Supersummary, a modern alternative to sparknotes and cliffsnotes, offers highquality study guides for challenging works of literature. It was in the summer of 1998 that my neighbor coleman silkwho, before retiring two years earlier, had been a classics professor at nearby athena college for some twentyodd years as well as serving for sixteen more years as the dean. The human stain is a 2003 drama film directed by robert benton. But it hurts to be alive my friend in this silent tide were driftwood passing by dont you wish you were a child again just for a minute just for a minute more hear the ticking of a clock the sound of. Coleman silk anthony hopkins, faunia farley nicole kidman about the human stain. The human stain 2000 is a novel by philip roth that was published on may 5, 2000. These are just some of the searing issues of contemporary american life on which no light.
While there is a central narrator, nathan zuckerman, through whose eyes and ears, we learn about the antihero coleman silk, there are different voices that make up the whole story. Secrets of the skin, and of the heart the new york. Selfdevelopment and the built idea of personality a fundamental subject of the novel is simply the job innovation in making ones character. The human stain phillip roth summary it is 1998, the year in which america is whipped into a frenzy of prurience by the impeachment of a president, and in a small new england town, an aging classics professor, coleman silk, is forced to retire when his colleagues decree that he is a racist.
Hopkins plays a lightskinned africanamerican professor who has spent his entire life telling people he is jewish. Its the human stain talk about the growing hunger ask why with deep concerned dont you think the human races is ceaselessly vain chorus. Coleman silk, the first jewish dean of stuffy athena college, a classics professor who has almost singlehandedly. For the first third of the human stain i thought similarly, but as the book progressed, and the story didnt in any depth, i eventually grew weary of the world view and the overwriting, and skimmed to the end. Its also about the way that carefully constructed new personas, no matter how scrubbed and burnished, cant erase the stain of the original. The opening scene shows a car driven off the icy road. The characters in the human stain dodge these names to develop their own personalities for an assortment of. At the same time, the film is apparently interesting for the wide audience and attracts the attention of numerous viewers. To clear his name, silk writes a book about the events with his friend and colleague nathan zuckerman gary sinise, who in the process discovers a dark secret silk has hidden his whole life.
The human stain is a novel of identity that revolves around the love affair of two people who could not be more opposite. The human stain is a film released in 2003 that became extremely popular, especially among the audience which gets used to being characterized as intellectuals. Anthony hopkins and nicole kidman in the human stain 2003 anthony hopkins at. By any reasonable measure, this standin for the author zuckerman is a novelist who frequently reminds of us of mr. It is 1998, the year in which america is whipped into a frenzy of prurience by the impeachment of a president, and in a small new england town, an aging classics professor, coleman silk, is forced to retire when his colleagues decree that he is a racist. The narrator of the human stain is nathan zuckerman, a writer, who tells the story of a series of events happening to his neighbor in rural new england in the summer of 1998. Anthony hopkins, nicole kidman, ed harris, and gary sinise. The human stain summary and study guide supersummary. A reading of the human stain article pdf available in the cambridge quarterly 391.
Author philip roth used the zuckerman character in several of his other novels including one titled zuckerman unbound, and zuckerman is generally. Coleman silk anthony hopkins is a worldly and admired professor who loses his job after unwittingly making a racial slur. The human stain movie at the end of this movie, the human stain, we tried to remember why we had purchased this dvd in the first place. All the while, silk engages in an affair with faunia farley nicole. The human stain bears all the scars and stretch marks of a work that has tried to condense the necessarily literary elements of an esteemed novel into a feature film format. Philip roths ambitious and literary novel is awkwardly adapted for the screen. He is accused of making a racist epithet, and quits. During a class discussion he calls two missing students spooks. For your reference, we provided these the human stain quotes with page numbers using the following version of the book. Philip roth reads from the human stain 2000 although zuckerman does not directly help silk, he begins tentative investigations on behalf of his own book, the human stain, a title that clearly refers not just to the taint left upon this earth by our species but also to the pigmentation that.
The human stain concerns a new england classics professor, coleman silk, who is hounded out of his job for alleged racism. When a disgraced former college dean has a romance with a mysterious younger woman haunted by her dark, twisted past, he is forced to confront a shocking fact about his own life that he has kept secret for fifty years. That the title was substantially obscured by a sticker on the wrapper had contributed, considering that the human stain title is anything but enticing. The human stain is a flawed but engrossing story about the way that people try to escape their pasts. Like because that is when you love somebody when you see them being game in the face of the worst. Coleman silk is a classics professor, a man who was once well respected in his small community before an accusation took from him the identity he spent fifty years creating. The human stain is the third of philip roths trilogy of novels that explore the relationship between public and private life in america during the second half of the 20th century. The human stain is a schizophrenic, if not unevenly written novel. The american novel since 1945 engl 291 in this lecture on the human stain, professor hungerford traces the ways that roths novel conforms to and pushes beyond the genre she calls the identity plot. And this isnt a movie like the crying game, which is really about its secret. The human stain, published in 2000, is a novel by american novelist philip roth. This is the story of coleman silk sir anthony hopkins, a classics. The film stars anthony hopkins, nicole kidman, gary sinise and ed harris.
The movie explores his real identity and his relationship with the rough, sexual, and enigmatic faunia farley, whose exhusband a violent vietnam war veteran stalks her. It takes a while before the entirety of the story is revealed. It is as though it is written by different people, with variable success. Roths extraordinary recent productivity the prizewinning sabbaths theater, 1995, and american pastoral, 1997 continues apace with this impressively replete and very moving chronicle of an academic scandal and its impact on both the aging professor at its center and his friendalter ego novelist nathan zuckerman. The human stain, houghton mifflin harcourt, 2000 376 pages. And this isnt a movie like the crying game, which is really about its. Theres no way we can contain the secret, and were not even trying to, the film s producer, tom rosenberg, told me at the toronto film festival. The human stain 2003 rotten tomatoes movie trailers.
I had been very impressed with american pastoral, with roths style of prose and his insight into his characters. As in american pastoral 1997 and i married a communist 1998, nathan zuckerman, roths favorite alter ego, serves as the narrator. The human stain contains a significant secret about one of the characters. The human stain quotes showing of 101 the pleasure isnt in owning the person. The human stain was shot on location in quebec, canada and at williams college, williamstown, ma. I have always thought of it as a new way of looking at the holocaust. The human stain pictures and movie photo gallery check out just released the human stain pics, images, clips, trailers, production photos and more from rotten tomatoes. But much will depend on critical reaction to the films more questionable elements, and especially to the casting of anthony hopkins. In the turbulent summer of 1998 while the country reacts.
The human stain is rated r under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian for nudity, sex and implied violence. The film, which moves backward and forward in time, is narrated in voiceover by nathan zuckerman, played by gary sinise. My novel the human stain was described in the entry as allegedly inspired by the life of. Its screenplay, by nicholas meyer, is based on the novel of the same name by philip roth. It is the summer of 1998, and while the clintonlewinsky affair is smeared across the headlines, a more intriguing scandal is unfolding in a small new england college town. The concluding volume in philip roths acclaimed american trilogy, the human stain explores the ambiguous boundaries between truth and falsehood, past and present, perception and reality, and offers a moving meditation on the limits of what we can really know about each other. Coleman silk, dean of athena college, has been forced to retire because of spurious charges of racism. When coleman finds faunia stranded on the side of the road, he offers to give her a ride home. At the end of this movie, the human stain, we tried to remember why we had purchased this dvd in the first place. This 34page guide for the human stain by philip roth includes detailed chapter summaries and analysis covering 5 chapters, as well as several more indepth sections of expertwritten literary analysis. Chapter 1 summary the first line of chapter 1, everybody knows, outlines the plot. Theres no way we can contain the secret, and were not even trying to, the films producer, tom rosenberg, told me at the toronto film festival. Coleman silk is a classics professor, a man who was once well respected in his small community before an accusation took.