American Pastoral by Philip Roth

The attack on the farmhouse that resulted in the rape of his daughter and his near-immolation penetrate every part of his life, even in his work as he subconsciously writes the character of Byron’s daughter Allegra into his opera. A character who he had not intended to incorporate, the voice of Allegra cries ‘Why have you left me? Come and fetch me!’ , eerily paralleling the voice of nightmare-Lucy, and thus he is unable to ignore his grief any longer. In American Pastoral the reader begins to criticise the strength of the Swede, his fatal flaw being that he is too caring. An example of this is when Merry asks Swede to kiss her the way he kisses her mother and after an initial refusal, her father kisses her passionately on the mouth. This transgression is highlighted as a crucial factor debated in the Swede’s mind as to whether it is the cause of the subsequent grief suffered, ‘he wondered if the strange parental misstep was not collapse responsibility for which he paid for the rest of his life.’ This becomes the centre of his mental hell, in which he agonises over how he could have ‘wounded’ Merry. The aftermath of the kiss leads the Swede to become more wary of his emotions and affections toward Merry. This reclusive behaviour adds to the fragmented mind-set of the Swede.

Both novels place great significance on their setting and the historical grief. Although American Pastoral was written in 1997, the setting of a 1960’s America torn up by the domestic turmoil that resulted from the ongoing war in Vietnam. Significantly, although never directly referenced in the novel, the American people’s mourning of President Kennedy following his assassination is mirrored by the role of the protagonist, Lou ‘the Swede’ Levov. Roth’s biogr...

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...ief, it is only David Lurie who reaches the final stage of grief in Kübler-Ross’ model: acceptance. The Swede, in contrast, is noted as being ‘plagued with shame and uncertainty and pain for the rest of his life’ . David’s recovery from having ‘‘his pleasure in living has been snuffed out’ and feeling ‘his interest in the world draining from him drop by drop’ , while although does not vanish immediately, is granted salvation by the giving up of his former wrongs, mirroring Coetzee’s view of post-Apartheid South Africa. He loses his oppressive identities of seducer, absentee father and self-centredness, all of which are signified by his giving up of his adopted dog to be put down to save it from any further suffering. With it, he gives up his own suffering and is able to exit the grief process without drifting into melancholia like the Swede.

Big. Ruddy. Happy.’