Themes

Brittany Sobush and Kelly Bertzyk

In //Plot Against America// growing up is a general theme. Everyone in the book grows in some way, no matter what age. Philip grows from a young, naive boy to a mature, young man. Alvin goes throught several stages. He's always young and irresponsible, but in the beginning he's patriotic and rebellious. In the middle he's sullen and, still, irresponsible; and at the end of the book he's grown some and more responible, but inside he'll always be the same person. (p.235-236)"What she did then was to go looking for them. All alone she went into the orphanage woods and searched the ground where I'd been discovered, but she was unable to find the album anywhere-found not so much as a single stamp." Although this is not the most obvious exaple of growing up, it really does represent the growing up of Philip. The stamp collection was such a huge part of Philip's childhood, and at this point in the book, with everything that has happened, he has now lost his childhood. The stamps collection really symbolizes his childhood, and innocence. At the point in the book where he looses his stamp collection, is also his breaking point, in a sense. He has gone through so much that, like his stamp collection, he has lost a huge part of his childhood. After loosing it, and giving up his childhood, Philip is forced to grow up, and to become who he is today.
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Another theme in //The Plot Against America// is the theme we discussed in class, the realization of an outsider. This theme is really showing what it feels like to be "on the outside looking in." Philip takes us through the journey of his life, and demonstrates the struggles that a person faces when they are different in some way. (p.69). "I whispered to my brother, 'What happened?'" "'Anti-Semitism,' he whispered back." This line definately shows the realization of an outsider. At this point, Philip is really starting to see that him and his family are outcasts. When he asks his brotehr what is going on, and the reply is anti-semitism, it definately sets a whole new tone. It's a defining moment where Philip truly sees what is starting to happen around him, and where he faces the fact that him and his family are outcasts in society. (p.266-267)- In these two pages, Sandy begins to see his family as Jews. This is especially painful to the family because they already have felt like outsiders, and now their own son has seemed to turn against them. This must really be a shock for Phil because its one thing to feel like you're an outcast from the outside public, but to be treated like an outcast by your own family is a whole other story. Because Sandy has now, in a way, turned against his own family, the realization of them being an outsiders is more evident. (p.301)- "Yes, my father admitted, he had been wrong all along and Bess and the Tirchwells had been right- and then, as best he could, he shook off his abashment over everything he'd mismanaged and badly misjudged, including the improbable violence that had smashed to bits, along with our coffee table, that lifelong barrier of rigid rectitude that had stood between his harsh upbringing and his mature ideals." This paragraph in particular is really strong towards the theme. Throughout the book, philip's father had been a strong, opinionated figure who was never afraid to stand up for what he believed in. he knew he was an outsider, but he was going to fight to change that. However, at this point in the book, it is almnost as though the harships of being an outsider have finally caught up with him. He finaly realizes here, that he is truly an outsider and that there really is nothing he can do to change that. this is an incredible change in character for Herman, and directly shows how he has come to realize things that he wished he would never have to.
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