A New Historical Interpretation Of I Married A Communist

Philip Roth(1933—2018),a uniquely Jewish writer who was active in contemporary American literature world,is widely recognized as American literary giant,Roth is very good at combining individuals'destiny with the grand historical narrative.It has always been a topic of interest for Roth to see history through the life of the individual.Roth is a serious writer who focuses on the individual existence.In I Married a Communist(1998),Roth explores the individual's life of pursuing,struggling,surviving and being destroyed in history through putting the protagonist into the specific historical context:the McCarthy Era.This thesis mainly analyzes the three protagonists' subversion of Jewish ethics,subversion of anti-communism mainstream ideology and containment of mainstream ideology from the perspective of Stephen Greenblatt's theory of "subversion" and "containment".Subversion means the subversion of the principles of power and mainstream ideology,but this subversion will be contained if it undermines the ruling order.The protagonist Ira is a poor Jewwho left home when he was fifteen,yearning for luxurious material life and going after fame and fortune.He is not loyal to his family,subverting the traditional Jewish ethics on marriage.While his wife Eve is also a subverter,who rejects her Jewish family and Jewish identity,making up her identity to squeeze herself into the upper class.His friend Nathan,not satisfied with his present Jewish life,yearns for the colorful life of the upper class and revolts against his father.Ira's subversive ideology is also represented in his political belief.He is a communist,encouraging the working-class movement and promoting racial equality.Nathan regards Ira a hero and takes his faith as his own.But in the McCarthy era,they are regarded as subverters,who are not in line with the "political correctness" of anti-communism of the time.But under the powerful mainstream discourse,the three subverters are all contained and ends in tragic.Ira,being a communist,is betrayed by his wife,blacklisted and expelled by his country,and dies in misery.Eve,being a betrayer,is the Grants' cat's paw and is finally abandoned not only by her so-called friends,the Grants but also by her friend and daughter,losing everything and dying in a drunken stupor.Nathan,being a loser in the American society,becomes more and more alienated from the world around him and lives in solitude.It seems that individuals in the McCarthy era held different views to resist against the mainstream ideology,but generally there were little chance for them to succeed and they would be repressed and contained finally by the powerful mainstream,ideology.As a serious writer,Roth touches the complex social realities and shows his compassion for those marginalized individuals and their tragic fates.