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Appearances
Aging author Nathan Zuckerman is interested in finding out what goes beneath the "perfect" surface of main character, the Swede, his childhood idol and the hero of their predominantly Jewish Weequahic neighborhood.
Learning that the Swede's daughter bombed a post office to protest the Vietnam War is just what Zuckerman needs to imagine the Swede's inner life. American Pastoral also explores ideas of what it means to look American and how looks factor into versions of the American dream. In addition to looking at the Swede's inner life, it contrasts an idealized "pastoral" America with a chaotic "berserk" America locked in chaos, poverty, and turmoil.
The novel expresses anxiety about "fitting in" in America from a Jewish perspective.
The ladies gloves made at Newark Maid are important to the theme of appearances.
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