Key+Facts

Scott And Kristen


 * FULL TITLE:** //The Plot Against America//


 * AUTHOR:** Philip Roth


 * TYPE OF WORK:** Novel


 * GENRE:** Novel. Has also been referred to as alternate history


 * LANGUAGE:** English


 * TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN:** 2004 Newark, New Jersey


 * DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION:** 2004


 * PUBLISHER:** Houghton Mifflin


 * NARRATOR:** Philip


 * POINT OF VIEW**: Philip's families point of view, along with their friends and other members of the community.


 * TONE**: Serious, when dealing with the anger between candidates and the anger expressed by Jewish people.


 * TENSE:** Past & Present


 * SETTING (TIME):** 1940-1942


 * SETTING (PLACE):** New Jersey, for the most part, is where the setting takes place.


 * PROTAGONIST:** Philip


 * MAJOR CONFLICT:** Lindbergh, an anti-sematist, is elected president. This arises as a problem with many Jewish families. As you read you follow Philip's family in particular as the election between Charles Lindbergh and Franklin Roosevelt progresses. During this time the reader learns of the problems people have with each canidate, which contributes to the final result.


 * Rising Action:** Lindbergh is first nominated and then elected to the presidency of the United States. From the time of his election to the end of the search for his body, this time is a period of perpetual fear among the Jews of the U.S. For Philip's family this is a time that they use to try to hold themselves together dispite great difficulties. First Just Folks took Sandy away from Philip's family and for the rest of the story presents a different viewpoint from the rest of the family. Then Philip's cousin Alvin comes home with a amputated leg from his war against Hitler. He goes from being passionatly against Lindbergh to just not caring except about himself. He presents a trial to Philip's father who wants him to grow up to be a honest hard working man. One of the last major events in the rising action is when Philip and his family are told by the government that they will be moved to Kentucky. Philip's father quits his job as an insurance salesman so that the family won't have to move but his decision has it's own consequences from a lower paying job to the FBI wanting him to lose his new job at his brother's market. Finally, the loudest candidate Walter Winchell is killed for his protesting the presidency and most of the democrats come together to honor him and belittle Lindbergh.


 * Climax:** After Walter Winchell's funeral, president Lindbergh flies himself to Louisville where he tells the nation that they are out of war and he is reminding them of that. After his speech he goes to his plane to fly back to Washington D.C. Somewhere in flight he crashes and Burton Wheeler takes over as acting president.


 * Falling Action:** For a period of days Burton Wheeler imposes martial law and moves to remove all opposition in the U.S. to him. This includes Mrs. Lindbergh and Franklin Roosevelt. He does nothing about these riots until after a day has gone by and some people are dead. He blames the death of president Lindbergh on the Canadians, Britain, and the Jews. Not until Mrs. Lindbergh frees herself from a mental institution and addresses the nation on behalf of reason does Burton Wheeler lose power and President Roosevelt is re-elected. During this time the atmosphere is tense in Newark and as the riots increase and people die almost everything becomes unraveled. Evelyn Philip's aunt shows up disheveled and scared, and stays after heated debate from Philip's mom. Then Seldon, a child that lived downstairs but moved to Kentucky in place of the Roth Family, calls the Roths and tells them that his mother is not home and he doesn't know what to do. Eventually Mr. Roth goes and picks him up and he lives with the Roths for some months and Philip cares for him.

Theme: Control vs. unruly flux

Motif: Growing up, facing hardship and surviving it.