Part 1 is called "Paradise Remembered." Now, he takes her through the glove making process, narrating to her all the while. He wonders if Rita is the leader of some gang Merry had been roped into. He's right. She says Merry never wants to see the Swede or Dawn again. This way, he can see what's going on, but has some privacy and relief from the sound of a couple hundred sewing machines. In the first part of the book, we meet the famous author Nathan Zuckerman (author Philip Roth's self proclaimed alter-ego). The Swede thinks, "Merry is alive!"(4.172). According to Rita, Dawn's work is "fake," "upper-class" farming (4.82). It's a sermon. She writes down everything he says and keeps asking questions. While they are gone, a huge explosion destroys their house and two women, one in her late teens and one in her early twenties, come out of the house. The Swede thinks she's "dressed like Dr. King's successor, Ralph Abernathy, in freedom rider overcoat and ugly big shoes" (4.1.). The Swede dominates the story. She never would have bragged. In the article some of the teachers have nice things to say about Merry. Suddenly, he thinks that Rita is just some "criminally insane Jewish kid" (4.109) who heard about Merry in the papers. He knows Merry would have outgrown this revolutionary stuff like she did everything else. © 2020 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. She flashes him her vagina and asks him to look at it. (Now begins the third section where the Swede discusses what it means that "Five years pass" (4.184). To enable Verizon Media and our partners to process your personal data select 'I agree', or select 'Manage settings' for more information and to manage your choices. According to Rita, Dawn hates Merry because she isn't beauty queen-level beautiful. And you thought all that facade was going to come without cost. © 2020 Shmoop University Inc | All Rights Reserved | Privacy | Legal. Inside everything is awful. He followed all the rules, but he is baffled by Merry and much else that troubles him in post-Vietnam America. Yahoo is part of Verizon Media. He starts making soup for them and thinking back to when Merry loved her mother's cows and wanted to be a veterinarian. Then a new store is built, McPherson's Store. The Swede is watching the news with her when it happens. He explains how he himself began as a glover, first by learning to cut leather from Harry, the Master cutter, the same man who's cutting the leather for Rita's gloves. (This is the first a several mini-sections where the Swede discusses what it means that five years pass.). Part 1, Chapter 1. He appears in American Pastoral primarily to recall convincingly the aura that surrounded the Swede as a high school athlete. It's hard for the Swede to believe she's really in college studying finance, and "doing a thesis on the leather industry in Newark, New Jersey.". After the riots, the Swede still stayed in Newark. He thought that if he didn't, Merry would accuse him of hurting his black workers (she hasn't dropped the bomb yet). Read it and see what you think.). A Jew with blond hair, hence “Swede,” he can with no trace of postmodernist irony be called a hero. American Pastoral Summary. On the outside, nothing has changed for the Swede. By Philip Roth. Nothing quite makes sense until he remembers "the self immolation of the Buddhist Monks" (4.178) when Merry was eleven. Part 2 is called "The Fall." The Swede really can't believe Rita, can't imagine how she came to be the way she is, so incredibly thoughtless about the needs of others. He tells this to Angela Davis, hoping to gain her sympathy so she can help him find his daughter. Out there playing at being Wasps, a little Mick girl from the Elizabeth docks and a Jew from Weequahic High. Rita says that Dawn's vanity almost ruined Merry. In many respects, the degradation of an "illusion" to "the indigenous American berserk" cannot be fully articulated with a sense of totality. Colonial old America. She wears a four. He has no proof of her existence; no fingerprint or photographs. Between them, the Kid and the Swede represent an idyllic past in which athletes were cleancut and wholesome, and their teen admirers wore bobby socks with their saddle shoes. Then he thinks that he should have had sex with Rita Cohen. Everything haunts him. Soon, however, Morrison troubles the idea of the romantic American Pastoral that Jacob and Rebekka dream of by connecting … She tells him that "everything he's heard about Communism is a lie" (4.192) and that he needs to go to Cuba to learn the truth. In the last scene in American Pastoral, did Merry really show up at the house and inform her... American Pastoral is a 1997 novel by Philip Roth about a man named Seymour Levov whose cultural identity clashes with his ambition and the reality around him. He tells her she doesn't know what she's talking about. Rita calls him a "capitalist criminal" (4.108). He doesn't expect it any more than she does. Information about your device and internet connection, including your IP address, Browsing and search activity while using Verizon Media websites and apps. Still, from time to time, he'll personally give a student a tour. The Swede asks Rita, if she wants "black or brown, honey" (4.41). The Swede’s father, Lou, and his younger brother, Jerry, dominate every scene in which they appear. When the Swede's Dad, Lou, was running the plant, he just put his desk in the middle of the floor, and he knew everything that was going on. He has her make a fist, and measures it. Another article tacked to the board is titled, "Distance Heals all Wounds," (4.203) and it's by the minister of the First Congregational Church. The Swede's daughter has been framed, and probably didn't kill anybody, and he doesn't get to know. But the next day, more bombs go off, but this time the bombers give warning and the building is evacuated. Even his father wanted him to get out of Newark, but because of Merry he just can't. She tells the Swede that Merry is safe, among people who love her. There are worldwide protests over Davis' charges, and lots of people believe she's been framed. He fantasizes the conversations he has with her. The parents of the townhouse girl are shown on the news. As the gloves are being made, and as the Swede is talking, he's thinking about Merry, thinking he's "half insane" (4.51) and that he's grieving. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. There is no explaining Merry’s conversion to counterculture radicalism. The Swede even gets "anti-Semitic mail" (4.203). Some people in Greenwich Village (part of New York City) go away on vacation. He begs Rita to let him see Merry or talk to her. The Swede wants to take it down, but knows he can't. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Your Privacy Controls. Tacked to it is, "An editorial recording the tragedy and commemorating Dr. Conlon" (4.203). Seeing Rita, makes him feel like he is back in that wonderful time, the time before everything fell apart. He'd given Rita all the things she'd asked for, and now he's about to meet Rita at the New York Hilton to give her five thousand dollars in small unmarked bills. He's feeling really talkative, more talkative than he's felt since Merry disappeared. She is black and the Swede doesn't exploit her. The novel begins with the following sentence: "The Swede." The FBI took all of Merry's books and papers, so he can't be sure. There on the television is a monk of about seventy-years-old. He waits for them, for Merry and "the girl Weatherman" (4.169). Rita says he exploits his workers in the Puerto Rico arm of Newark Maid, and that he exploits workers in countries outside the US. Everything he thinks Angela want to hear, he tells her. The other characters play their roles well but have mostly bit parts. It takes a year for them to rebuild the store destroyed in the blast. The next week, he meets her there again and gives her Merry's ballet slippers and leotard. She cries and cries. The Swede knows the party Rita is talking about, and says it was a birthday party, that it had nothing to do with Merry getting her period. A few days after that Rita demands, on Merry's behalf, the stuttering diary. Rita shows up at the factory one day, sneakily evading the FBI agents keeping watch and taking note of everyone who visits the Swede's office. He wishes he could find a way to make her stay there with him so he wouldn't have to think about Merry. By entering your email address you agree to receive emails from Shmoop and verify that you are over the age of 13. The final article tacked to the board is an interview with Edgar Bartley. Soon, he tells Rita he's going to have a pair of gloves made for her right now. The article is reproduced in the novel, 4.205-4.219. He should have done whatever was necessary. Across America, all sorts of places are being bombed, some of them nearby. Again, he demands to know where Merry is, reminding her that a man is dead, and Merry has been accused of the murder. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. Everyone in town, including the Swede, has to drive all the way to Morristown to buy milk, stamps, even a newspaper. We and our partners will store and/or access information on your device through the use of cookies and similar technologies, to display personalised ads and content, for ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. The Swede, she says, doesn't own her. For a whole week, Merry has to sleep with Dawn and the Swede because she is so disturbed. He's quoted as saying, "I only hope we can find her so that she can get the help she needs" (4.204). bleak Northern Irish serial killer drama. The Swede sits up late in the kitchen, waiting for Rita to come back. The Swede begins fantasizing that Davis comes to his kitchen. When the Swede's father Lou was running the company he was really into giving the tours, but the Swede doesn't enjoy it that much. Find sample tests, essay help, and translations of Shakespeare. The narrative structure of American Pastoral is much discussed. A neighbor gives them clothes, but when she leaves them alone, they run away. She has a "bush of wiry hair" (3.1) and "a bland baby face" (3.1). The monk has to be what did it. (Now we come to the second section where the Swede explains the meaning of "five years pass" (4.178). "Bombs are going off everywhere" (4.165). The Swede tells Rita that Dawn "works a farm all day" (4.81). Is she competing with her beautiful mother for her father’s love? For five years, the Swede tries to understand what could have changed Merry so much. She's asking lots of questions and writing down everything he says. I have a test on American Pastoral tomorrow. The first crack in his world came with the Swede’s marriage to a Catholic, and the scene in which Lou Levov interrogates Dawn Dwyer, prospective wife to a dutiful Jewish son, strikes comic high notes as clear as any in American literature. The Swede is really, really glad nobody had tacked up the article called "Suspected Bomber is Described as Bright, Gifted but with "Stubborn Streak" (4.204).
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