Philip Roth’s The Human Stain: A Millennial Novel of Passing

Abstract

The study is analysis of black-white assimilation that was part of African-American history as well as is face of present day progressive but stereotypical world. The aim is achieved by analysing Philip Roth’s The Human Stain which is the final part of a trilogy by the same author. Roth’s fictional alter ego, Zuckerman, as in most of his works becomes Roth’s justification of writing a passing narrative that brings into its focus racial and social structures, and also comments on the discrimination in each sphere that mars the history; the passing of blacks as whites. The qualitative textual analysis unfolds intricate weaving of the characters and the author. Using Lacan’s Mirror Stage Theory, the present study deciphers not only Coleman, who is representation of the blacks in the mentioned work, but also Zuckerman, Roth’s alter ego, and finally Roth himself. Lacan’s mirror stage explains how one develops subjectivity and fragmentation, and how these cause diversion from one’s society in order to reach one’s own-self. Protagonist, a black, in the novel struggles with the conscious efforts of marking borders of race, class and self which for rest of the white America is largely an unconscious effort. The study, eventually, establishes the ever present struggle for freedom and social progression which often finds its expression in passing as whites for blacks. It helps in understanding American myth and society, and serves as a window that lays bare the difficulties faced by African-Americans when assimilating in a society and a culture that does not support their skin colour. Finally, it is observed that the struggles of the history become the efforts of the modern times and the vicious cycle of passing continues as ever.