The Plot Against America

by

Philip Roth

Herman Roth Character Analysis

Philip and Sandy’s father and Bess’s husband is a loud, emotional firecracker of a man who believes staunchly and steadfastly in the promises of America. Herman is a deeply political person and staunch Democrat who listens to the radio and reads the news almost constantly. After Lindbergh is elected to the presidency—something Herman never believed possible—Herman becomes even more politically outspoken, even as anti-Semitic language and rhetoric seeps into daily life. Herman has instilled in his children a great love for America—a love that he himself refuses to question even as the country becomes hostile toward its Jewish population and as the government seeks to assimilate Jewish people into the “greater fabric” of American society. Confronted with his own inability to turn the tides of history—or to even really control the members of his family—Herman watches angrily yet helplessly as Alvin, Sandy, and Philip rebel in their own separate ways against the paths Herman has worked so hard to open up for them. In many ways, the hotheaded and stubborn Herman is just as willfully ignorant about the true difficulties of Jewish life in America as Sandy and his sister-in-law Evelyn are, though Herman’s inability to accept the deepening anti-Semitism all around him stems from sheer disbelief rather than unawareness. Over the course of the novel, Herman finds himself doing things he never imagined he’d do: borrowing a pistol from a neighbor to protect his family, enduring anti-Semitic remarks during a visit to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, making a plan to escape to Canada, and even driving across the country to the heart of Kentucky to rescue a far-flung neighbor in need. As Herman’s ideas of what comprises Jewish life in America are challenged again and again—for worse far more often than for better—Roth exposes the pain and sadness of a man confronting the hollowness of the American dream.

Herman Roth Quotes in The Plot Against America

The The Plot Against America quotes below are all either spoken by Herman Roth or refer to Herman 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 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:

We had driven right to the very heart of American history, and whether we knew it in so many words, it was American history, delineated in its most inspirational form, that we were counting on to protect us against Lindbergh.

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Herman Roth, Bess Roth, Sanford “Sandy” Roth, Charles Lindbergh
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:

It was from there that we heard him refer to my father as “a loudmouth Jew,” followed a moment later by the elderly lady declaring, “I’d give anything to slap his face.”

Mr. Taylor led us quickly away to a smaller hall just off the main chamber where there was a tablet inscribed with the Gettysburg Address and a mural whose theme was the Emancipation.

“To hear words like that in a place like this,” said my father, his choked voice quivering with indignation. “In a shrine to a man like this!”

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Herman Roth (speaker), Charles Lindbergh, Mr. Taylor
Page Number: 65
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

“An independent destiny for America”—that was the phrase Lindbergh repeated some fifteen times in his State of the Union speech and again at the close of his address on the night of June 22. When I asked my father to explain what the words meant […] he frowned and said, “It means turning our back on our friends. It means making friends with their enemies. You know what it means, son? It means destroying everything that America stands for.”

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Herman Roth (speaker), Charles Lindbergh
Page Number: 84
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:
Chapter 6 Quotes

“And who will I talk to?” she asked. “Who will I have there like the friends I’ve had my whole life?”

“There are women there, too.”

“Gentile women,” she said. […] “Good Christian women,” she said,” who will fall all over themselves to make me feel at home. They have no right to do this!” she proclaimed. […] “this is illegal. You cannot just take Jews because they’re Jews and force them to live where you want them to.”

Related Characters: Herman Roth (speaker), Bess Roth (speaker), Philip Roth, Sanford “Sandy” Roth
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis:

“I am not running away!” he shouted, startling everyone. “This is our country!” “No, my mother said sadly, “not anymore. It’s Lindbergh’s. It’s the goyim’s. It’s their country,” she said, and her breaking voice and the shocking words and the nightmare immediacy of what was mercilessly real forced my father […] to see himself with mortifying clarity: a devoted father of titanic energy no more capable of protecting his family from harm than was Mr. Wishnow hanging dead in the closet.

Related Characters: Herman Roth (speaker), Bess Roth (speaker), Philip Roth, Charles Lindbergh, Mr. Wishnow
Page Number: 226
Explanation and Analysis:

“I lived in Kentucky! Kentucky is one of the forty-eight states! Human beings live there like they do everywhere else! It is not a concentration camp! This guy makes millions selling his shitty hand lotion—and you people believe him!”

“I already told you about the dirty words, and now I’m telling you about this ‘you people’ business. ‘You people’ one more time, son, and I am going to ask you to leave the house.”

Related Characters: Herman Roth (speaker), Sanford “Sandy” Roth (speaker), Philip Roth, Bess Roth, Walter Winchell
Page Number: 230
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:

I wept all the way to school. Our incomparable American childhood was ended. Soon my homeland would be nothing more than my birthplace.

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Herman Roth, Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf
Page Number: 301
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:
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The Plot Against America PDF

Herman Roth Quotes in The Plot Against America

The The Plot Against America quotes below are all either spoken by Herman Roth or refer to Herman 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 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:

We had driven right to the very heart of American history, and whether we knew it in so many words, it was American history, delineated in its most inspirational form, that we were counting on to protect us against Lindbergh.

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Herman Roth, Bess Roth, Sanford “Sandy” Roth, Charles Lindbergh
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:

It was from there that we heard him refer to my father as “a loudmouth Jew,” followed a moment later by the elderly lady declaring, “I’d give anything to slap his face.”

Mr. Taylor led us quickly away to a smaller hall just off the main chamber where there was a tablet inscribed with the Gettysburg Address and a mural whose theme was the Emancipation.

“To hear words like that in a place like this,” said my father, his choked voice quivering with indignation. “In a shrine to a man like this!”

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Herman Roth (speaker), Charles Lindbergh, Mr. Taylor
Page Number: 65
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

“An independent destiny for America”—that was the phrase Lindbergh repeated some fifteen times in his State of the Union speech and again at the close of his address on the night of June 22. When I asked my father to explain what the words meant […] he frowned and said, “It means turning our back on our friends. It means making friends with their enemies. You know what it means, son? It means destroying everything that America stands for.”

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Herman Roth (speaker), Charles Lindbergh
Page Number: 84
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:
Chapter 6 Quotes

“And who will I talk to?” she asked. “Who will I have there like the friends I’ve had my whole life?”

“There are women there, too.”

“Gentile women,” she said. […] “Good Christian women,” she said,” who will fall all over themselves to make me feel at home. They have no right to do this!” she proclaimed. […] “this is illegal. You cannot just take Jews because they’re Jews and force them to live where you want them to.”

Related Characters: Herman Roth (speaker), Bess Roth (speaker), Philip Roth, Sanford “Sandy” Roth
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis:

“I am not running away!” he shouted, startling everyone. “This is our country!” “No, my mother said sadly, “not anymore. It’s Lindbergh’s. It’s the goyim’s. It’s their country,” she said, and her breaking voice and the shocking words and the nightmare immediacy of what was mercilessly real forced my father […] to see himself with mortifying clarity: a devoted father of titanic energy no more capable of protecting his family from harm than was Mr. Wishnow hanging dead in the closet.

Related Characters: Herman Roth (speaker), Bess Roth (speaker), Philip Roth, Charles Lindbergh, Mr. Wishnow
Page Number: 226
Explanation and Analysis:

“I lived in Kentucky! Kentucky is one of the forty-eight states! Human beings live there like they do everywhere else! It is not a concentration camp! This guy makes millions selling his shitty hand lotion—and you people believe him!”

“I already told you about the dirty words, and now I’m telling you about this ‘you people’ business. ‘You people’ one more time, son, and I am going to ask you to leave the house.”

Related Characters: Herman Roth (speaker), Sanford “Sandy” Roth (speaker), Philip Roth, Bess Roth, Walter Winchell
Page Number: 230
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:

I wept all the way to school. Our incomparable American childhood was ended. Soon my homeland would be nothing more than my birthplace.

Related Characters: Philip Roth (speaker), Herman Roth, Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf
Page Number: 301
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: