The Plot Against America

“He’s giving the goyim all over the country his personal rabbi’s permission to vote for Lindy on Election Day. Don’t you see, Uncle Hermann, what they got the great Bengelsdorf to do? He just guaranteed Roosevelt’s defeat!”

Alvin sees that the Nazis have co-opted Bengelsdorf to do some of their propaganda work for them. If a respected rabbi is saying that Lindbergh is not a danger, then the concerns of Jews who fear Lindbergh can be dismissed as irrational, or ignorant. This is another example of how disastrous it can be to have the wrong person—Bengelsdorf, in this case—as the voice or face of a group.

“It turned out, the experts concluded, that twentieth-century Americans, weary of confronting a new crisis every decade, were starving for normalcy, and what Charles A. Lindbergh represented was normalcy raised to heroic proportions.”

Despite the abnormal situation that arises as a result of Lindbergh’s election, he is seen by the voters as a steady candidate who will be the opposite of The Great Depression and the European horrors of World War I. But it is Lindbergh’s status as a hero that convinces people that he will be able to keep the country out of turmoil, even though his heroic acts of aviation—and the tragedy that befell his family—do not paint him as a figure accustomed to normalcy.

“You had to be there to see what it looked like. They live in a dream, and we live in a nightmare.”

Sometime in the future, Philip overhears his father talking about the day of their Lincoln Memorial tour. When the people cheered as Lindbergh’s plane took off, Herman felt cheated of his right to be inspired by the sight as well. The people around him had no idea that the man they cheered was creating a nightmarish existence of uncertainty and fear for American Jews.

“The Jews of America have the greatest opportunity accorded to our people in modern times. The Jews of America can participate fully in the national life of their country.”

While dining with the Roths, Rabbi Bengelsdorf explains his views. He tells a stunned Herman that not only are the Jews not in danger from Lindbergh’s administration, they are the most fortunate Jews in history. And not only are they not being barred or marginalized in terms of shaping the country’s destiny, they are practically being encouraged to be full participants. This will pose a stark contrast to Bengelsdorf’s confusion when he is later arrested after Lindbergh’s disappearance.

“The terror of the unforeseen is what the science of history hides, turning a disaster into an epic.”

Fear of the unknown underscores much of the novel. Histories focus on events, not on the moods of the people involved, or their fears. This fear of the unknown—for instance, what will happen to the Jews if Lindbergh is elected—is reflected in Philip’s fears of Alvin’s stump, his certainty that his father has committed suicide, his sudden desire to run away from home, and other reactions to anxiety. The imagination turns an unpleasant situation into a worst-case scenario.

“Night after night I went to sleep under the exciting spell of the great new aim I’d unearthed for my eight-year-old life: to escape it.”

Philip is excited at the prospect of escaping from his life, which reflects his constant anxiety. There are few indications that his life is any harder or demanding than those of other Jewish children living in Newark. But he is shown to be more prone to anxiety and fear than his peers in the novel. It is tragic that a child is already so unsatisfied with what he perceives as his life that he can scarcely bear to be present for it.

“I began to wonder if my father knew what he was talking about.”

Philip has always believed that his father knows best and has had no reason to doubt what he says. But now he is hearing his uncle Monty, his brother Sandy, and Rabbi Bengelsdorf express ideas that are counter to what his father believes. For the first time, he begins to feel the weight of what might be mounting evidence that his father is wrong. This is a new source of anxiety for Philip, because his father’s word has always been a source of certainty for him.

“At what people get angry at—at how things turn out.”

A Red Cross nurse tells the family that she has never seen anyone as angry as Alvin. Sandy does not understand why he is angry, and asks her to explain. Her answer can be used as an argument that people will always be angry, if their anger is produced by “how things turn out.” This is a sobering statement that foreshadows the violence that anger will later cause in the novel, from the Winchell riots to the dinnertime fistfight between Alvin and Herman.

“What is history? History is everything that happens everywhere. Even here in Newark. Even here on Summit Avenue. Even what happens in his house to an ordinary man—that’ll be history too someday.”

Every person’s experience is a piece of history. But history that is written, or that is passed down orally, has the best chance of surviving. Herman points out that there is no trivial history, because every moment is significant to someone. Each person must bear witness of their own experience by paying attention and being informed, or risk it not becoming part of history’s official record.

“‘I am not impressed by the White House!’ my father cried, hammering on the table to shut her up after she’d said ‘the White House’ for the fifteenth time. ‘I am only impressed by who lives there. And the person who lives there is a Nazi.’”

For Herman, the person in the Oval Office is a symbol of what America stands for. As long as Lindbergh sits in office, in Herman’s view, America becomes a symbol of fascism—or, at the very least, can be argued to be one. The White House has been such a symbol of veneration that it can ascribe positive qualities to whomever is president, whether the president deserves the attributed qualities or not.

“—nor had I understood til then how the shameless vanity of utter fools can so strongly determine the fate of others.”

A tenet of the American Dream is that people can forge their own destinies. The machinations of the Lindbergh administration, coupled with the vain efforts of people like Bengelsdorf, show that the system has changed. The fate of a Jewish American is now decided through the vanity and goals of those in authority, removing them from the American Dream.

“And how long will the American people stand for this treachery perpetrated by their elected president? How long will Americans remain asleep while their cherished Constitution is torn to shreds?”

Walter Winchell appeals to listeners while speaking during his candidacy. He attempts to appeal to their love of America but also to show them that they have some responsibility for what is happening. If the president is treacherous, and the public are asleep, then—as Winchell makes clear—they will ultimately have no one to blame but themselves, if they do not fight.

“How can I listen to you when you tell me about ‘millions of people’? Millions of people are nothing but idiots!”

Sandy cannot understand why Herman uses Winchell’s millions of listeners as proof that he is worth listening to. Sandy’s experience with the Mawhinneys has placed himself temporarily beyond the range of multiple viewpoints. Goebbels’s Big Lie principle also operates on the idea that if enough people are saying something, then it must be true.

“They hated the album because it wasn’t theirs—they hated the album because nothing was theirs.”

After his stamp collection is lost, Philip imagines a gang of orphans destroying his album and then flushing the torn pages down a toilet. Part of him understands that displaced people without privileges are prone to resentment, and resentment can lead to a desire for revenge. When there is no obvious person upon which to take revenge, those who are willing to destroy will select an object or group that can symbolize their own powerlessness. In this way, the stamp collection can be seen a symbol for the unfounded persecution of Jews by non-Jewish Americans.

“And so I understood that Walter Winchell wasn’t, in fact, the candidate of the Jews—he was the candidate of the children of the Jews, something we were being given to clutch at.”

Philip sees his mother crying and overhears her telling Herman that everything will get worse: the riots around Winchell are a sign of impending doom for her. She is resting her hopes on Winchell’s influence, and Philip realizes that her faith in Winchell is rooted in her hope that Winchell will be able to do something for future generations of Jews. She no longer hopes that he will be able to influence the era she lives in.

“Our greatest mission as Americans is to live in harmony and brotherhood as a united people.”

This quote is from Anne Lindbergh, read aloud at the wedding of Aunt Evelyn. Anne’s words will be reinforced by her actions later, as she dismantles Wheeler’s administration after her husband’s disappearance. But her husband echoed the same sentiments many times during his presidency, while supporting policies that are in opposition to his words.

“There were two types of strong men: those like Uncle Monty and Abe Steinheim, remorseless about their making money, and those like my father, ruthlessly obedient to their idea of fair play.”

Philip comes to see his father’s obstinacy as a source of strength, and even pride. Herman Roth is unwilling to compromise on his principles. This does not result in the type of strength possessed by Monty and Abe, but makes him a formidable opponent, nonetheless, as evidenced during his fight with Alvin.

“It’s so heartbreaking, violence, when it’s in a house—like seeing the clothes in a tree after an explosion. You may be prepared to see death but not the clothes in the tree.”

After the fight with Alvin, Philip gains a new perspective on violence. This is the first time he has seen it close up, and in his own home. His home has been a place of order. As he looks at his father’s broken teeth, and the destroyed possessions in the Roth house, Philip sees how quickly a place of peace can become a battleground.

“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! The man is unfit. He shouldn’t be there. He shouldn’t be there, and it’s as simple as that!”

Herman talks about the necessity of supporting the office of president, but that does not extend to supporting someone unfit for the office simply because he gets elected. Part of Herman’s frustration throughout the novel is that what is happening is obviously wrong: America is gaining an escalating tolerance for fascist policies and ideas. And it is done on behalf of someone who looks like a Normal Rockwell advertisement for Americanism.

“Before that night, I’d had no idea my father was so well suited for wreaking havoc or equipped to make that lightning-quick transformation from sanity to lunacy that is indispensable in enacting the unbridled urge to destroy.”

After Herman’s fight with Alvin, Philip sees that anyone—even his formerly peaceful father—is capable of erratic rage and violence. The realization that the change between sanity and lunacy can happen so quickly does little to calm his anxieties or longing for a steady, reliable worldview.

“My mother was a fellow creature. I was shocked by the revelation.”

Until this point in the novel, Philip has only viewed his mother in terms of the role she plays in his life. Now he can see that she has her own feelings, fears, memories, and hopes. This is not a revelation that is unique to Philip—most children will experience it—but it represents a literal progression for him, one step closer to adulthood.

“Remorse, predictably, was the form taken by her distress, the merciless whipping that is self-condemnation, as if in times as bizarre as these there were a right way and a wrong way that would have been clear to somebody else, as if in confronting such predicaments the hand of stupidity is ever far from guiding anyone.”

After refusing to hide Evelyn, Philip’s mother is overcome with guilt. She knows that Evelyn has wronged her and her family, but still regrets not helping to keep her safe. The adult Philip is compassionate towards his mother, observing that there was no reason that she should have expected to know exactly what to do, given that it was a situation she never could have prepared for.

“I was still too much of a fledgling with people to understand that, in the long run, nobody is a picnic and that I was no picnic myself.”

The adult Philip writes with such insight that it is easy to forget that the events of the book were witnessed by his 8-year-old self. The child Philip does not understand why people consider him strange, or why his desires should ever be frustrated. He does not yet understand that he will be as difficult and idiosyncratic as anyone, a realization that will give him an empathy as an adult that children do not possess.