An Existential Approach To The Human Stain

Philip Roth is the third generation of American Jewish writer, who is known as “anevergreen tree” of the contemporary American literature. He is also the earliest livingcontemporary writer who has ever been sealed “canon” in the history of Americanliterature.The Human Stain （2000） is a novel which was completed by Philip Roth when he is67years old. It is also the last part of his American Trilogy. The novel mainly talks aboutthe protagonist’s living circumstances and survival situation in America. Coleman silk, is alight-skinned black. In order to get rid of racial discrimination, he creates his own identityas a Jew at the cost of betrayal of his race and breaking ties with his family members. Thus,he enters into the upper white American society and has become a professor and dean ofAthena College. Later he is accused of a racist because of an attendance-taking in his classand forced to retire. The affair with the cleaner makes them fall into the premeditated caraccident. And ultimately he dies as a white. The novel reveals man’s living conditions anddilemma. It embodies a kind of existential tendency.The paper will use Sartre’s Existentialism to analyze the novel The Human Stain.Existentialism is a philosophy advocated by Jean-Paul Sartre, a French atheisticexistentialist, which believes that man’s basic living conditions are loneliness, anxiety andabsurdity. But man is absolutely free, and can live a wonderful life through free choice.Coleman is a man who is pursuing his existential possibilities and existential values in theabsurd society. He is one of the typical types of existential characters. The human Stainshows Roth’s concern over living conditions and predicament of people.This paper is mainly divided into three chapters.Chapter One analyzes the absurdity of the society, in which the protagonists of thenovel are living in. The world people are living in is chaotic and absurd. In such an absurdsociety, man’s existence seems to be nothingness and nihility. In order to escape such asituation of living predicament, man falls into bad faith.Chapter Two makes a thorough analysis of man’s sense of anxiety. Conflicts between the blacks, the Jews and the whites have occurred ceaselessly. They have unavoidablyshown a sense of alienation and loneliness, and even existential crisis. Thus a kind of lackof mental equilibrium occurs.Chapter Three deals with man’s pursuit of freedom. The Blacks, the Jews and even thewhites are always trying to seek ways out of existential crisis so as to obtain a perfect lifejust through negation of the real world and free choice. But pursuing freedom needs to paythe price. So all of the heroes of the novel have taken their respective responsibilities forthe consequences of free choices they have made.The interpretation of The Human Stain from the perspective of Existentialismdiscusses the living dilemma of the blacks, the Jews and the whites, and even the people’sstrong desire for existence and pursuit of freedom. It reveals Roth’s concern for humanbeing’s survival: people are facing absurdity, anxiety and social alienation; but they canfight through various means for real existence and survival. Though it is full of color oftragedy, there still exist hopes anyway.