunt Evelyn and uncle-by-marriage Rabbi Bengelsdorf attending a dinner honoring a Nazi than by the disturbing and harrowing images of Nazi violence across Europe. Of course, the two things are connected. In seeing the evil deeds the Nazis perpetrate against Jews in such stark relief against the submission with which Jewish people like Evelyn and Bengelsdorf treat the very villains who detest them, Philip encounters a profound and disturbing mental disconnect.
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When the show is over, an attendant pulls Philip from his seat and brings him up to the projection booth where Shepsie is waiting, holding the fake note in his hand. Shepsie tells Philip that he’s already called Herman, who is on his way to pick him up. Philip, close to crying, begs to go home on his own—all he wanted, he says, was to see footage of his aunt. When Philip begins crying, Shepsie angrily says that Philip doesn’t have a legitimate reason to cry since horrible things are happening all over the world. Soon, though, Shepsie softens and hands Philip a handkerchief.
Shepsie’s perceived cruelty toward Philip is actually the man’s attempt to protect the young boy from the horrors of what’s really happening in the world. Though Philip occasionally attends news shows with his father, to see such images alone is painful—and Shepsie is angry with himself for not having caught Philip on the way in and protected him.
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Philip asks why Shepsie is going to Canada. Shepsie replies simply that he has secured a new job there. Philip knows Shepsie is lying to spare him, and this frightens him more. Philip continues crying until his father arrives 20 minutes later. Herman takes Philip by the elbow, leads him out of the theater, and smacks him in the street in full view of the bustling downtown crowds. Philip cries uncontrollably—he notices confused Gentiles walking by enjoying a “carefree spring [afternoon] in Lindbergh’s peacetime America.”
Philip is frightened by Shepsie’s refusal to admit the truth they both already know: things are not safe for Jews in America any longer. Philip cries as his father reprimands him, but not because of the reprimand alone: Philip is at last completely overwhelmed by the disconnect between his existence and the unburdened, “carefree” existences of non-Jewish people.
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