Appearance and reality are one of the main themes of 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 pose a strong public face, but the reality of their lives contradicts the appearance they adopt. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Philip Roth creates a near-perfect, idealistic character, the Swede, in his novel American Pastoral. The novel opens with Nathan Zuckerman and his high school reunion. As Zuckerman recalls his high school years, he remembers Seymour Levov, or the Swede, who was the picture of perfection. Swede was one of Zuckerman's older brothers and someone to look up to and idealize. The Swede was a star athlete, loved by all, successful in everything he attempted. As far as one could see, Swede's life was sure to be a success. After graduating from college Seymour, a Jew, married a Catholic woman and a former Miss New Jersey. The Swede had it all. In 1985 Zuckerman's childhood model connected with him and asked to meet him. Zuckerman and Levov had dinner in New York where Zuckerman expected Levov to reveal his grief over his father's death. Instead, much of the dinner was spent discussing Zuckerman's home life. The Swedish wall is a wall with a bland exterior. He was polite, kind and cold, but it was clear there was something he wasn't saying. Swede's life was not as simple and glorious as Zuckerman first made it out to be. The initial apparition states that Seymour Levov's life will be a success. So, his cool look at lunch brought calm and control. In reality, none of these appearances are true. Swede explains in the novel that “everything he shouts is wrong… causes, clear answers, who is to blame. Reasons. But there are no reasons. She is forced to be as she is. We are all…. Jerry tries to rationalize it but you can't. All this is something else, something he knows absolutely nothing about. Nobody does. 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. Swede talked about her daughter Merry with Jerry. For the past five years Merry has lived a life away from her family in a world that the rest of the Levovs, especially the older generations, cannot understand. Her father complains that his daughter has been raped, that she lives in a state of filth and that she participates in radical and dangerous attacks. Levov's life, despite its original appearance, has been one of struggle, suffering and difficulty as his family life continually creates stress in his situation. Jerry Levov blames Merry for his brother's downfall. She states that her brother's life was destroyed explaining his rebellion against his father and the resulting tensions related to his life choices. No matter how much evidence Jerry brings to the table, his claim cannot be as simple as it seems. Merry engages in political battles, participates in attacks, flees from her family and much more. Jerry states that these are the reasons his brother's life fell apart. However, while it may seem that way to Jerry, the fact remains that Merry's life can only be explained through chaos. In the passage mentioned above Swede seems to realize that there was no way to predict how Merry would react to a certain upbringing. The outcome and her reaction to the way her father treated and punished her are subject to many other things. Like most of life, it seems like pure chaos. The ability topredicting an outcome, knowing how a person will respond is non-existent. The journey that a single life, that of Swede or Merry, takes cannot be fully understood and explained by the narrative of their life unless we accept that chaos and lack of concrete reasoning influence how that person might end up. . This reality is one that Jerry Levov fails to grasp, unlike his brother, due to the overwhelming appearance of the situation. So for many people, what appears masks the pure irrational nature of life. Another novel that deals with 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 it, knows success and happiness. Michael Mulvaney, the father of the group, runs a successful roofing company while his wife Caroline runs the idyllic home and farm as well as a small business. This power couple has everything you could ever dream of. Along with their multiple talents and financial stability, the couple fathers four children. Their children are well-liked and are excellent students. The picture of the perfect family is painted through what appears to be the Mulvaney method. However, despite the family's bright exterior, after their daughter Marianne suffers trauma, everything they know and love falls apart. Suddenly, the Mulvaneys, a strong-willed and successful family, are hiding behind anger, shame and pain. Marianne is raped at a school dance and attempts to hide it from her parents. After the truth comes out, her father decides to press charges against the boy, but Marianne will not testify against her rapist in court. Everything Michael ever was turns out to be a lie. Michael could do nothing to regain his status as a father, leader and success. His worldview collapsed around him when he failed to carefully protect his family and ensure success for every member. He couldn't help Marianne and that was too big a failure to face. Instead, he had forgotten she was there; at least he tried to forget his presence. In the novel, and to Marianne, it seemed that Michael no longer recognized his daughter. He had apparently completely erased her from his life. Eventually, Marianne was physically exiled from home, and the impression that Michael had forgotten his daughter became stronger. In reality, this was simply a facade to mask the pain he was suffering from. Michael failed his daughter because of his inability to protect her. His ideal, perfect world has turned out to be a complete fiction, and his only way to deal with it is to resort to another fiction: the facade of oblivion instead of 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 slowly left to independently find a way to live with themselves and deal with the destruction they had witnessed. This family could never truly be the image everyone thought it was. If the Mulvaneys had truly been as perfect and strong as original public opinion would have portrayed them to be, then Marianne's rape would not have hit the family unit so hard. He tore them to pieces. This can only be rationalized through the concept that the family, despite appearances, operated under false pretenses of perfection when in reality the unit was weak enough that it could collapse with a single blow. The dynamic of this family has been redefined by an event and individual reactions to that event. Michael and the.