NP - Roth's Women

[Paul Mackin]

On Jun 1, 2006, at 1:15 PM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Ghetta Life <ghetta_outta at hotmail.com>
>> Sent: Jun 1, 2006 12:42 PM
>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Subject: NP - Roth's Women
>>
>
>>
>> Philip Roth hates women*
>> (*Is that true? And does it matter?)
>>
>
> Yes and yes.  We can assume that most Great Male Writers (the dead  
> ones, anyway) have sex/race/class issues.  Although an anti-semite,  
> Dostoevsky, for example, and his books are filled with nasty snipes  
> at Jews, the plots don't revolve around haterd of Jews.  Roth has a  
> seething hatred for women which pervades his books (all right, I'm  
> being a little dishonest here -- I haven't read that many).  In "I  
> Married a Communist," the female characters are vile human beings  
> who serve as foils to the morally ambiguous male protagonists,  
> making them appear sympathetic by comparison.  If anyone has an  
> example of a sympathetic portrayal of a woman in Roth's work, I  
> stand corrected.
>
> Laura
>

One comes to mind. The Mrs. Roth character in "The Plot Against  
America." She is exemplary throughout the book (no trace of Mrs.  
Pornoy) but there  is one passage in particular (fairly near the end)  
that truly sums up her nobility of character. I'd quote it if I could  
find my copy of the book but, anyway, in this passage,  she is trying  
to comfort Seldon, a boy about the age of her young son Philip. The  
conversation takes place over the telephone. Seldon is far from home  
and in very dire straits. His own mother is missing and he is alone  
and terrified. Seldon is a difficult kid. Philip hates him as the  
loser everyone considers him to be. Mrs. Roth is the only one Seldon  
can think of to call and doing so is the right move. Mrs. Roth  
masterfully talks Seldon down from his  terror. Tells him to look in  
the cupboard for something to eat. Put the bread in the toaster (when  
Seldon complains it is stale.) That sort of thing, all the time  
keeping herself calm and focussed on the immediate problem. Don't  
know if it's "soul" and some will probably think it's  too  
stereotypically in a woman's role. For Roth it seems pretty impressive.