Traces of the House of the Catechumens in The Plot Against America

Document Type

Article

Authors

Roy Humlicek-Spindler, University of Minnesota - MorrisFollow

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to give readers of the novel The Plot Against America by Philip Roth background information to better understand the novel. It argues that Philip Roth was aware of the Jewish to Catholic conversion institution of the early modern period known as the “House of the Catechumens,” and uses his knowledge of it to inform the experiences of the character Sandy Roth, a Jewish teenager, in the novel. Sandy’s experiences with the institution called the “Office of American Absorption” in a historically fictitious 20th-century America bear striking resemblances to the Jewish experience in the House of the Catechumens, and the paper uses these parallels to make its argument.

Recommended Citation

Humlicek-Spindler, Roy (2024) "Traces of the House of the Catechumens in The Plot Against America," Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal: Vol. 11: Iss. 2, Article 4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.61366/2576-2176.1145
Available at: https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/horizons/vol11/iss2/4

Primo Type

Article