The Human Stain (novel by Roth) | Summary & Analysis

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Contents </div> <span class="toc-extra-link selected link-gray-900 mt-15"> Introduction </span> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Human-Stain/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="/facts/The-Human-Stain">Quick Facts & Related Topics</a> </div> <div class="tlr-media-slider pb-10 mb-30"> <a class="section-header link-gray-900 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mb-10 mx-10" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Human-Stain/images-videos">Images</a> <div class="slider js-slider position-relative d-inline-flex align-items-center mw-100 "> <div class="slider-container js-slider-container overflow-hidden d-flex overflow-hidden text-nowrap ml-15"> <a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/20/226720-050-8793E542/American-author-Philip-Roth-circa-1980-1990.jpg" data-href="/media/1/1894588/321013" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <img loading="lazy" 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They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Human-Stain/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn btn-sm border-2 btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 module-spacing js-inline-ai-ask-button p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot </button> </div> <div class="js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded"> <div class="facts-list mt-10"> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Awards And Honors: </dt> <dd><a href="/art/PEN-Faulkner-Award">PEN/Faulkner Award</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> <div class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/The-Human-Stain"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong><span id="ref1331224"></span>The Human Stain</strong>, novel by American author <span id="ref1331225"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Philip-Roth" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Philip Roth</a> that was published in 2000. It is the final book in Roth’s American Trilogy (the other two being <em><span id="ref1331226"></span>American Pastoral</em> [1997] and <em><span id="ref1331227"></span>I Married a Communist</em> [1998]), and it earned the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/PEN-Faulkner-Award" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">PEN/Faulkner Award</a> for Fiction.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Like the other two novels in the trilogy, <em>The Human Stain</em> is narrated by Nathan Zuckerman, a recurring character in Roth’s fiction who is generally taken to be Roth’s <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="alter ego" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/alter ego" data-type="EB">alter ego</a>. Set in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Berkshire-Hills" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Berkshire Hills</a> of western <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Massachusetts" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Massachusetts</a> during the late 1990s against the backdrop of the revelation of U.S. Pres. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bill-Clinton" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Bill Clinton</a>’s affair with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/White-House-Washington-DC" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">White House</a> intern <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Monica-Lewinsky" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Monica Lewinsky</a>, <em>The Human Stain</em> brings together two common preoccupations—a hero with a secret and an affair between an older man and a younger woman—in the character of Coleman Silk. Silk, a former dean and a classics professor at a nearby college, had asked about two students who had registered for but never attended the class, inquiring, “Do they exist, or are they spooks?” It turns out that the two students are Black, and Silk is accused of using racist language. Unsupported by the rest of the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="faculty" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/faculty" data-type="EB">faculty</a>, Silk resigns, and shortly after that his wife dies. Zuckerman meets Silk when Silk asks him to write the story of the incident. Silk has also begun an affair with Faunia, an apparently illiterate janitor who is grieving over the death of her children and is being pursued by her violent <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Vietnam War</a> veteran ex-husband; Silk is also accused of taking advantage of Faunia.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Through flashbacks to his childhood, we discover that Silk has been covering up an enormous secret— he is a Black man who has rejected the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/racism" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">racism</a> he has experienced from both Black and white people. Silk’s liberation—personal and sexual—after he becomes involved with Faunia is startling, and Zuckerman, at first simply a curious observer, begins to develop a relationship with Silk himself. It is only after Silk and Faunia are killed in a car accident, however, that Zuckerman decides to write Silk’s story.</p><div class="module-spacing"> </div><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">While <em>The Human Stain</em> questions the possibility of objectivity in a world of emotions, the book is primarily about guilty secrets, assumptions, and perceptions. Silk may appear to be the archetypal man fallen from grace, but there is far more at work here than simple parables, and each character is fully drawn. The book is a sly glance at American social politics, with its judgment, shame, and hypocrisy, and at the stain left on life by humanity itself. Although the story is ostensibly about the black and white of things, it inevitably <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="illuminates" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/illuminates" data-type="MW">illuminates</a> a thousand shades of gray.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="md-signature font-12"><a href="/contributor/Anna-Foca/9837649">Anna Foca</a></span><span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-simplify-root"></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":1,"pageId":1894588,"pageLength":436,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-133/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.133.48"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-133/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.133.48' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"C","adLeg":"C","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"MEDIUM","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":true,"hasAiTopQuestions":false,"hasSimplifyButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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The Human Stain (novel by Roth) | Summary & Analysis | Britannica