The Plot Against America

One morning shortly after Alvin returned, he fell while at the sink. After crawling across the kitchen floor to his bedroom, he had seen Sandy’s portfolio under the bed. Inside he finds the three portraits of Lindbergh from before, plus several new ones that Evelyn convinced him to do after Lindbergh was elected. 

Alvin begins spending less time at home and more in an alley, playing poker and shooting craps: “What he appeared to have lost in combat, along with his leg, was every decent habit inculcated in him while living as my parents’ ward” (157). Alvin also seems to have lost all interest in politics. 

Herman follows the war and politics obsessively and is alarmed by Germany’s success against Russia. If Russia is conquered and forced to serve in the Third Reich, millions of Russian Jews would be captured and killed. It torments Herman that Alvin no longer seems to care. 

Philip finds Alvin shooting craps with Shushy Margulis, a hoodlum who works as a runner for a bookie. Shushy’s mother is the seamstress who fixed Alvin’s pants. Philip remembers that Alvin taught him to shoot craps, but now he is angry with him. He thinks of what his family has sacrificed “to prevent him from turning himself into a replica of Shushy” (162). He hopes that Alvin will lose his disability pension to gambling. When the game ends, Alvin gives Philip two, twenty-dollar bills. On the way home, Philip walks by an orphanage and looks at two of the horses that are there. He contemplates opening the gate and letting the horses escape, but keeps going. 

On his way home, a man in a suit walks next to Philip and calls him by name. He says he is an FBI agent working for J. Edgar Hoover. He says he has some questions about Alvin. He asks about Alvin’s recovery, and then what he and Shushy were talking about, and whether that conversation involved Lindbergh, Canada, or Hitler. He asks him to verify that Hitler is a bad person, and then asks him to name famous Americans who are bad. Philip stops talking. When the man leaves—after telling Philip to call him Don—Philip feels like he has fallen into a trap. 

There are three police cars outside Philip’s house when he arrives. The children outside are saying that Philip’s downstairs neighbor, Mr. Wishnow, has hanged himself in his closet and they are waiting outside and hoping to see the corpse. When the medics wheel the body out, Philip realizes that it is his father, not Mr. Wishnow. His mother hugs him; Philip cannot understand why she is so calm. He realizes he is mistaken: the body is Mr. Wishnow after all. He died in his bed after being sick for a long time, not of suicide. 

Philip learns that earlier that day, the FBI agent, Don, had also questioned his mother, Sandy, and his father. After a family dinner that Alvin does not attend, Philip’s mother takes a plate to Mrs. Wishnow and her son, Seldon. Philip and Sandy talk about the FBI agent. Philip believes that Mr. Wishnow killed himself because of something that happened with the FBI. He thinks of all the things that had happened in 1942: “Never before—the great refrain of 1942” (171). 

Uncle Monty visits on Sunday. He begins to criticize Alvin again. By nightfall, Alvin accepts the job at the market. He breaks down crying and says he will no longer associate with Shushy and asks for forgiveness. Monty tells him that if he doesn’t keep his promises, the Roths will be through with him. One week later, the FBI agent interrogates Alvin’s co-workers, insinuating that Alvin is a traitor to his country. Monty is forced to fire him. Alvin leaves for Philadelphia and a job with Shushy’s uncle. 

In the spring, a state dinner is given at the White House to honor Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, a Nazi who had told Hitler that Lindbergh would be their ideal American president. FDR makes a statement asking Lindbergh to rescind the invitation, but is attacked by Vice President Wheeler, in the press, and then ignored. 

25,000 people fill Madison Square Garden for a rally, largely comprising members of the Bund, who identify as “American patriots of German extraction” (176). They are more anti-Communist than pro-Nazi, but are openly anti-Semitic. Members wear a white button with black letters that say, “KEEP AMERICA OUT OF THE JEWISH WAR” (176). The administration tries to distance itself from the rally, with limited success. At a rally held in response, FDR speaks and says that the only thing they have to fear “is the obsequious yielding to his Nazi friends by Charles A. Lindbergh” (177). 

Ten days later, Lindbergh flies from city to city in his plane, addressing crowds. At each stop, he only says that he has kept his promises and that no Americans have been put in danger since his inauguration. He does not mention the Bund, von Ribbentrop, or FDR. 

On weekends, Herman takes Philip and Sandy to the Newsreel Theater to watch an hour-long news program. He is friends with the projectionist, Mr. Tirschwell. Philip remembers the footage of the Bund rally best, because they chanted von Ribbentrop’s name for a long time, as if he were the American president. It is hard for Sandy to watch the shows, given his work with the OAA. Philip describes him, just a few months from beginning high school, as having “an air of authority seldom seen in one so young” (182). He has proven to be a gifted recruiter. 

One night, Alvin tells Philip that Sandy is “less than nothing” (182). Alvin says Sandy is an opportunist and a sell-out who only cares about his own importance. Alvin adds that Sandy is not in the OAA and only claims to be in the OAA to protect his family. 

Rabbi Bengelsdorf and Evelyn are invited to von Ribbentrop’s state dinner in April. She is now engaged to the rabbi, despite Herman’s and her sister’s views that she is “an “underling to those now in power” (184). Evelyn then tells them that Sandy is also invited to the dinner as an example of the success of Just Folks. He shouts at Sandy that he will not let him be the guest of a “blood-stained Nazi criminal” (186) and Sandy says that it is a great opportunity. Herman throws Evelyn out of the house and tells her to never come back. Philip’s mother follows Evelyn outside. When Herman looks outside, Bess is gone. He goes to the Wishnow house, but Bess is not there. Philip is convinced that his mother is gone forever and Herman will now marry Mrs. Wishnow. He worries that he will have to use the closet where Mr. Wishnow hanged himself. 

Late that night, Bess calls, asking Herman to come pick her up from Evelyn’s home. She tells Sandy that at some point, she and he need to talk alone about what is happening, in case she can help him understand why his father is upset. The next morning, Herman stays home from work to try to talk to Sandy. He says that all of Hitler’s lies have been helped to spread through von Ribbentrop’s mouth. Sandy says that if he prevents him from going, he will never forgive him. He says he can’t let Aunt Evelyn down, but Herman says that she is the one who let them down. His mother agrees. Sandy tells Herman that he is a worse dictator than Hitler. Bess slaps him. Sandy says, “I’m going to the White House with Aunt Evelyn. I don’t care whether you ghetto Jews like it or not” (193). She hits him again and he begins to cry. 

Weeks later, the Tirschwells leave for Canada, which shocks Philip. Herman watches a Newsreel Theater program about the state dinner and is shocked to see Evelyn and Bengelsdorf there, smiling and greeting the Nazi. He tells Bess that he went to watch the footage because he doesn’t understand how this could be happening to their country: “If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’d think I was having a hallucination” (196). Sandy says that nothing is happening in America, then begins leaving the dinner table every time his father discusses current events. 

When Bess learns that Shepsie Tirschwell is taking his family to Canada in June, she is afraid and wonders why the date is so specific. She worries that Shepsie knows something they don’t. Herman says that the election in November will fix the situation in America; Bess says that it will only make the Republicans stronger. 

Philip goes to the Newsreel Theater to see the footage from the White House dinner. He forges a note that says he is from an orphanage and should be let into the movie for free. He wants to see Evelyn on the screen. First, there are several minutes of bloody footage from the war in Europe, intercut with scenes of Lindbergh and his efforts to keep America out of the fighting. Evelyn is on screen with Bengelsdorf  for less than three seconds: “Among the many improbabilities the camera established as irrefutably real, Aunt Evelyn’s disgraceful triumph was for me the least real of all” (200). When the film ends, Mr. Tirschwell appears with the note and says he has called Philip’s father. Philip begins to cry and asks him what is happening in June. Mr. Tirschwell will only say that he has a new job there: “That he was sparing me terrified me, and I was again in tears” (202). When his father comes to get him, he slaps Philip before putting him in the car.