Study Guide

American Pastoral Characters

By Philip Roth

Aww, c'mon guys. Don't call him Skip.Nathan Zuckerman is a famous novelist and a character in...

"The Swede" (1.1) is the first sentence of American Pastoral, which is a big ol' clue that the...

From potential Miss America to Mean Mommy to Pioneer Woman cattle farmer to Mad Woman...

Merry is one of literature's ultimate outsiders and one of the most heartbreaking figures we've...

Jerry's rallying cry is "the Swede, the Swede, the Swede"—he's the Jan Brady to the Swede's...

Rita Cohen is high up on the Most Outrageous Characters Ever list. She's sinister, malicious, and...

Lou is the Swede's dad. He's the dang paterfamilias. He taught the Swede most of what he knows...

Sylvia Levov is the Swede's mother. She's a traditional housewife and seems to be a kind and...

Jim is Dawn's father. He's a working class guy, first a milkman and then a plumber. When he has a...

If Zuckerman hadn't gone to his forty-fifth high school reunion in 1995, he might never have run...

Here's the opposite of Rita Cohen (a character who may or may not be real even within the...