For all they knew that he didn't

Question

"Especially when he began to think that there was something of the nigger about him, even to the kids in the dorm who had all sorts of new clothes, and money in their pockets, and in the summertime didn't hang around the hot streets at home, but went to camp, and not Boy Scout camp out in the Jersey sticks, but fancy places where they rode horses and played tennis and acted in plays. What the hell was a cotillion? Where was Highland Beach? What were these kids talking about? He was among the very lightest of the light-skinned in his freshman class, lighter even than his tea-colored roommate, but he could have been the blackest, most benighted field hand, for all they knew that he didn't."

It's a passage from philip roth's The Human Stain. I couldn't understand what the last(bolfaced) part meant.What does it mean?
Thanks in advance

Avangi · Accepted Answer

I can't figure it out, anuj.

There are expressions like, "for all they knew," "for all he cared," indicating that people are unaware, or uninterested. For all I know, you're the Queen of England!

I don't understand "benighted."

What got bleeped out??

So this guy is an outsider for some reason. What? Why? They're rich and connected and he's not?

It's not the color of his skin, which is light.

It's tempting to say that your bolded phrase means that they just don't care. He's a non-entity to them.
He could have been the blackest field hand and it wouldn't have made any difference pro or con.

He could have been black for all they knew (about him). This would mean that they knew nothing about him.
(For all they knew/cared he came from outer space.)

But "that he didn't" doesn't fit there. What do we do with it?

The first part of the paragraph lists things which were very familiar to them but completely unfamiliar to him.
They knew a lot of things that he didn't. (for all they knew that he didn't)

Perhaps someone else will see it. It's a puzzle to me.

I don't think Philip Roth is capable of bad writing.

Edit. I'm okay with "benighted." Sorry, it's not one of my words. I now remember looking it up once before.

Anuj89 · Answer

the passage is a recollection of the main character of the novel: a jew. It deals with the marginalisation of jews in the american society, at least in the past. So, being a jew, moreover, a poor jew, the protagonist feels like a black (the n-word got bleeped out earlier) even though he is light-skinned (pale-yellow skinned actually, you know, like most jews), and this feeling of being insignificant and extraneous finally leads to his abandoning college midway.

well thats the context. Benighted is an adjective which was used primarily for the aborigines/primitives by 'the white man'

Avangi · Answer

So you think he feels that he's unjustly being treated as though he were a black man? He feels that they should at least give him some credit for being white?
Do you think he just didn't get it?

The bolded phrase still eludes me. I can think of other things to put in it's place, but I just can't parse it. Sorry!

Edit. Were you working with this Yale course??

The "professor" paraphrases it thus: He feels like a black field hand, the darkest of the dark field hand, "for all they knew that he didn't," which sheds a little light my way.

This implies that "for" = "because of."

http://oyc.yale.edu/english/american-novel-since-1945/content/transcripts/transcript-19-philip-roth-the-human-stain

All of their "priviliged" information makes him feel inferior.

I'm afraid the "for all we/they know" idiom was leading me astray. Sorry about that!

I feel badly for all the trouble I've caused you = I feel badly because of all the trouble I've caused you.

Anuj89 · Answer

Thank you so much. That's spot on. The guy feels as ignorant as a field hand in front of his classmates. Sometimes i feel these A-grade novelists deliberately try to be complex to lend more weight to their sentences.

No, actually i was just casually reading the novel, though it's comforting that similar doubts plague the minds of Ivy League students. Thank You for the link as well. That site looks good.

Avangi · Answer

Someone was looking out for us!  The only verbatem quotes on the net were yours and Ms. Hungerford's!  <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/2.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/2.gif' alt='Emotion: big smile'/>

For all they knew that he didn't

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