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ock watching the sunburned faces andbodies floating in the water when a butterfly alighted on his shoulder and began to sipat him with its little mouth”(Roth 203).

Chapter Three The Crisis Outside the Jewish Community ...................... 35

A. The Plague as a Trial on Interethnic Communities ........................... 35

B. The Emergence of a Crisis of Multiethnic Integration ...................... 40

Conclusion .............................. 47

Chapter ThreeThe Crisis Outside the Jewish Community

A.The Plague as a Trial on Interethnic Communities

Plague points to the turbulent social situation.In the Bible,plagues are seen as ameans by which God punishes humanity,and such highly contagious diseases haveravaged human history,causing great historical disasters,making plagues a synonymfor social unrest.At the beginning of Nemesis,the description of the social situation is,“THE FIRST CASE of polio that summer came early in June,right after Memorial Day11,in a poor Italian neighborhood crosstown from where we lived”(Roth 8).Atthis time,European society was in turmoil,shrouded in a cold and oppressiveatmosphere,and large-scale wars seemed to be imminent.The low-lying terrain,thehot wind,and the pervasive smell in Nemesis all foreshadow the impending outbreakof the plague in the Newark community.The all-black funeral arrangements,thestrange and tragic deaths caused by the plague,and the harsh and unsympatheticattitudes of the healthy towards the sick,all reflect the irrationality and cruelty ofsociety in the face of disaster.

From the narrative in the first two chapters,it can be seen that regardless ofindividual or collective understanding of the plague,its origin is from the Italian groupoutside the initial community.“I’m playground director here,”Mr.Cantor said,pointing back over his shoulder toward us kids.“I’m asking you to leave the vicinityof the playground.You’ve got no business here and I’m asking you politely to go”.“What do you say?Since when is there a law against spreading polio,Mr.PlaygroundDirector?”(Roth 14).Therefore,in the situation where multiple ethnic groups arefacing the plague together,the source of the plague still comes from outside to inside.However,unlike the previous two chapters,the spread of the plague discussed in thischapter tends to focus on the role status of the source and the victim.Through the text,it can be seen that the condemnation of the third-party country to the Italian group asthe source of the plague is undoubtedly fatal(Honigsbaum 365).

Conclusion

Philip Milton Roth(1933-2018)was a prominent Jewish American writer knownfor his unique expressions and his focus on writing the historical life of the Jewishcommunity.His works portray the conflicts and contradictions between traditional andmodern moral values,and he is particularly known for his novel Nemesis,whichexplores the impact of a widespread plague on the Jewish community.

This thesis analyzes the novel Nemesis from three aspects of the plague:individual identity and belief,coexistence within the group,and multi-ethnicintegration.From these three aspects,it uncovers the underlying implications behindthe author’s writing about the plague.Th本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。