Transcending Marginalization of Old Age in Philip Roth’s Exit Ghost

Abstract

Exit Ghost (2007) by Philip Roth demonstrates suffering and marginalization in old age, through the characters Nathan Zuckerman and Amy Bellette. Both have been operated upon for cancer and live a solitary existence with barely any support from fellow beings. Prostatectomy has made Zuckerman incontinent and impotent. Amy’s surgery for brain cancer has made her appearance repulsive. Hence, sources like the following look at the novel as projecting a negative view of old age. Aliki Varvogli describes Exit Ghost as a “chronicle” (Varuogli, 96) of “Zuckerman’s physical decline” (ibid., 96). The concerns of Post colonialism extend to any context and state of being that is related with marginalization and not merely colonization and racism, agrees Barry (Barry, 192). This research paper attempts to argue that a calm transcendence above the ills of old age is also evident in the novel using the theory of gero transcendence as a tool.