The novel alludes 影射 extensively to the social upheavals of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It refers to the 1967 Newark riots, the Watergate scandal, the sexual revolution and Deep Throat, the code name of the secret source in the Watergate scandal and the title of a 1972 pornographic film. In the novel's final scene, both the Watergate scandal and the pornographic film are discussed at a dinner party during which the first marriage of "the Swede" begins to unravel when he discovers that his wife is having an affair. The novel also alludes to the rhetoric of revolutionary violence of the radical fringe of the New Left and the Black Panthers, the trial of the leftist African-American activist Angela Davis, and the bombings carried out between 1969 and 1973 by the Weathermen and other radicals opposing the US military intervention in Vietnam. The novel quotes from Frantz Fanon's A Dying Colonialism, which Zuckerman imagines as one of the texts that inspires Merry to carry out her bombing of a local post office.

In the novel, Merry's bombing takes place in February 1968, during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, after which she flees her parental home. By that time she has had a "Weathermen motto" tacked up in her room for many months. In reality this would have been impossible. The Weathermen group was, in fact, formed in the summer of 1969. The lines of the "motto" which appear in the novel ("We are against everything that is good and decent in honky America. We will loot and burn and destroy. We are the incubation of your mothers' nightmares.") allude to a speech by John Jacobs at a Weathermen "war council" in December 1969.

The inspiration for the Levov character was a real person: Seymour "Swede" Masin, a legendary all-around Jewish athlete who, like the Levov character, attended Newark's Weequahic High School. Like the book's protagonist, Swede Masin was revered and idolized by many local middle-class Jews. Both "Swedes" were tall and had distinctively blond hair and blue eyes, which stood out among the typically dark-haired, dark-complexioned local residents. Both attended a teachers' college in nearby East Orange; both married out of their faith; both served in the military and, upon their return, both moved to the suburbs of Newark.

American Pastoral was a scrupulously researched book; Roth traveled to Gloversville, New York to learn about the glove-making industry and interviewed Yolande Fox, the winner of the 1951 Miss America pageant, while developing the character of Dawn Dwyer.[3] Roth later said, of his conversations with Fox, "She was very smart, very funny.... She just opened up whole ideas for me that I couldn't have had on my own."[4]

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The 1967 Newark riots was one of 159 race riots that swept cities in the United States during the "Long Hot Summer of 1967". This riot occurred in Newark, New Jersey, between July 12 and July 17, 1967. Over the four days of rioting, looting, and property destruction, 26 people died and hundreds(727) were injured.

The long, hot summer of 1967 refers to the 159 race riots that erupted across the United States in the summer of 1967.[2][3][4] In June there were riots in Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Buffalo, and Tampa. In July there were riots in Newark, Detroit, Birmingham, Chicago, New York City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Britain, Rochester, Plainfield, and Toledo.

Date Summer of 1967

Location United States

Resulted in Kerner Commission established

Casualties----

Death(s)85+[1]

Injuries 2,100+

Arrested11,000+

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地下气象组织（英语：Weather Underground Organization，缩写WUO），简称地下气象员（英语：Weather Underground），通常被大众俗称为气象员（英语：Weathermen），是美国的一个极左派组织，1969年由反越战组织学生争取民主社会中的激进派分裂出来，目标是以秘密暴力革命推翻美国政府。该组织在1970年代进行过一系列针对美国政府的炸弹袭击，但主要是以毁坏财产为目的，每次袭击前都会事先放出明确的警告以避免人员伤亡。该组织并曾策划暴动和劫狱等事件。

历史[编辑]

气象员源于学生争取民主社会中一支称为革命青年运动的派系，成立于1969年，宗旨是创立秘密革命党以暴力推翻美国政府，建立无产阶级专政以实现共产主义。其名称来自于歌手鲍勃·迪伦的歌曲《地下思乡蓝调》（Subterranean Homesick Blues）的一句歌词：“你不需要气象员也知道风向哪里吹。”（You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.）他们号召组建“白人战斗力量”与“黑人解放运动”联合，和其它激进运动一起达成摧毁美帝国主义的目标，并最终建立一个无阶级的共产主义世界。[2]

气象员属于美国1960年代反文化运动下新左翼极端激进派的产物，带有当时美国黑人权力和新共产主义运动的特征。该组织反对种族歧视和越战，认为惟有把战争带到美国本土上，才能让美国人民了解其政府在国外犯下的罪行。在纪录片《地下气象人》（Weather Underground）中，当时的成员表示：“在一个暴力的时代，看着你的国家在别人的土地屠杀无辜的人民，如果什么也不做，只是继续享受你的中产阶级舒适，这本身就是一种暴力的行动”。[3]

从1969年到1970年代中期，地下气象员以发动多起爆炸案、暴动和劫狱著名。他们在1969年10月8日在芝加哥进行了第一次公众示威活动——复仇之日，并最终演变成暴动。1970年代，地下气象员向美国政府“宣战”并开始炸弹袭击，攻击目标大多数是政府建筑和一些银行。他们一般在爆炸之前会提前警告让人员撤离，并发布抗议事因。例如1971年3月1日攻击美国国会大厦为“抗议美国入侵老挝”、1972年5月19日攻击五角大厦为“报复美国轰炸河内”、1975年1月29日攻击美国国务院是为抗议“在越南的战事扩大”等等。

地下气象员在1973年美国从越南撤军后开始衰败，部分成员参加了其它组织，亦有部分成员继续犯罪活动而被捕。该组织在1977年解散。

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1960年代反文化运动（英语：1960s counterculture movement）是一种反文化反体制行为，这种现象首先发生在英国和美国，之后在1960年代初至70年代中期在西方世界大规模传播。伦敦、纽约和旧金山是早期反文化活动的温床。随着美国民权运动的演进，反文化运动获得了进一步发展，并随着美国政府对越南军事干预的扩大而演变为一场革命性的运动。[3][4][5]自1960年代以降，美国在一些社会议题上也出现了广泛的紧张态势，其中例如体现在人类性行为、妇女权利、精神药物实验、对传统权威的态度以及对美国梦的诠释。与这些争议问题有关的运动在1960年代的反文化潮流中诞生以及发展。

随着这场运动的发展，许多新的文化形式、亚文化先后诞生，波希米亚主义、嬉皮士等另类文化及生活方式应运而生。这种现象在英国入侵时期尤其明显，披头士乐队和其他一些电影制作人的作品受到审查制度的限制。除了创造流行趋势的披头士乐队，其他许多的创意艺术家、作家和思想家，在许多行业和专业内部，推波助澜地定义反文化。

有几个因素将1960年代反文化运动与以前的反独裁运动区分开来。第二次世界大战战后的“婴儿潮”[6][7]产生了前所未有的数量的潜在的对社会不满的年轻人，他们作为美国社会的潜在参与者，重新思考了美国民主主义发展的方向。战后美国国内充裕的财富也使得他们不必过于关注自身及家庭的财政状况，而这些物质必需品是他们主要生活在大萧条时期的父母所必须关心的。[8]这个时代值得注意的是，这场运动中的一系列行为和其起因的很大一部分很快被主流社会所吸收，特别是在美国。[9][10][11]

反文化运动基本始于1963年11月肯尼迪总统被刺杀事件，它伴随着美国军事介入东南亚的终止和1973年征兵法案的终止而融入流行文化，最终结束于1974年8月尼克松辞去美国总统一职。

广义上看，1960年代的反文化运动从多方面来讲作为一个社会催化剂，使那个时代产生了突飞猛进的变化。