The Stepford Wives: a Jewish American Novel

Abstract

The Stepford Wives presents a disturbing vision of America as a country where men destroy women and replace them with robots in order to simulate a non-existent past lifestyle. The novel eerily recalls the Nazis’ annihilation of Jews in order to simulate Germany’s imagined past glory. Jewish American writer Ira Levin places women in the role of “aliens” in American society which corresponds to the historical role of Jews in Gentile societies. Joanna Eberhart’s realization that she is marked for extinction evokes terror similar to that of Jews targeted by Nazis. References to Nazis in the novel reinforce this connection. Levin adheres to the tradition of Jewish writers when he prophesies of the danger of a violent response to the women’s liberation movement and portrays Joanna’s dark humor as a means of resistance to oppression.