Exploring the Issues and Challenges of Human Existence in Philip Roth's Novel 'Nemesis'

Abstract

Philip Roth’s Nemesis is a unique novel which categorically lays stress on powerful and burning existential outrage of the writer through the character, Bucky Cantor. Nemesis perfectly portrays the anxiety, fear and the hopelessness created by the polio epidemic in the Newark Jewish community through the character of the twenty-three-years-old, Bucky Cantor. In his writing, Roth explores the terrible impacts of the epidemic, the explanation of which resemble with that of the current coronavirus pandemic. As the epidemic kills people and leave the survivors with permanent disability; the protagonist himself is getting affected by it. Roth deals deeply with the protagonist’s inner conflicts and the existential angst experienced by him, as he becomes more and more disillusioned with his own beliefs. It is not so arduous a task to notice even in the first reading of the novel, the recurring instances of the protagonist reeling under the burden of existential crisis and who is apparently seen to be in a perpetual conflict with himself, to the extent that he feels, “the only way to save a remnant of his honour was in denying himself everything he had ever wanted for himself” (262). Though existentialism as a philosophy became popular during the twentieth century after the World War I and continued to have its sway through the Great Depression and the World War II, its relevance in the contemporary times cannot be ignored, especially when humanity as a whole is still stuck in the trauma of the irreparable devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which again perfectly parallels the plot of Nemesis where the impetus which initiates the existential crisis in the protagonist is the tragic event of the polio epidemic. Regarded as one of the ‘fathers of existentialism’ along with Friedrich Nietzsche (Flynn 3), Kierkegaard’s philosophical concepts which constructs on the human condition and his views on notions such as self-realization, anxiety, despair, tragedy and the search for meaning are particularly inviting to apply those concepts to Roth’s Nemesis which would eventually render a new dimension and appreciation for the novel.

Neo-humanism and the Modern World: A Philosophical Perspective through the Lens of Philip Roth's Everyman

“…It should be highlighted that even though the protagonist focuses on avoiding the herd, he actually desperately craves companionship. Even trying to find a friend who shares his interests proved futile because he lacked the strength to build one or was unable to do it on the available land (Thiyagarajan, 2022). Everyman's deciding statement is based on his reflection on these words, -Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre‖ (Roth,p.156) Human lives typically end pitifully in Everyman, providing the grieving with neither comfort nor closure.…”