The Plot Against America

One morning shortly after Alvin returned, he fell while at the sink. After crawling across the kitchen floor to his bedroom, he had seen Sandy’s portfolio under the bed. Inside he finds the three portraits of Lindbergh from before, plus several new ones that Evelyn convinced him to do after Lindbergh was elected. 

Alvin begins spending less time at home and more in an alley, playing poker and shooting craps: “What he appeared to have lost in combat, along with his leg, was every decent habit inculcated in him while living as my parents’ ward” (157). Alvin also seems to have lost all interest in politics. 

Herman follows the war and politics obsessively and is alarmed by Germany’s success against Russia. If Russia is conquered and forced to serve in the Third Reich, millions of Russian Jews would be captured and killed. It torments Herman that Alvin no longer seems to care. 

Philip finds Alvin shooting craps with Shushy Margulis, a hoodlum who works as a runner for a bookie. Shushy’s mother is the seamstress who fixed Alvin’s pants. Philip remembers that Alvin taught him to shoot craps, but now he is angry with him. He thinks of what his family has sacrificed “to prevent him from turning himself into a replica of Shushy” (162).