Roth uses the impeachment trial of President Clinton as a symbol for the trials of public opinion endured by Coleman Silk before and during the main action of the novel. During his college scandal, which takes place before the novel begins, Coleman’s colleagues and students persecute him because they believe he is racist. During the action of the novel, Coleman’s contemporaries and even his children persecute him for Coleman’s affair with Faunia Farley. Accusations are made, evidence is debated, and sentences are carried out with punishment.

In Chapter 2, Roth details Coleman’s boxing prowess in part to explain Coleman’s decision to pass as a white man. When he first begins to box, Coleman’s first coach tells him that Coleman’s strength is in slipping the punch, or counterpunching. This is a defensive technique employed to avoid a direct blow and then deliver a counter blow. Coleman compares counterpunching to being counter-confessional. When other kids were telling everything about themselves, Coleman decided not to tell one of the most basic facts about himself: his true ethnicity. This withholding, or evasion, gave Coleman a sense of power and pleasure.