Book Review - The Human Stain

Defying Circumstances and the resulting Glory and Grief

In an article titled “Passing as Tragedy: Philip Roth’s The Human Stain, the Oedipus Myth, and the Self-Made Man”, Patrice D. Rankine, a professor of Purdue University, Indiana critically analyses Roth’s work drawing comparisons to similar stories in the Greek Mythology (The Iliad), The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson, and Ralph Ellison’s Juneteenth.

Rankine writes: “Passing occurs because of the myth of “whiteness,” which structures cultural ideals of success, propriety, and normalcy. Whiteness is as foundational as the frontier to New World identity. The idea of whiteness, however, obscures the ethnic realities of all Americans and their journey out of slavery into freedom. That both Bliss and Coleman Silk, neither of who bears obvious marks of blackness, cannot ostensibly escape the reality of race is the conundrum of identity for every American. Each character in The Human Stain serves to illuminate the distinctly American dilemma of passing and the ultimately tragic nature of the event.” (106).

The point Rankine is making in the above quotation is that everyone in America irrespective of their skin color, origins, religion, or ethnic background, is somehow enslaved and is journeying towards freedom. This includes even the ethnically Euro-American immigrant populations and the local-born White people. Rankine is of the opinion that everyone in this country is enslaved in their own skin, only when they achieve the American Dream of success in career, family, and fame will they become white, until then irrespective of their skin color people remain enslaved and can’t escape.

In other words Rankine’s strong opinion is that in order to escape one’s reality, it is important to succeed professionally and gain notoriety. Only this will validate one’s Whiteness, the journey undertaken by each individual in the course of this journey is what Rankine refers to as “Passing” (101). Since Rankine is critiquing The Human Stain, the context of the quote appears to be changing of race from black to white. In the book the protagonist has passed as white all his life. I don’t agree with this statement that everyone in America is enslaved or feels so. Even though statement is made in the context of The Human Stain, it continues to be irrelevant because the narrative is set in the late 1990s, centuries after slavery abolished and decades after Civil Rights movement succeeded. I contest Rankine’s statement because people here are working to achieve the “American Dream” of professional and financial success, peaceful and contented family life and the pursuit of happiness. Nor is it true that “Whiteness” automatically reflect success, propriety, and normalcy. In the current scenario with an African-American president ruling the country and a colored individual heading the supreme court, “whiteness” as a notion of success seems only a myth.

I strongly believe that the novel under study has more to do with an individual trying to surpass the narrow boundaries of race and ethnicity, than passing. True Coleman Silk has passed as white all his life, but that was not a deliberate attempt to mislead the rest of the world, he did it in pursuit of professional success and to achieve his dreams of professorship and academic achievements.

Rankine suggests that passing presents a dilemma to all Americans and always ends in a tragedy, which is not true. Coleman Silk achieves his goals as a professor, academic and educator he achieves the great heights of professional success, going to NYU making straight As and climbing the academic ladder to become the dean of a college. The tragedy that strikes him is in the aftermath of his achievements, it is a political event in which Silk becomes a scapegoat than victim. As far his personal tragedies, that has nothing to do with passing, because during the course of the narrative it is revealed that Faunia knew of his blackness all along and still chose to have a relationship with him. The fact that Faunia’s ex goes into a maniacal rage and eliminates Silk doesn’t qualify as a tragedy of the latter’s life.

The real tragedy of Coleman’s life in my opinion is the fact that Coleman and his wife had not slept together for years (716) and had a rocky marriage in their personal life despite presenting the pretty picture of a happy couple to the outside world. The triumph in this tragedy is Coleman’s because in the face of adversity the couple come together and put up a fight as one and not as two separate individuals. The crises and character demolition due to the racism charge on Silk is something of a professional tragedy (721).

All along the life script of Silk, he has been fiercely independent and lived apart of his family. He wanted to live by himself and become a poet or a playwright far more than go to NYU or achieve a degree (806). One thing Coleman couldn’t do all through his life was to identify himself by skin-color or race. He wanted to be a human, and an American and that is it. He couldn’t bring himself to tell his first girlfriend that he was colored and that gave him lot of heartache and tension (814), even though he tries to rehearse and repeat he is unsuccessful. When Silk meets Iris and decides to marry her he chooses not to identify himself and let her make her assessment of his race. The farewell conversation that he has with his mother on this subject in page 833 could be vaguely considered as the passing.

In an attempt to attribute Rankine’s claim that that “each character in The Human Stain serves to illuminate the distinctly American dilemma of passing,” to the life of Delphine Roux one of Silk’s detractors, I still find no evidence of passing. There is an attempt to achieve the American dream by all means possible, even if it means character assassination of someone else. Delphine is shown as an individual who had a problem of exposure right from her childhood (876). She wanted notoriety and at the same time anonymity, which is a greater dilemma than that of passing. When she migrates to America she effectively becomes deprived of family, friends, and country – “depaysee” (955). This again is not passing but someone trying fervently to adapt to a new culture and situation.

Summing up, I believe that Rankine in the above quote is trying to make it appear as if everyone in America is experiencing the dilemma of passing and that every passing ends in a tragedy. And that being white is to be successful and normal. Both these concepts are irrelevant according to me. People – locals and immigrants alike – in America are working hard to achieve success in their profession, family and society. In no way is anyone trying to change their race or skin color or trying to pass off as someone they are not. And everyone who achieves success in America by immigrating to this country doesn’t end up in a tragedy.

Works Cited

Roth, Philip. The American Trilogy. New York, NY: The Library of America, 2011. Print.

Rankine, Patrice D. “Passing as Tragedy: Philip Roth’s The Human Stain, the Oedipus Myth, and the Self-Made Man”. Critique. 47.1 (Fall 2005). 101-12. Print.