How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Where was the Jew in him? You couldn't find it yet you knew it was there. (1.45)
Being Jewish in America is one of Zuckerman's major themes. He delights in exploring Jewish stereotypes and Jewish realities. In American Pastoral's predecessor, The Human Stain, Zuckerman's hero is Coleman "Silky" Silk, a man passing as a Jew who is not a Jew. Here we have the Swede, a man who is Jewish, but who can pass as Gentile.
Quote #2
"It's the worst city in the world, Skip." (1.60)
Newark is the heart of Philip Roth's America. It's always the most wonderful and the most awful place in the world. From the time of the 1967 riots to 1995, when Zuckerman and the Swede are eating at Vincent's, Newark has fallen on troubled times and is a hotbed of poverty, crime, and despair.
Quote #3
The depression had disappeared. Everything was in motion. The lid was off. Americans were to start over again, in masse, everyone in it together. (2.1)
This is from the speech Zuckerman writes in the wee hours of the morning after he's already been to his forty-fifth high school reunion. He's thinking about America just after the end of World War II. It's the mood of America in general, as he perceived it as a child in his specific neighborhood.