Trinity

Not Here March 23, 2009

Philip Roth’s novel The Plot Against America is a very effective example of paradoxical literature, as it functions on several levels to counteract the effects of consensus regarding American tradition and history, specifically that surrounding World War II.  On the surface, the novel’s plot is an interesting and engaging exploration of an alternative version of the events leading up to America’s entry into the war in Europe and the Pacific and the effects of those events on the American people, represented by the Roth family.  The situations that the novel proposes are a rather heavy-handed and somewhat off-target criticism of contemporary policies, an appeal based on a parallel comparison to the historical perception of the atrocities committed under Hitler’s Nazi regime in Germany.  This sets up an interesting tension within the metanarrative of paradoxical discourse, as the novel’s effectiveness as an alternative to conventional thinking depends entirely on the application of a consensus perspective on fascism in a unique way:  by placing it in the American political system, which is understood to prevent such totalitarian usurpation of liberty from occurring.  Within the context of these fundamental assumptions, the novel functions very effectively as a form of unconventional discourse.

In addition to the paradoxical nature of its plot, another way in which the novel functions unconventionally is its style of disruptive historical narrative.  Periodically throughout the novel, events force the reader to stop and look more carefully at the text, disrupting the flow of reading that most novels develop.  One example of this is Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s speech to the anti-Nazi rally, in which he refers to his inaugural speech and its famous line, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  This actual historical event is referenced in a way that first catches the readers attention with its obvious historicity and then suddenly twists the line into a distinctly unconventional finish, with FDR denouncing President Lindbergh and his Nazi sympathies.  The shocking subversion of the reader’s historical understanding and knowledge throws into a stark light the contrast between the unnatural events of the novel and the actual historical events.  One of the most disruptive moments in the personal layer of the narrative is Philip’s dream of his stamp collection being transformed with Nazi symbolism.  The novel’s juxtaposition of events on the world scale and their effects on an intimately personal level is highlighted at this point, with the disruptive image of America’s defining national landmarks being marred by Nazi graffiti.

Although the effectiveness of Roth’s novel is undermined by the absurdity of the heavy-handed comparison of Nazi fascism to the events transpiring in American politics at the time he wrote the novel, namely the Patriot Act, it is certainly exemplary of several effective techniques for composing unconventional discourse.  His disruptive style of writing, where historical facts and conventional perceptions are brutally subverted by counterintuitive and jarring paradoxical figures, plays a key role in his creation of an alternative form of expression.  Also, Roth’s interweaving of scales, shifting between the macrocosm and the microcosm, as well as his technique of shifting back and forth in time within the narrative, provide the reader with a comprehensive picture of world events and their drastic effects on the personal level while preserving the confusion of the characters and transmitting it to the reader, forcing the reader to identify on that level with the events of the novel.  These distinctly poetic techniques, employed within prose fiction and placed within the framework of historicity, are the key elements of Roth’s unconventional discourse and can be adapted for use in many other works of paradoxical literature.