In The Human Stain, written in 2001, Philip Roth provocatively examines the drama of racial identity and identity politics in America through an intriguing lens.   The book is written as a reconstructed biography of Coleman Silk, a literature professor with a dark secret. In this scene, the publicly disgraced Silk has an epiphany as his lover, a survivor with a story of her own, opens herself up to him and sees him in a way no one ever has.