Ionică-Dan Alimpescu

Some personal reflections on identity and the metaphor of the stain

in Philip Roth’s The Human Stain

In this analysis, I shall make some purely personal considerations upon the metaphor of
the “stain” and its role in constructing the plot of the novel. Moreover, I will also, in this discussion,
focus on the element of identity and how it adds to both the narrative and the previously mentioned
metaphor. In order to achieve that, I will be taking the plot into synopsis (in the exact order as
presented by the author) and I shall speculate upon its possible meanings in relation to my points.

The first notable event in the narrative introduces us to the protagonist, Coleman Silk. Our
“hero” is a college professor at a small-town college, namely Athena. The intrigue of the whole
novel starts at a point when in class, Silk tries to make sense of two students not showing up for
the course. In this endeavor, he makes a comment, calling the two “spooks”. This brings a whole
lot of accusations and turmoil in his direction, him being accused of having made a racist remark.
Here, before referring to the identity and the metaphorical dimension of this episode, it is worth
exploring the definition of the problem-causing word. Dictionary.com defines “spook” as follows:
Noun; 1. Informal. a ghost; specter; 2. Slang. a ghostwriter; 3. Slang. an eccentric person;4. Slang:
Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. a contemptuous term used to refer to a blackperson.5.
Slang. an espionage agent; spy (2019).

I previously called “spooks” a problem-causing word. Your readership might, after having
read the definition, have a somewhat idea why. Dictionary.com also discloses the following: “the
term spook dates back to the 1940s […] used with disparaging intent and is perceived as highly
insulting. Black pilots who trained at Tuskegee Institute during World War II were called the
Spookwaffe. Some sources say that black pilots reclaimed this derogatory nickname as a self-
referential term of pride (2019). Although the protagonist claimed that he rather intended the
“ghost / specter” sense, he received a lot of flak for that matter and had to resign his job. This
intrigue is as more ironical as we shall find out later in the novel that Coleman was, although he
did not look like, a black man that was “passing”. According to the same source, this act would
mean “to live or be known as a member of a racial, religious, or ethnic group other than one's own,
especially to live and be known as a white person although of black ancestry” (Dictionary.com,
 Ionică-Dan Alimpescu

2019). Due to him using the term in referring to the two students, he is forced to resign, fact that
was too overwhelming for her wife that she experiences a heart attack and dies. It is here that Silk’s
identity starts to become a central metaphor of the plot. Nevertheless, we shall expand on this
matter later in the analysis.

After his wife’s death, the protagonist befriends Nathan Zuckerman, a Jewish writer. The
metaphor surrounding the protagonist’s identity grows even more complex, as Nathan is widely
recognized as being a fictional alter-ego of Philip Roth’s. I find it unnecessary to be referencing
this, as it is perhaps part of general knowledge by this point in literal times. Given that, I might
say that the author orchestrates this novel under a whole lot of layers of meta-text surrounding the
notion of identity: he is the omniscient author and, at the same time, a character which, in the
novel, is also a writer who writes his own novel. In other words, Roth writes about himself writing
about Coleman Silk (character who we can also relate to Roth, given that he was passing as a Jew).

Given that, we can acknowledge that the problem of identity in The Human Stain is much
more complicated than we thought. In regard to the metaphor in the title and the protagonist
passing as white, I would speculate that the so-called stain could be represented by his blackness
that he is unable to wash off and that would further bring him to his demise. In more general terms,
I might even call it darkness, as he lets no light come through towards his inner self, perhaps out
of fear of not being accepted.

When in college, he is called a nigger for the first time. This was probably a moment of
great trauma for him, the moment when the stain he was imprinted with at birth was first seen by
the others: “Especially when he began to think that there was something of the nigger about him,
even to the kids in the dorm who had all sorts of new clothes, and money in their pockets, and in
the summertime didn't hang around the hot streets at home, but went to camp, and not Boy Scout
camp out in the Jersey sticks, but fancy places where they rode horses and played tennis and acted
in plays. What the hell was a cotillion? Where was Highland Beach? What were these kids talking
about? He was among the very lightest of the light-skinned in his freshman class, lighter even than
his tea-colored roommate, but he could have been the blackest, most benighted field hand, for all
they knew that he didn't. He hated Howard from the day he arrived. Within a week he hated
Washington, and so in early October, when his father dropped dead serving dinner on the
Pennsylvania Railroad dining car that was pulling out of 30th Street station in Philadelphia for
 Ionică-Dan Alimpescu

Wilmington, and Coleman went home for the funeral, he told his mother he was finished with that
college” (Roth, 2001:106).

This stain gains more prominence when Silk meets Steena Paulson. They get to develop a
very close and personal romantic relationship. The moment when it all falls apart is the moment
when the protagonist takes his girlfriend home to meet his mother. The girl’s shock when meeting
Coleman’s mother while discovering that her lover is of Black descent is too much for her. Here,
Philip Roth, in my opinion, tries to emphasize that not even the better, or should I say stronger
intimate relationship cannot overpass the strength of prejudice. Needless to say, after the
mentioned episode, their relationship ended.

In contrast to what I highlighted in the previous paragraph, I would like to make some more
considerations on the stain and its role in constructing Coleman Silk’s identity. Having established
that this would be something that he would not be able to wash (or whitewash, should I say), the
author constructs his main character’s identity in a perhaps liberal manner. I chose to call it liberal,
given that Silk choses to construct his identity based on his own principles, principles that, in my
point of view, are to transcend any biological boundaries. The question of morality and whether
his betrayal of his family and culture was right or wrong is not for us to answer, I think. In a sense,
I am able to empathize with the fact that his intention was to live his life outside prejudice and not
to be judged based on specific stereotypes that the society has imposed upon his race/ people. Then
again, was his performance self-fulfilling for him? In this direction, Roth chooses to illustrate
identity as a “constantly changing performance” (Burke, 1980, Stryker, 1968, 1980). In that sense,
identity is not something that the individual is born with, but rather something one constructs from
scratch through external factors which one internalizes and identifies with in order to make sense
of his place and role in society’s collective consciousness: "he could play his skin however he
wanted, color himself just as he chose" (Roth, 2001:109).

Another place in which we observe this sort of depiction of identity as performance is in

the episode of the boxing match. Being aware that being a Black athlete at those time (moreover,
I should highlight the possibility that this was also due to a Black biological superiority in terms
of strength), his coach, Doc Chizner, encouraged him not to disclose, not to acknowledge his
“stain”: If nothing comes up," Doc said "you don't bring it up. You're neither one thing or the
other. You're Silky Silk. That's enough. That's the deal" (Roth, 2001:98).
 Ionică-Dan Alimpescu

There would be many more aspects to highlight towards the notion of identity and the
meanings of the metaphor of the stain. Nevertheless, in this novel, Roth managed to innovate,
although placing his text into an already prominent genre of literature that focuses on the same
major topic. The “fresh” way in which he constructed the protagonist’s identity as a somewhat
societal theatrical act, in relation to his unique way of writing, his metatext that reflects upon itself,
makes the text appear as if it wrote itself. In addition to all of the above, the genius, graphic
metaphor of the stain that echoes all throughout the storyline, make the novel much more an
outstanding piece of contemporary literature. Hereby, hopefully, although there are immensely
more considerations to be made on this topic, I have managed to illustrate the point that I tried to
make, that being that the plot of the novel evolves and revolves around the sole distinctiveness of
the protagonist, a tremendously convoluted stained identity.

References:

 BURKE, P. J. (1980). "The self: Measurement implications from a symbolic interactionist

perspective". In Social Psychology Quarterly, 43:18-29.
 Dictionary.com. (2019). Passing. Available online at
[https://www.dictionary.com/browse/passing], last accessed on 6.20.2019 at 12:01 UTC
+02:00.
 Dictionary.com. (2019). Spook. Available online at
[https://www.dictionary.com/browse/spook], last accessed on 6.20.2019 at 12:00 UTC
+02:00.
 ROTH, PHILLIP. (2001). The Human Stain. Vintage International: United States of
America.
 STRYKER, S. (1968). "Identity salience and role performance”. In Journal of Marriage
and the Family, 4:558-564.
 STRYKER, S. (1980). "Toward an adequate social psychology of the self." In
Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 9:383-385.