The Plot Against America

by

Philip Roth

Alvin is Philip and Sandy’s 20-year-old cousin. An orphan, Alvin is the son of Herman’s deceased brother. At the start of the novel, Alvin is living on his own, but he’s been Herman and Bess’s ward since he was young. Rebellious, angry, and scandalized by Lindbergh’s isolationist, antiwar politics, Alvin quits his lucrative job as valet to a Jewish construction magnate in Newark and runs away to Canada to join the army and fight for the British against Hitler. Within just months of leaving, Alvin is gravely wounded in combat and sent home—he has lost his left leg below the knee. As Alvin comes home to live in the Roths’ home, he learns to contend with his stump, which is constantly breaking down and erupting in sores due to his prosthetic leg’s imperfect fit. Alvin begins spending his time shooting craps with a neighborhood gang of two-bit crooks, and though the Roths beg Alvin to make something of his life, he shirks their offers of jobs and an education and heads off to Philadelphia to become a gangster. Toward the end of the novel, Alvin returns to make peace—but the rift between him and Herman is so profound that the evening erupts in a horrible physical fight after Herman questions Alvin’s loyalty to his Jewish roots and community. Alvin, who insists he “wrecked his life for the Jews” abroad, cannot handle Herman’s harping, and so he disappears once again. The angry, directionless Alvin is a deeply complex and emotional figure. Torn between allegiance to his family, to his country, and to his people more largely, Alvin struggles again and again to make the right decision. His failures and setbacks represent the trauma, struggle, and impotence that comprised so much of Jewish life in the World War II era. Alvin’s long recuperation from his grievous injuries represents the lifelong and often intergenerational healing process that accompanies trauma. His personal struggle externalizing the collective struggle of American Jews to reconcile the emotional pain of anti-Semitism with the relentless struggle for acceptance on their own terms.

Alvin Roth Quotes in The Plot Against America

The The Plot Against America quotes below are all either spoken by Alvin Roth or refer to Alvin Roth. 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:
Jewish Identity vs. Assimilation Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

“Alvin’s going to go to Canada and join the Canadian army,” he said. “He’s going to fight for the British against Hitler.”

“But nobody can beat Roosevelt,” I said.

“Lindbergh’s going to. America’s going to go fascist.”

Then we just stood there together under the intimidating spell of the three portraits [of Lindbergh.]

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Sanford “Sandy” Roth (speaker), Alvin Roth, Charles Lindbergh, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), Adolf Hitler
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

“All families go through a lot. A family is both peace and war. We’re going through a little war right now.”

Related Characters: Herman Roth (speaker), Alvin Roth
Page Number: 52
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“Alvin can’t bear your president,” my father replied, “that’s why he went to Canada. Not so long ago you couldn’t bear the man either. But now this anti-Semite is your friend. The Depression is over, all you rich Jews tell me, and thanks not to Roosevelt but to Mr. Lindbergh. The stock market is up, profits are up, business is booming—and why? Because we have Lindbergh’s peace instead of Roosevelt’s war.”

Related Characters: Herman Roth (speaker), Alvin Roth (speaker), Uncle Monty (speaker), Philip Roth, Bess Roth, Aunt Evelyn, Charles Lindbergh, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)
Page Number: 124
Explanation and Analysis:

“Is it healed?” I asked him.

“Not yet.”

“How long will it take?”

“Forever,” he replied.

I was stunned. Then this is endless! I thought.

“Extremely frustrating,” Alvin said. “You get on the leg they make for you and the stump breaks down. You get on crutches and it starts to swell up. The stump goes bad whatever you do.”

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Alvin Roth (speaker)
Related Symbols: Alvin’s Prosthesis
Page Number: 136-137
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

“Well, like it or not, Lindbergh is teaching us what it is to be Jews.” Then she added, “We only think we’re Americans.” “Nonsense. No!” my father replied. “They think we only think we’re Americans. It is not up for discussion, Bess. It is not up for negotiation. These people are not understanding that I take this for granted, goddamnit! Others? He dares to call us others? He’s the other. The one who looks most American—and he’s the one who is least American!”

Related Characters: Herman Roth (speaker), Bess Roth (speaker), Philip Roth, Alvin Roth, Charles Lindbergh
Page Number: 255-256
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

A family, my father liked to say, is both peace and war, but this was family war as I could never have imagined it. Spitting into my father’s face the way he’d spit into the face of that dead German soldier!

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Herman Roth, Alvin Roth
Page Number: 297
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

My father was a rescuer and orphans were his specialty. A displacement even greater than having to move to Union or to leave for Kentucky was to lose one’s parents and be orphaned. Witness, he would tell you, what had happened to Alvin. Witness what had happened to his sister-in-law after Grandma had died. No one should be motherless and fatherless. Motherless and fatherless you are vulnerable to manipulation, to influences—you are rootless and you are vulnerable to everything.

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Herman Roth, Alvin Roth, Seldon Wishnow, Mrs. Wishnow
Page Number: 358
Explanation and Analysis:

This was how Seldon came to live with us. After their safe return to Newark from Kentucky, Sandy moved into the sun parlor and Seldon took over where Alvin and Aunt Evelyn had left off—as the person in the twin bed next to mine shattered by the malicious indignities of Lindbergh’s America. There was no stump for me to care for this time. The boy himself was the stump, and until he was taken to live with his mother’s married sister in Brooklyn ten months later, I was the prosthesis.

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Sanford “Sandy” Roth, Alvin Roth, Aunt Evelyn, Charles Lindbergh, Seldon Wishnow, Mrs. Wishnow
Related Symbols: Alvin’s Prosthesis
Page Number: 361-362
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Plot Against America PDF

Alvin Roth Quotes in The Plot Against America

The The Plot Against America quotes below are all either spoken by Alvin Roth or refer to Alvin Roth. 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:
Jewish Identity vs. Assimilation Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

“Alvin’s going to go to Canada and join the Canadian army,” he said. “He’s going to fight for the British against Hitler.”

“But nobody can beat Roosevelt,” I said.

“Lindbergh’s going to. America’s going to go fascist.”

Then we just stood there together under the intimidating spell of the three portraits [of Lindbergh.]

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Sanford “Sandy” Roth (speaker), Alvin Roth, Charles Lindbergh, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), Adolf Hitler
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

“All families go through a lot. A family is both peace and war. We’re going through a little war right now.”

Related Characters: Herman Roth (speaker), Alvin Roth
Page Number: 52
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“Alvin can’t bear your president,” my father replied, “that’s why he went to Canada. Not so long ago you couldn’t bear the man either. But now this anti-Semite is your friend. The Depression is over, all you rich Jews tell me, and thanks not to Roosevelt but to Mr. Lindbergh. The stock market is up, profits are up, business is booming—and why? Because we have Lindbergh’s peace instead of Roosevelt’s war.”

Related Characters: Herman Roth (speaker), Alvin Roth (speaker), Uncle Monty (speaker), Philip Roth, Bess Roth, Aunt Evelyn, Charles Lindbergh, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)
Page Number: 124
Explanation and Analysis:

“Is it healed?” I asked him.

“Not yet.”

“How long will it take?”

“Forever,” he replied.

I was stunned. Then this is endless! I thought.

“Extremely frustrating,” Alvin said. “You get on the leg they make for you and the stump breaks down. You get on crutches and it starts to swell up. The stump goes bad whatever you do.”

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Alvin Roth (speaker)
Related Symbols: Alvin’s Prosthesis
Page Number: 136-137
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

“Well, like it or not, Lindbergh is teaching us what it is to be Jews.” Then she added, “We only think we’re Americans.” “Nonsense. No!” my father replied. “They think we only think we’re Americans. It is not up for discussion, Bess. It is not up for negotiation. These people are not understanding that I take this for granted, goddamnit! Others? He dares to call us others? He’s the other. The one who looks most American—and he’s the one who is least American!”

Related Characters: Herman Roth (speaker), Bess Roth (speaker), Philip Roth, Alvin Roth, Charles Lindbergh
Page Number: 255-256
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

A family, my father liked to say, is both peace and war, but this was family war as I could never have imagined it. Spitting into my father’s face the way he’d spit into the face of that dead German soldier!

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Herman Roth, Alvin Roth
Page Number: 297
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

My father was a rescuer and orphans were his specialty. A displacement even greater than having to move to Union or to leave for Kentucky was to lose one’s parents and be orphaned. Witness, he would tell you, what had happened to Alvin. Witness what had happened to his sister-in-law after Grandma had died. No one should be motherless and fatherless. Motherless and fatherless you are vulnerable to manipulation, to influences—you are rootless and you are vulnerable to everything.

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Herman Roth, Alvin Roth, Seldon Wishnow, Mrs. Wishnow
Page Number: 358
Explanation and Analysis:

This was how Seldon came to live with us. After their safe return to Newark from Kentucky, Sandy moved into the sun parlor and Seldon took over where Alvin and Aunt Evelyn had left off—as the person in the twin bed next to mine shattered by the malicious indignities of Lindbergh’s America. There was no stump for me to care for this time. The boy himself was the stump, and until he was taken to live with his mother’s married sister in Brooklyn ten months later, I was the prosthesis.

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Sanford “Sandy” Roth, Alvin Roth, Aunt Evelyn, Charles Lindbergh, Seldon Wishnow, Mrs. Wishnow
Related Symbols: Alvin’s Prosthesis
Page Number: 361-362
Explanation and Analysis: