- Person
- Arthur Miller
- Lived
- 1915–2005
- Field
- Theatre
- From
- American
The story
Arthur Miller grew up in a Jewish family in New York, and after graduating from the University of Michigan in 1938 he wrote two plays with Jewish themes, one of them an attack on the Western democracies for appeasing Hitler. Neither was produced, and he became convinced that the New York theatre was afraid of openly Jewish material. During the Second World War he worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard while continuing to write, as Americans fought Nazism abroad while antisemitism persisted at home.
His answer was a novel, Focus, published in 1945, his only novel. It is set in New York near the end of the war. Lawrence Newman, a timid gentile personnel manager who quietly shares his neighbours' prejudices, buys a new pair of glasses that make bigots take him for a Jew. He is moved to an office out of sight of customers and passed over for promotion, so he quits, and he becomes a target of the same hostility his neighbours aim at Finkelstein, the Jewish owner of the local candy store.
As an antisemitic group organises in the neighbourhood, Newman tries to prove his loyalty to the bigots but is attacked as a Jew at their rally. In the end he and Finkelstein fight off a street gang together, and Newman refuses to play along with prejudice any longer. My Jewish Learning calls the book an unambiguous polemic against antisemitism, and notes that it was a commercial success.
Along with Laura Z. Hobson's Gentleman's Agreement, Focus broke new ground by shining a critical light on the persistence of antisemitism in America. Its insight, that the bigot's idea of the Jew is imposed from outside and can fall on anyone, ran through Miller's later work, from Incident at Vichy to Broken Glass.
The novel was well received in Britain, where The Illustrated London News called it an effective tract for the times. In 2001 it was made into a film starring William H. Macy, and it is still read as an early, brave study of prejudice in wartime and postwar America.
Why it matters
Focus helped break American fiction's silence about domestic antisemitism and showed how prejudice can target anyone.
About Arthur Miller
Playwright of Death of a Salesman and The Crucible who turned the American family into tragedy and refused to name names before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
More about Arthur Miller
- The Crucible became Arthur Miller's most performed playArthur Miller's The Crucible (1953), set during the Salem witch trials, became his most frequently produced work around the world.
- Arthur Miller directed Death of a Salesman in BeijingIn 1983 Arthur Miller travelled to China to direct Death of a Salesman with Chinese actors at the Beijing People's Art Theatre.
- Arthur Miller's legacy supports young people in theatreThe University of Michigan opened the Arthur Miller Theatre in 2007, and the Arthur Miller Foundation supports theatre education in New York City public schools.
- Arthur Miller led PEN International for persecuted writersIn 1965 Arthur Miller became the first American president of PEN International, using the role to campaign for imprisoned and persecuted writers.
- Arthur Miller refused to name names before CongressCalled before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1956, Arthur Miller refused to identify others; his contempt conviction was overturned in 1958.
- Arthur Miller's Broken Glass returned to KristallnachtArthur Miller's 1994 play Broken Glass, set in Brooklyn after Kristallnacht, is his most direct exploration of American Jewish identity.
- Incident at Vichy asked what each person owes the persecutedArthur Miller's 1964 play Incident at Vichy, about men detained in wartime France to be checked for Jewishness, asks what responsibility each of us bears for others.
- Arthur Miller brought an Auschwitz survivor's memoir to TVArthur Miller wrote Playing for Time (1980), a television drama based on Fania Fénelon's memoir of surviving Auschwitz by playing in its women's orchestra.
Sources
- Arthur Miller's Jewish Themes My Jewish Learning
- Arthur Miller Wikipedia
- Focus (novel) Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.