Silko, Morrison, and Roth: Studies in Survival

Ethnic Americans from African America, Jewish American, and Native American backgrounds who attempt to merge with mainstream America face the very obvious problems of historically entrenched racism and anti-Semitism. Three modern American writers, Philip Roth, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Toni Morrison, have chosen a form of narrative that balances a longing for inclusion with a deep-seated anger toward the larger white or, in Roth’s case, gentile social structure. This study of six of Silko, Morrison and Roth’s longer works focuses on their use of a survival narrative motif as a way of clarifying their ethnic positioning.