“For to him Jew had always meant impostor. Since the beginning. It was the one thing it had always meant. The poor Jews pretended they were poorer than they were, the rich richer.”
Newman among other individuals with xenophobic attitudes against Jewish people or other minorities hold stereotypical notions of the different races. Initially, before Newman apprehends the anti-Semitic prejudice faced by Jewish immigrants, he possesses ingrained racial hatred. Even though the origin of this hatred and the stereotypes are unfounded. Having spent no time or held a meaningful conversation with a Jewish person, Newman has yet to truly understand people of the Jewish race. Thus Miller expresses through his novel how the injustices of American racism inflicted the era.
“Frankly, Newman, I ought to say that I didn’t notice anything until Mr. Lorsch made me realize. But I can see his point. We don’t feel you’ll make a good impression on people who might come into the outer office for the first time.”
Newman as a Gentile but with the appearance of a Jewish man due to his new glasses is placed inside the sphere of anti-Semitism. This assertion by Newman’s superior regarding his demotion due to his appearance illustrates the extent of racial hatred even in corporate institutions. The corporation intends to maintain a particular image that does not involve a direct association with Jewish people thus demotes him from his previous position. He experiences racial prejudice firsthand in the workplace, the first of many instances of racism he encounters onwards.
“You look at me and you don’t see me. You see something else. What do you see? That’s what I don’t understand…. What do you see that makes you so mad when you look at me?”
In the statement, Finkelstein challenges Newman concerning racial hatred. Finkelstein as a victim of anti-Semitism has come to understand how the basis of the hatred is baseless and only ingrained false perceptions of a group of people. In that people become fearful and apprehensive when they do not share certain beliefs with others. Newman too begins to understand how the Jewish stereotypes are untrue and groundless once he personally knows Finkelstein. Moreover, the anti-Semitic persecution that he and his wife face makes him realize the hypocrisy of the prejudices that they and others hold.
