Appearance and reality are a major theme in contemporary American fiction. The characters in American Pastoral, We Were the Mulvaneys, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf may appear to live a certain way or represent a strong public face, but the reality of their lives contradicts the appearance they adopt. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original EssayPhilip Roth creates a near-perfect and idealistic character, the Swede, in his novel American Pastoral. The novel opens with Nathan Zuckerman and his high school reunion. As Zuckerman remembers his high school years, he remembers Seymour Levov, or Swede, who was the picture of perfection. Swede was one of Zuckerman's older brothers and someone to admire and idealize. The Swede was a star athlete, loved by all, who succeeded in everything he did. From what anyone could see, Swede's life was sure to be a success. After graduating from college, Seymour, who was Jewish, married a Catholic and former Miss New Jersey. The Swede had everything. In 1985, Zuckerman's childhood role model connected with him and asked to meet him. Zuckerman and Levov had dinner in New York where Zuckerman expected Levov to divulge his grief over his father's death. Instead, most of the dinner was spent discussing Zuckerman's home life. Swedish wall, a bland exterior wall. He was polite, gentle and calm, but it was clear he wasn't saying something. The Swede's life was not as simple and glorious as Zuckerman had initially portrayed it. The first appearance claims that Seymour Levov's life will be a success. Then his cool appearance at lunch presented calm and control. In reality, none of these appearances are true. The Swede explains in the novel that “everything he shouts is wrong… the causes, the answers clear, who is to blame. Reasons. But there is no reason. She has to be the way she is. We are all…. Jerry tries to rationalize it but you can't. This is all something else, something he knows absolutely nothing about. Nobody does it. It's not rational. It's chaos. It's chaos from start to finish. This quote comes from Swede's reflection on a conversation he has with his brother Jerry. The Swede discussed his daughter Merry with Jerry. For five years, Merry has lived away from her family, in a world that the rest of the Levovs, especially the older generations, cannot understand. Her father laments that his daughter was raped, that she lives in a state of filth and that she participates in radical and dangerous bombings. Levov's life, despite his original appearance, has been one of struggle, suffering, and difficulty as his home life continually introduces stress into his situation. Jerry Levov blames Merry for his brother's downfall. He claims his brother's life was destroyed, explaining his rebellion against his father and the stress that followed his life choices. No matter how much evidence Jerry provides, his claim cannot be as simple as it seems. Merry engages in political battles, participates in bombings, runs away from his family and much more. Jerry claims these are the reasons his brother's life fell apart. However, even though it may seem that way to Jerry, the fact remains that Merry's life can only be explained by chaos. In the aforementioned passage, Swede seems to realize that there was no way to predict how Merry would respond to a given upbringing. The result and his reaction to how his fathertreated and punished her depend on many other things. Like most things in life, it feels like pure chaos. The ability to predict an outcome, to know how a person will react, is non-existent. The journey that a single life takes, that of Swede or Merry, cannot be fully understood and explained by their life story unless one accepts that chaos and lack of concrete reasoning play a role. in how this person may end up. This reality is one that Jerry Levov cannot grasp, unlike his brother, due to the overwhelming appearance of the situation. So, for many people, this seems to mask the pure irrational nature of life. Another novel that addresses the theme of appearance versus reality is We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates. For the Mulvaney family, public image is the key to life. This family, according to those around them, knows success and happiness. Michael Mulvaney, the father of the group, runs a successful roofing business while his wife, Caroline, runs the idyllic home and farm in addition to a small business. This power couple has everything one could dream of. In addition to their multiple talents and financial stability, the couple has four children. Their children are highly regarded and wonderful students. The picture of the perfect family is painted through what appears to be the Mulvaney way. However, despite the family's bright exterior, after daughter Marianne experiences trauma, everything they know and their love crumbles. Suddenly the Mulvaneys, a strong-willed and successful family, were hiding behind anger, shame and pain. Marianne is raped at a school dance and tries to hide it from her parents. Once the truth is revealed, his father decides to file a complaint against the boy, but Marianne will not testify against her rapist in court. Everything Michael has ever been turns out to be a lie. There was nothing Michael could do to regain his status as a father, leader and success. His worldview collapsed when he was unable to accurately protect his family and ensure the success of each of its members. He couldn't help Marianne and that was too big a failure to face. Instead, he forgot her presence; at least he tried to forget her presence. In the novel and for Marianne, it seemed that Michael no longer recognized his daughter at all. Apparently, he had completely erased her from his life. Eventually, Marianne was physically exiled from the house, and the impression that Michael had forgotten his daughter grew stronger. In reality, it was just a facade to mask the pain he was suffering. Michael failed his daughter because of his inability to protect her. His ideal, perfect world has been revealed to be a complete sham and his only way to deal with it is to resort to another sham: the facade of oblivion rather than the reality of shame and anguish. As a result, Michael turned to alcohol as the life he knew fell apart. Michael lost his business, his daughter, his pride and even his wife. Each member of the Mulvaney family left slowly in order to independently find a way to live with themselves and cope with the destruction they had witnessed. This family could never truly be the image everyone thought it would be. If the Mulvaneys were as truly perfect and strong as initial public opinion wanted them to be, then Marianne's rape would not have affected the family unit as severely. It tore them apart. This can only be rationalized through the concept that the family, despite appearances, was operating under false pretenses of perfection when in reality the unit was weak enough that a single blow would cause it to collapse. There.