Comparing The Magic Barrel, The Assistant, And The Natural

Bernard Malamud was a Russian born immigrant whose literary career began in the 1930s. Malamud’s struggles with immigration greatly influenced his literature. Malamud’s career started after graduating from the City College of New York. World War II helped to inspire Malamud to start writing. Malamud’s greatest works are The Magic Barrel, The Assistant, and The Natural. In The Natural Malamud tells the story of Roy Hobbs a troubled baseball player. Hobbs begins the story as an amazing baseball player until a crazy serial killer shoots him. Years later after recovering Hobbs lands a spot on the New York Knights. As the story progresses Hobbs proves that he is a star player and the team almost wins a National League pennant. Though Hobbs proves that he is a star player, the deadly sins of lust, pride, and gluttony ultimately lead to his defeat.

This desire is first seen at the beginning of the novel when Hobbs goes after Harriet Bird. Harriet catches Hobbs’s attention. After challenging “the Whammer” Roy takes Harriet back to the train. Hobbs’s encounter with Harriet gets him shot and delays his baseball career for a few years. After recovering and returning to baseball, Hobbs learns no better and begins to chase after Memo for her good looks. Hobbs is head over heels for Memo and ends up sleeping with her several times. Near the end of the novel Memo is sent to convince Hobbs to throw that National League game for a sum of money from the Judge. Hobbs’s infatuation with Memo is revealed with the quote, “To refuse her just about broke his heart” (Malamud 196). This quote reveals that Hobbs would even think about throwing a championship game in order to impress Memo. Hobbs desire for women helps contribute to his failure but his ego also helps to destroy