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Comparing The Lewinsky Scandal In The Human Stain By Philip Roth

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Near the beginning of the novel, The Human Stain by Philip Roth, the Lewinsky Scandal is introduced and discussed in great detail. The narrator indicates his feelings towards the forty second president of The United States, Bill Clinton, and his affair with a White House employee. This woman, named Monica Lewinsky, was twenty two years old when the political scandal was made public, while President Clinton was forty nine years old. The Human Stain is set in 1998, which is the same year that the scandal became known to the public and President Bill Clinton was impeached. However, the author also introduces the Lewinsky Scandal because an equally astonishing affair has been revealed in a small, quiet New England town. The author essentially compares the two affairs in order to show how significant the affair between the two characters from the novel, Coleman Silk and Faunia Farley, actually is. I also think that the …show more content…

Faunia Farley goes to visit the specific bird at the Audubon Society. Faunia also reveals that she has known Prince for quite some time by saying, “I used to live in Seeley Falls, so I know all about Prince. I knew him when he was up there hanging around Higgison’s store” (Roth 239-240). During her visit with Prince, Faunia questions Prince’s caretaker regarding the newspaper clippings about the crow. The young girl responded by saying that Prince had torn down the articles that were posted on the wall because “He didn’t want anybody to know his background!” (Roth 240). I found this to be particularly interesting because both Faunia and Coleman are guilty of hiding or lying about aspects in their lives. Faunia tells everyone that she is illiterate, when she could, in actuality, read and write. This lie is revealed when her diary is discovered. Coleman is also ashamed of his past as he tries to pass as a white man, even though he is an African

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