The Human Stain

1
The Human Stain

• Philip Roth

2
Conference

• Philip Roths writing technique and the genre
  of the book.
• Roths characters.
• What is the Human Stain?
• The power of a secret.
• The social implications of the Human Stain.

3
Writing Technique

• Last week we talked about the similarities
  between Philip Roth and Henry James...
• Philip Roth covers a conversation from every
  angle. (pg 80-81).
• Changing narrators (pg 155).
• Conscious stream (pg 154).
• The genre of the book Fiction/Non-Fiction.

4
The Plot

• Coleman Silk has a secret. But its not the
  secret of his affair, at seventy-one with a woman
  half his age. And its not the secret of his
  alleged racism, which provoked the college which
  hunt that cost him his job. Colemans secret is
  deeper, and lies at the very core of who he is,
  and he has kept it hidden from everyone for fifty
  years. Set in 1998, with the backdrop of the
  impeachment of a president, The Human Stain shows
  us an America where conflicting moralities and
  ideological divisions result in public
  denunciations and houndings, and where innocence
  is not always a good enough excuse. (Back cover,
  The Human Stain).
• The plot is much more complex than this. The book
  delves into the injustice people face when their
  label is the motive (p. 290)
• We look at the secrets people guard and the
  identity they forge and protect.

5
The Characters

• All of Roths Characters possess a secret or a
  past that is, (if only briefly) explored in the
  novel.
• No main character has a spotless past or present,
  they possess hidden desires, secrets and pasts.
• Their own personal human stain is always shown.
• Every main character has a hang-up.

6
The Characters

• Nathan Zuckerman
• Nathan Zuckerman is the author (p. 359) of The
  Human Stain and consequently Philip Roths
  alter ego.
• Zuckerman acts as Colemans psychiatrist/friend
  in the book. (pg 41)
• Every character in the book has background.
• Nathan Zuckerman is a recluse, he recently had an
  operation that made him incontinent.
• We dont just use Zuckerman as a means to make a
  connection between Coleman and the completion of
  this book, we learn things about Zuckerman that
  are completely unnecessary to the plot of the
  book, but it allows us to see his human stain.
• We leave a stain, we leave a trail, we leave our
  imprint (p.242).
• Zuckerman may not have a dark secret like Coleman
  but he has a mark that he uses in the book to
  define/ mark himself.
• It is through the mark that he is only human.

7
Delphine Roux

• Delphine is a young, attractive, intelligent
  French woman whom Coleman Silk hired while Dean
  at Athena.
• Delphines entire existence has been for the
  recognition of others.
• She doesn't seem to be in control of her actions,
  she sent an email and a letter without meaning
  to.
• Secrets
• Her ideal man meets Coleman description.
• She desperately wants to find someone but she has
  very high opinion of herself, and a high standard
  for men. She only wants to date white men.
• She desperately seeks approval from her academic
  mother in France and her colleagues.
• She wrote a letter threatening Coleman.
• She staged a break-in in her office when she
  accidentally sent an email.

8

• Everyone knows youre
• sexually exploiting an
• abused, illiterate
• woman half your
• age. (pg 38)

9

• Re Personal ad
• Youthful, petite, womanly, attractive,
  academically successful SWF
  French-born scholar, Parisian background, Yale
  Ph.D., Mass.- based, seeks Mature man with
  backbone. Unattached. Independent. Witty. Lively.
  Defiant. Forthright. Well educated. Satirical
  spirit. Charm. Knowledge and love of great books.
  Well spoken and straight speaking. Trimly built.
  Five eight or nine. Mediterranean complexion.
  Green eyes preferred. Age unimportant. But must
  be intellectual. Greying hair acceptable, even
  desirable..(pg. 273)

10
Faunia Farley

• Faunia Farley works as a janitor in the College
  and as a milkmaid at the dairy farm at which she
  lives.
• She was sexually abused by her stepfather and ran
  away from home.
• She married an ex-Vietnam officer with PTSD (Les
  Farley) who abused her in her marriage, and
  stalked her after the divorce.
• Her two children by Les died in a house fire
  while she was in a truck out the front of the
  house with a man.
• She claims to be illiterate.
• She wishs she were a crow .
• Secrets
• Faunia can read, she used her illiteracy as a
  source of power. (p. 297)
• She in engaged to Prince the crow. (247) A woman
  that doesn't know how to be a woman and a crow
  that doesnt know how to be a crow.
• She tried to commit suicide twice (p245)

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PrinceThe Crow

• The crow was hand reared.
• Prince has a caw that wasnt like the other
  crows having not grown up around them, therefore
  Prince is forever doomed to be caged.
• The human stain was the stain that was left on
  Prince that didnt allow him to go back out into
  his world.
• Possess human behaviour (pg.239).

12
Les Farley

• Les Farley is Faunias ex-husband.
• Suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Stalked Faunias lovers including Coleman.
• Ran Faunia and Coleman off the road. (p.259)

13
Coleman Silk

• Coleman is the main character in the book.
• We learn about his childhood in East Orange with
  his rhetoric father, brother Walt, sister
  Ernestine and his loving mother.
• Coleman first impersonated a Jew when he was
  boxing in Doc Chizners class.
• He then filled out his army papers as a white man
  and never looked back.
• He locked his family out of his life and married
  Iris, his wife, the only woman he had a
  relationship with where he didnt tell her his
  true identity.
• Coleman becomes Dean of Athena, a man with
  considerable power and whose leadership has
  transformed the college for the better.
• When Coleman is wrongfully accused of racism he
  fights the accusations until his wife dies.
  Coleman then retires which appears as an
  admission of his guilt.
• Faunias relationship with Coleman is case of
  opposites attract.
• The largest secret Coleman had was his true
  identity, however, the identity he created for
  himself suited him better, its why he created
  it.

14
Clinton Vs. Coleman
Clinton is President of USA Clinton has relations with Monica Lewinski Lewinski works in the White House Clintons affair is ousted Clinton is called a draft dodger Clinton is impeached Coleman is Dean of Athena Coleman has relations with Faunia Farley Faunia works at Athena Colemans relationship is exposed Colemen is called a racist Coleman leaves his job
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The Power of a Secret

• The secrets in the human stain are not only made
  to hide the past. The lies themselves are there
  to empower the character.
• Coleman lied about his race, he didnt do it
  because he disliked being black and he did not do
  it because he preferred to be seen as Jewish.
  (although this was a bonus in the service).
• Coleman used his lie to make himself free. As his
  mother said to him you're as white as snow but
  you think like a slave (p.139).
• Coleman felt empowered harbouring a secret.
• All he ever wanted, from earliest childhood on,
  was to be free not black, not even white- just
  on his own and free. He meant to insult no one by
  his choice, nor was he trying to imitate anyone
  whom he took to be superior (p. 120)
• Self discovery, that was the punch to the
  labonz (p. 108)
• The gift to be secretive. (p.135)

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The Power of a Secret

• Faunia lied about the fact she couldnt read. She
  did this not to handicap herself but to highlight
  the barbaric self befitting the world. (p. 297).
• Not rejecting learning as a stifling form of
  propriety but trumpeting learning by a knowledge
  that is stronger and prior. (p. 297).
• Delphine Roux thinks highly of herself because of
  intellect but is never at ease.
• She thinks that people are continuously
  scrutinising her and feels like she can never fit
  in in America. Her secret disadvantages her more
  than it helps her.
• She lied about the email because of what she
  thought everyone would think.
• Delphines secrets have the power to create the
  illusion she is complete when she feels
  inadequate.

17
Social Implications

• We all have histories that mark us, we carry
  around personal baggage and we have secrets. This
  could be described as the human condition.
• Philip Roth wrote his book in a way that made it
  appear to be non fiction. It not only covered the
  lives of the people of Athena, but was linked to
  situations in the real world The impeachment of
  President Clinton.
• The issues the book raises of Racism, unfounded
  accusations, which hunts, mob justice, PTSD,
  adultery, murder and cultural identity are all
  present in our own society. The book examines
  these issues through varying perspectives. I
  think this book promotes understanding and
  self/social analysis.