The Story Archive

The Human Stain

Philip Roth · 2000 CE · Novel · Modern / American · Contemporary

In 1998 the classics professor Coleman Silk is forced from his Massachusetts college after a remark about two absent students is taken as a racial slur. His neighbour Nathan Zuckerman, drawn into his life, uncovers what Silk has hidden for fifty years. It completes Roth's American trilogy begun with American Pastoral and I Married a Communist.

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Lineage

Attributes

Genre
PsychologicalPolitical
Theme
Race & IdentityIdentity & SelfAppearance vs RealityPower & CorruptionBetrayalMemory & Time
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Tragic HeroScapegoatEveryman
Plot type
Tragic ReversalMystery
Form
Frame NarrativeNonlinear / Fractured
Symbol / motif
The MaskThe Fall / Descent
Conflict
vs Societyvs Self
Mode / tone
RealistTragicIronic
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

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