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The Natural Vs The Fisher King Analysis

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A Failed Quest: The Natural vs The Fisher King
Every hero must go through the hero’s journey of departure, initiation and return. The hope for each hero, and the most common ending to stories using the monomyth, is that the hero succeeds and returns to the normal world with wisdom and freedom from the fear of death. However, what happens if the hero doesn’t defeat the great evil, or fails to rescue the princess? The novel, The Natural, seeks to answer this question through its’ loose adaptation of the Fisher King myth and its’ main character: Roy Hobbs. So, why does Roy, our Percival, fail to “save” Pop, our Fisher King?
From the beginning, the novel establishes significant parallels between it and the Fisher King myth. Roy Hobbs (meaning “king” …show more content…

Percival’s ignorance of court life and his uncertainty lead to him failing to rescue the Fisher King when they first meet, which causes him to wait decades before being able to redeem himself. Roy Hobbs also fails at a young age, when he is shot by the woman whom he was pursuing throughout Batter Up, Harriet Bird. However, the difference between the two of them is how they respond to their opportunity to save their incarnation of the Fisher King. While the Fisher King is a more traditional romantic tale of redemption and glory, The Natural is a more grim and realistic story of downfall and repeating one’s …show more content…

This evolution becomes the difference between a classic tale of heroism and the nobility of the hero triumphing against all odds, to the all-too familiar story of one man’s ego collapsing in on itself and bringing everyone down along with it. The Natural seeks to subvert the fantasy and idealism of the King Arthur legends by giving the hero the attitude of many modern-day legends and how that leads to his failure. With the final words of the novel closing on the grim picture of a lone man on a dark street, with the newspapers proclaiming his foolish past mistakes and his weakness of character, the novel makes its’ themes clear. Roy is the Percival who failed, because he is the Percival who failed to be a true

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