The Plot Against America

On May 22nd of 1942, the Roths receive a letter from Metropolitan Life informing them that under the OAA’s new Homestead 42 act, their family will be relocated to rural Danville, Kentucky in September. The letter states that just as the Homestead Act of 1862 provided “exciting new opportunities” to Americans willing to venture westward, Homestead 42 gives “emerging American families” the opportunity to move west. The letter congratulates the Roths on being chosen out of a number of worthy candidates.

When Herman tells Sandy, Philip, and Bess the news, Bess becomes panicked. She knows that in the town of Danville, whose population is 6,700, there will be no other Jews. Herman, however, is calm and resigned—he says that many other families are being relocated and that Kentucky will perhaps be better for them than Montana, Kansas, or Oklahoma. Herman tries to highlight the positives, but Bess is irate. She knows how alienated she felt as a child, and she points out how hard she has worked to make sure that her children go to school with other Jewish children and feel grounded in a Jewish community. She is mad that this is how she’s being repaid for all her hard work.

Herman tells the boys that they can ask him any questions they want or express any concerns they have. Sandy, though, is delighted about the move—Danville is just 14 miles from the Mawhinneys’ farm. Philip is frightened—he knows that Herman sealed their family’s fate the second he ordered Aunt Evelyn to leave and never come back. He is determined to never leave his beautiful neighborhood.

After dinner, Herman and Bess talk about the upsetting news. Bess remains fixated on the idea of being the only Jewish family in town. She has no interest in befriending “Gentile women” who will be nice to her face but harbor anti-Semitic thoughts behind her back. She declares that the government cannot force them to move—the government cannot make Jews do something just because of their religion. Sandy mocks Bess for her paranoia and then gets up and heads to the bedroom. Abandoned by Alvin, disappointed in Sandy, and frightened by his father’s impotence and his mother’s panic, Philip feels he is the only one who can protect his family.

The next day after school, Philip gets on the downtown bus and goes to Aunt Evelyn’s office. Philip heads inside and tells the receptionist who he is. In no time, Aunt Evelyn comes down the hall and wraps Philip up in hugs and kisses. Philip tells her about going to see footage of at the White House dinner at the Newsreel, and Evelyn begins describing the event in great detail. Philip congratulates himself on tricking Evelyn into believing that he has come here to hear all about the dinner. 

Philip spots a signed picture of the President and Mrs. Lindbergh together in the Oval Office, as well as one of Evelyn shaking Lindbergh’s hand. Philip realizes that Evelyn’s “shameless vanity”—and the vanity of those just like her—is determining the fate of millions. Philip asks Evelyn if she met von Ribbentrop—she nods and coyly states that she even danced with him. Evelyn shows Philip more pictures from the event, pointing out the glamorous evening bag, festoon necklace, and large engagement ring she wore to the dinner. Evelyn, wrapped up in excitement, hugs Philip close again. When she releases Philip, he asks her if she knows he’s moving to Kentucky. She says she does. Philip says he doesn’t want to go.

Aunt Evelyn’s demeanor changes sharply. She asks Philip who has sent him to see her, and he tells her that no one has. Evelyn coldly tells Philip that there’s nothing to be afraid of in Kentucky. Philip asks if Seldon and Mrs. Wishnow can go instead, and Evelyn again asks if someone has put him up to visiting her. Philip insists that he came alone to ask for Evelyn to send the Wishnows instead of Philip and his own family. Aunt Evelyn points out a large map showing all the relocations that are planned. She explains that she has no control over the plans—but that even if she did, she’d still insist on the Roths leaving “the ghetto.” 

Evelyn reaches into her desk and comes around to where Philip is sitting. Philip senses a manic expression on Evelyn’s face as she tells him to be brave and go along with the move—she insists he can’t grow up to be frightened like his parents. She hands him a package and explains that it contains a chocolate—she has brought it for him from the White House dinner. She gives him one for Sandy, too, then asks what Seldon’s last name is. Philip tells her. Evelyn asks if Seldon is his best friend. Philip, paralyzed by fear, says that he is. Philip takes the chocolates home and disposes of them, throwing them over the orphanage fence. A few days later, the Wishnows receive a letter stating that they have been chosen for an exciting opportunity out west.

At the end of May, Herman and Bess host a small group of concerned Jewish MetLife agents and their wives. Mrs. Wishnow drops Philip, Sandy, and Seldon off at a movie theater in the next town over. The group of adults—most of whom have grown up in the same place and long subscribed to the same values—invite a local rabbi to sit with them as they discuss what is going on in America. The adults are people Philip has known all his life—they are Jews whose Jewishness is a natural part of who they are. None of Philip’s parents’ friends or neighbors have any desire to deny or change who they are, no matter the consequences.

Sitting in the movie with Seldon, Philip dreads the move to Kentucky even more intensely—he knows that Seldon will likely be his only companion. Confronted with the prospect of isolation with Seldon, Philip feels compelled to rebel. Over the last several weeks, he has been stealing from Seldon each time Bess makes Philip play with him. He is taking Seldon’s clothing and stowing it in a cardboard suitcase in the cellar. One recent afternoon, Philip found he’d gathered enough items to dress up as Seldon—but after doing so and looking at himself in the mirror in the cellar, he felt like a freak. Philip quickly took the clothes off, stuffed them back into the suitcase, and added in the $19.50 left from the money Alvin gave him. Even Philip doesn’t know exactly why he’s packed the suitcase. 

Seldon is perplexed and distressed by the loss of his clothing. Bess, who has heard what’s happening from Mrs. Wishnow but who is clueless as to what’s going on, suggests that Philip give Seldon some clothes to replace the ones he’s mysteriously lost. Philip tells his mother he doesn’t want Seldon walking around in his clothes, but Bess is so upset by Philip’s selfishness that he gives in and offers up an outfit to Seldon—on the condition Seldon leave him alone.

When Philip, Sandy, and Seldon return home from the movies, they enjoy leftover deli sandwiches from the meeting and listen to the radio. For a moment, their lives feel intact and they feel comforted by the familiar rituals of their childhood. But as Philip sits with Seldon and watch him eats, he grows increasingly apprehensive about what will happen when their two families move to Kentucky.

That night at nine, Walter Winchell comes on the radio. Herman has been perturbed for weeks by Winchell’s failure to report on Homestead 42 and recently went so far as to write a letter begging the host to discuss the matter—but Bess, fearful that the letter would be intercepted and send to the FBI, discouraged Herman from mailing it. Herman reacted to what he perceived as Bess’s ongoing paranoia by declaring that he would not run away or hide within his own country—Bess, however, retorted that the country now belongs to Lindbergh and the goyim. Sandy told Philip, alone in their room that night, that their parents are “paranoid ghetto Jews.”

As Winchell comes on the radio the night of the adults’ meeting, Philip gets into bed. He doesn’t want to hear any more of the anxious talk. The night is warm, though, and Philip can’t sleep—he hears every word of Winchell’s broadcast. Winchell begins discussing Homestead 42 at last. He suggests that Homestead 42 Jews might end up in concentration camps—and states that at the very least the Lindbergh administration is actively working to separate and alienate American Jews, placing them in peril in far-flung regions where their neighbors might very well turn against them overnight. Winchell concludes the first segment of his broadcast by stating that he believes Lindbergh has agreed to Homestead 42 in exchange for a negotiation with Hitler stating that the Führer will spare England from invasion. 

As an advertisement comes on, Philip hears Sandy begin screaming at the radio, calling Winchell a liar and excoriating Herman for listening to Winchell’s nonsense. Sandy insists he lived in Kentucky and that there’s nothing to be afraid of—yet still, he says, “you people believe him.” Herman reprimands Sandy for acting as if he’s not Jewish as well, threatening to drive him to Penn Station and send him away on the next train Kentucky if he continues talking that way.

The Roths’ phone begins ringing off the hook—Bess and Herman answer calls from their concerned neighbors, all of whom want to discuss the Winchell broadcast. Having overheard their calls—and Herman and Bess’s private debriefing afterward—Philip makes what he feels is a sound, even-headed decision. He wants to run away from home. He descends to the cellar, opens up the suitcase, and changes into some of Seldon’s clothes. He feels determined to resist the “disaster” which has swept up his friends and family. The last thing Philip grabs before leaving the house is his stamp album—but shortly after he steps out of the house and starts down the street toward the horse-filled orphanage grounds, his memory goes blank.

Philip wakes up the next morning in the nearby Beth Israel Hospital—his parents are standing over him. His head hurts, and his doctor tells him that he likely has a concussion: he was kicked by a horse while walking through the orphanage grounds. Bess tells him that Seldon heard Philip sneaking out of the house and followed him down the street and onto the land owned by the orphanage. Seldon watched as a startled horse, running from Philip, kicked Philip in the head. Seldon immediately ran home for help. Bess tells Philip that Seldon saved his life. While helping to save Philip, Seldon also discovered that Philip was the culprit behind his missing clothes.

Philip is devastated and ashamed—but even worse than the shame of being discovered is the pain he feels when he realizes that his stamp collection is gone. When Philip tells Bess that he took them with him to run away—and that they weren’t with the suitcase when it was found—Bess goes out into the woods behind the orphanages and searches for them. She cannot find them, and Philip is inconsolable. He has visions of a mob of orphans tearing the stamp album apart, hating it because it isn’t theirs—because nothing is theirs. After putting the money she found in Philip’s pants into a savings account for him, Bess makes one more trip to the grounds to comb them for any remnant of the stamp album.