![]() The narrated episodes of the story do not seem to have been particularly significant at the time, only given importance through hindsight. The story is composed of a 30-year-old narrator’s reminiscences of 1942, his freshman year of high school and, according to our society, an all-important time for one’s personal development and professional trajectory. With our country’s current emphasis on testing, assessment, and pedagogical accountability, Roth’s story might serve as a warning of the limitations of such outcome-based, one-size-fits-all approaches to education. Paradoxically, these methods seem to create reality as much as they forecast it. The “men” of the title are a handful of adolescents those trying to “tell” or assess them are their teachers and school administrators, who use tests and labels to track students and predict their aptitudes and failures. The second song, the national anthem, does not seem to be invoked patriotically rather, its recitation is rote and almost mocking. Miller’s popular song is a duet between a soldier and his girl, each asking the other for fidelity while they are apart it is playful and flirtatious, and a bit precocious for the teenage classmates who sing it in the story. ![]() It is a boys’ world, full of gym class contests and sparring in the halls, but it is a world that offers lessons applicable to the adult world, as well.Īlthough the story’s title sounds like a figure of speech, it is not, and in fact two songs are sung: “Don’t Sit under the Apple Tree,” recorded by Glenn Miller in 1942, and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Each does indeed tell something about the singers. This story also stands out for its lack of female characters, even peripheral ones. Unlike the main characters in almost all of Philip Roth’s other texts, the narrator of “You Can’t Tell a Man by the Song He Sings” is nameless and never clearly identified as Jewish or non-Jewish, though his companions are Italian American. ![]() Analysis of Philip Roth’s You Can’t Tell a Man by the Song He Sings
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