Tragic Innocence in Philip Roth’s American Pastoral

American Pastoral is not only an elegiac fictional biography, but an in-depth analysis of the demise of the American dream in the context of post-war social and cultural mutations. The loss of innocence echoes the tragic mythical Fall from Paradise and the novel’s main characters, Seymour “Swede” Levov and his daughter, Merry, mirror this process in a complex and meaningful way.