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Jeong, Heeyeon. “There Was No ‘American’ Pastoral, There: A Reading of Philip Roth’s American Pastoral.” Studies in English Language & Literature. 42.3 (2016): 167-186. This paper examines that the protagonist’s dream to be an American in Philip Roth’s American Pastoral is just an endless frustration and tragedy in the end. Starting from the 1940s, Roth asks a question about the definition of “being an American.” Being an American which has a connotation of including the “American dream,” is a fantasy itself. Swede, the main character, has lived as a hero for a Jewish community since his childhood. His dream is to become a WASP beyond his race, being a Jew. The falls of Swede, Newark, and America, however, are juxtaposed. Swede seems like he is attacked by Mary, his daughter as well as a bomb thrower, and a fatal series of American historical events such as the anti-Vietnam War movement and the civil rights movement. His family business failure and a national crisis exist side by side in American Pastoral. Roth reveals that there is no American dream or ideal pastoral. (Pusan National University)