Nemesis - Philip Roth
[alert-success] Nemesis
[/alert-success]
[alert-primary] Overall Summary [/alert-primary]
[btn href="https://www.speedynotes.in/2024/05/american-literature-ii-msu-ii-ba-iv-sem.html" class="bt" btn]Back to Tansche[/btn]
Introduction:
"Nemesis" is a suspenseful morality novel by Philip Roth, published in 2010. Set in the summer of 1944 in Newark, New Jersey, during a polio epidemic, the story follows Bucky Cantor, a young physical education teacher at a playground who is conflicted about serving in World War II due to his poor eyesight. As the epidemic spreads and children in his care fall ill, Cantor grapples with guilt and a sense of responsibility.
The novel explores themes of morality, duty, and the randomness of suffering. Roth delves into the psychological turmoil of his characters as they confront the fear and uncertainty brought on by the epidemic, examining how they cope with adversity and the choices they make in the face of tragedy.
Polio Outbreak:
The plot is set in Newark, New Jersey, in a summer camp in the Pocono Mountains in 1940, where a fictional polio outbreak took place. The novel opens with the sudden outbreak of polio, a paralyzing viral disease, in Newark. This polio primarily affects infants and children.
Bucky Cantor, the protector:
The novel focuses on a playground in the Jewish community of Weequahic. A age twenty-three year old playground's director, Bucky Cantor, desires to prevent panic by keeping the children occupied and carefree.
Even though polio virus has not yet reached Weequahic, everyone fears death and the danger that are around. Ignorance plays a major role in creating fear. In 1944 polio was a strange disease with no known medicine.
The Italian Children:
Young people from an epidemic-hit Italian neighborhood show up at the playground. These Italian children spit on the sidewalk as a provocation. Cantor acts a protector of Jewish children. He forces the Italians to leave and cleans the spit with hot water and ammonium.
Polio in Jewish Community
A few days following the encounter with the Italians, two children who were present at the playground on that particular day contract polio. The boys suffered and eventually died, which caused much pain to Mr. Cantor. More boys from the playground had polio and as a result the boys participating in baseball declines from ninety to approximately thirty.
Mr. Cantor starts to question all that he believes in. He endeavors to console the parents of the deceased boys while attending their funerals. But in private, he ponders how God could permit the suffering and death of innocent children. He questions whether it is wise to close the playground in order to prevent the transmission or encourage the boys to continue as if nothing is wrong. He asks:
You do only the right thing, the right thing and the right thing and the
right thing, going back all the way. You try to be a thoughtful person,
a reasonable person, an accommodating person, and then this happens.
Where is the sense of life?”
The Offer
Marcia, the girlfriend of Mr. Cantor, is away working at a summer camp located in the Poconos. One day, during a night phone call, Marcia informs Mr. Cantor about a job in her camp at Poconos and asks Cantor to leave Weequahic and join her camp. Mr Cantor declines the offer saying that he cannot leave his
responsibility as a director and strand his boys at the playground.
Dr. Steinberg's advice:
The following evening, Mr. Cantor goes to see Marcia's father, Dr. Steinberg, a famous physician. Mr. Cantor conveys his fear to Dr. Steinberg that the Italians boys were the ones who brought polio to Weequahic. He also asks about the possibility that he should close the playground. In order to console him, Dr. Steinburg says that keeping the children fearless is the finest thing he can do. Dr. Steinberg gladly accepts Mr. Cantor's request for Marcia's hand in marriage.
The Decision:
The following day, a playground boy and a mentally handicapped man from the neighborhood had a confrontation. This fight exposes the fear of the epidemic and the panic that Mr. Cantor carried in his heart. He says in terror:
"The neighborhood is doomed. Not a one of the children will survive intact, if they survive at all".
This confrontation has made Mr. Cantor to inform Marcia that evening that he will be leaving his position as playground director and join her in Poconos camp by accepting the job. This was a moment of astonishment for Marcia.
Mr. Cantor laments his decision as a betrayal of his own principles "ideals of truthfulness and strength...ideals of courage and sacrifice". He departs for Camp Indian Hill, Pennsylvania three days later.
At Indian Hill:
At Camp Indian Hill, he spends each night with his ladylove Marcia in a separate island and make love. In this camp he befriends Donald Kaplow, a junior counselor, and he offers him assistance with his diving.
Nevertheless, this happy episode ends when Donald contracts polio. Mr. Cantor is certain that he is the one who is to blame for this, as it is the first case in the entire camp.
After twenty-six years:
The novel's final part takes place twenty-six years after the events of July 1944. The narrator explains that Mr. Cantor contracted polio a few days following Donald Kaplow's infection. His right leg became useless, despite his survival from the illness.
The narrator introduces himself as Arnold Mesnikoff, a boy who contracted polio while playing baseball at the Weequahic playground. He did not meet his director after that. In 1971, Arnold works as an architect in a street where Mr Cantor works in a Post Office. This has renewed their relationship.
Arnold and Mr. Cantor goes to lunch together whenever they meet. Mr. Cantor tells Arnold his story, saying that he refused to see Marcia after he contracted polio. He found the post office position after moving from one job to another. Now he has became entrenched in a lonely, bitter existence.
Suffering and Morality:
Arnold scolded Mr. Cantor that he has made a huge mistake by rejecting Marcia. Arnold argued that it was not Mr. Cantor who is responsible for polio outbreak in Weequahic and Camp Indian Hill. In contrast, Mr. Cantor remains immovable. Although everything is at fault, he remains steadfastly persuaded that his actions could not have been any different. He says:
You
have a conscience, and a conscience is a valuable attribute, but not if
it begins to make you think you were to blame for what is far beyond
the scope of your responsibility.
Mr. Cantor says that a vengeful God selected him to supervise the utter devastation of the playground and transport polio to the Pennsylvania campers. In his opinion, it would have been a foolish decision for Mr. Cantor to grant Marica's desire to live with him and make her life difficult. Arnold contemplates:
"Such a person’s greatest triumph is in sparing his beloved from having a crippled husband, and his heroism consists of denying his deepest desire by relinquishing her".
Conclusion:
The concluding scenario of the novel depicts a flashback to the summer of 1944, prior to the outbreak of polio. Arnold recounts an afternoon when Mr. Cantor instructed the boys on how to hurl a javelin while accompanying them to a nearby field. Arnold suddenly recollects that Mr. Cantor sought the word "invincible," alluding to the Greek mythological figure Hercules in his recollection.
"Nemesis" is a morality play that centers on the interrelationships among belief, mass fear, ethics, and social responsibility. The novel explores human morality, the impact of societal crises on individual psychology.
[btn href="https://www.speedynotes.in/2024/05/american-literature-ii-msu-ii-ba-iv-sem.html" class="bt" btn]Back to Tansche[/btn]
0 Comments