Americanism

Throughout the book, the narrative makes pointed references to what is today called American “exceptionalism”, an attitude or belief system that’s expressed openly and explicitly in Chambers’ comments in Chapter 19 about the independence he believes he’s teaching his daughter. “She’s an American,” he says, “and I want her to know that she can go anywhere and do what she wants, within reason. I don’t want her growing up to be afraid of anything.” This, in a nutshell, sums up his essential philosophy about what it means to be an American, but what the book does, in general, is take issue with the phrase “in reason”.

Throughout the narrative, comments suggest that the phrase and the concept of “within reason” have become corrupt, defined by obsession rather than actual reason. The action of the novel bears this out, as several of the American...