Book Reports On The Natural By Bernard Malamud

The Natural The novel The Natural by Bernard Malamud takes place in two major places Chicago and New York. These places are where Roy Hobbs tries his part in the world of baseball. This is made difficult through the struggle of love, hard decisions, and betrayal with the characters Bump, Memo, Harriet, Iris, Gus, and the Judge. In my opinion, The Natural was a great book that had characters and struggles that made it feel relatable. Roy Hobbs the main character of the book finds himself falling for people he doesn’t know and it gets him in trouble a few times throughout the book. The first time is when he meets Harriet. He was 19 and on his way to chicago when he sees a beautiful girl named harriet come on board. Roy was inexperienced at talking to girls but soon “took her heart” by striking out the whammer. Harriet then proceeds to ask him questions about his future in baseball and once she realizes it will be great she shoots him in the stomach which delays his baseball career.

At the beginning of the book Roy is on a train to chicago for his first professional tryout and he is talking to Harriet and is trying to impress her soon after she shoots him and he is out of the game for fifteen years. The next person that betrayed him was Memo. Roy had been falling in love with her for a while and after Bump died she lead him on and tricked him into thinking she was into him aswell, but we find later in the book all she wanted was the money from the bet against him. She told him that she would only marry him if he were rich and right after he got offered thirty-five thousand dollars to throw the game. The next person who betrayed him was working with Memo, the Judge. The Judge had underpaid him and refused to pay him more so when the time came when he needed money he would throw the game for it. Overall Harriet, Memo, and the Judge all betrayed them for their own selfish