chapter+six

The Plot Against America - **Chapter Six**: May 1942 - June 1942: Their Country - by Claire, Dylan, & Kyle

Summary
Chapter six starts with Mr. Roth receiving a letter from the //Vice President for Employee Affairs// offering relocation opportunities and is selected as one of his district's seven Jewish "homesteaders". Mr. Roth tells the family that he is being transferred from the Metropolitan's Newark district to a district office in Danville, Kentucky. Mrs. Roth feels that everything they have is where they live now, and feels that Herman's hard work is not being rewarded properly. She knows that they will not be around any family or friends. Mr. Roth tries to stay optimistic about the move and keeps in mind that things could be worse. Sandy is thrilled about moving because it isn't far from the Mawhinney's tobacco farm. Philip sees the confusion and struggle that is coming about in his home and refuses to leave. Alvin is in the rackets in Philadelphia, and Sandy becomes disconnected to the family because he disagrees with his father.

Philip takes a bus to Aunt Evelyn's office and sits next to two nuns. He notices the way they dress and look, and is interested in how these Catholic representatives behave out of church.The bus takes Philip to the Federal Office Building on Washington Street, where Aunt Evelyn had her office. She is overjoyed to see him. She brags about meeting Lindbergh and Mr. von Ribbentrop to Philip. He tells her that he does not want to move to Kentucky, which turns Aunt Evelyn very suspicious and thinks that he has been sent by someone to see her. Philip asks if his neighbor Seldon and his mother could go instead. She tries to convince him that moving is a good thing for him and will benefit him. And later that week Seldon's mother receives a similar relocation notification and is sent to Danville, Kentucky as well.

At the end of May, a confidential meeting is convened in the Roth's living room for the Jewish insurance agents who, along with Philip's father, are being relocated. Meanwhile, Philip starts planning to run away. He stole clothes from Seldon and packed them in a suitcase in the cellar, along with the money Alvin had given him in a previous chapter.

After the meeting, Philip, Sandy, and Seldon return and listen to the radio. Mr. Roth, dismayed that Walter Winchell had yet to talk about Homestead 42, writes a letter alerting him to it. Mrs. Roth talks him out of it, and the two discuss leaving for Canada. A few days later, Winchell finally discusses Homestead 42 on air, causing quite a commotion.

Philip takes his stamp collection and runs from the Roth house the night of the Winchell broadcast. He gets kicked in the head by a horse at the orphanage and is found by Seldon, who followed Philip out. Seldon alerts the Roths, who take Philip to the hospital. During all this, Philip loses his stamp collection. His parents find out about his plot to run away, and they take it in stride.

Analysis
In this chapter, we begin to see the efforts against the Jews stepped up, and we see Philip's attempts to counter these blow up in his face. We are introduced to Homestead 42, and see the effects this has on the Roth family. The stress from Homestead 42 leads to Philip visiting his Aunt to try to work a different solution out. That only aggravates the situation - not only are the Roths sent to Kentucky, but now so is Seldon and his family. Philip cannot handle spending the rest of his childhood in Kentucky, amongst Christians, with only Seldon to talk to, so he plots running away. While doing so, he not only gets severely injured and loses his beloved stamp collection, but also has to live with the fact that Seldon saved him and Seldon will never let anybody forget that. Although Philip's efforts mean well, nearly everything he does comes out wrong.

At the end of the chapter, Philip loses his stamp collection. This is significant in many ways. The collection basically was Philip's entire childhood and his life's work. So when he loses the stamp collection, it can be interpreted that, in this chapter, Philip has lost his childhood and was forced to grow up and become a responsible adult. Philip could no longer take the events unfolding before him like a child; he needed to grow up, and losing his stamp collection was part of that. At a different level, Philip loses a defining characteristic of himself. This could be representative of the Jews themselves, that the Jews had lost a defining characteristic through Homestead 42, just as stress from Homestead 42 caused Philip to lose his. The thing the Jews probably lose is community, since Homestead 42 is designed to split apart the Jewish communities.