Old Historical Criticism Essay
Mr. Jennings/ Mr. Esselman
4th/6th hour
May 18, 2012
By: John Brannan
John Brannan
Honors English III
Old Historical Criticism Essay
5-18-12
The essay that I have prepared for you to study, reflect, and comment on is one of confusion, but a respectable type of confusion. The type that will make you process thoughts that you have never once processed before. It covers topics from the Cold War and the Arms Race, to potential world-ending groups of weapons, to the first African American NBA player and how they completely dominate not only that sport but 90 percent of so called “American Born Sports”, and skips all the way through the Holocaust that the author of the novel I chose, Bernard Malamud suffered through as a result of his origin. You will learn more about the “Natural” and I will take you through an in depth perspective on what Malamud’s purpose was for every action of each character in the novel. You will also be informed about the unknown facts of the 1950s, and what the social norm was at the time. Continue reading through this essay for the reason that it will bring you a sense of aggravation, an aggravation to broaden your horizon of thinking. We both know that the “Natural” brings upon us many contrasting themes, but what I know and you don’t, is that these themes are ones connected to the most dangerous time period in United States history- the 1950s.
“The Natural”, written by Bernard Malamud was the first novel written by the author and many question the validity of it. Without question Malamud used outside information and transformed it into a striking non-fiction piece of work that was then incorporated in to an Oscar award winning movie. Malamud draws upon two major themes in the novel and the most important one is simply that there is more to life than the game of baseball. Being a Jewish author in the 1950’s he knew that people of his own kind were going through strenuous racism day in and day out and knowing that there were athletes in the world that cared for nothing except for a simple game had to tear him to pieces inside. The other theme is you must get to know an individual before you accept them into your everyday life and you must know what they are capable of doing for the positive or for the negative.
Hobbs is clearly the cream of the crop athletically. Early in his career he feels like there is no way possible he can be struck down. He is portrayed as a mythological character without much conflict in his life, yet. Without the heroic figure, Roy doesn’t live, Roy doesn’t exist. That is what every top athlete in the world wants, to be a hero. A conversation with the thievish Harriet provides dialogue that instills to us that there is nothing more than being the best that is what Roy wanted and this dialogue shows that:
“What will you hope to accomplish, Roy?” He had already told her but after a minute remarked, “Sometimes when I walk down the street I bet people will say there goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was in the game.” She gazed at him with touched and troubled eyes. “Is that all?” He tried to penetrate her question. Twice he had answered it and still she as repeated. “What more is there?” “Don’t you know?”… “Isn’t there something over and above earthly things—some more glorious meaning to one’s life and activities”? “In baseball?”(p.33)
Those statements are so contradicting to the actual morals of the characters, but also so revealing. Harriet is a psycho woman whose intent is to only kill the best of the best, yet in the quote she is the one trying to get the attention of Roy telling him that there is so much more to life than baseball, which is ultimately the point Malamud is trying to make throughout the book. It is almost sad that even fifteen years out of the game Roy still hadn’t grasped the concept that he can live happily without it. Those fifteen years without the game the slugger obviously wasn’t happy and craved for the game. This dialogue with Iris is not a laughing matter and as a grown man Hobbs is manning up to his true love, baseball:
“I wanted everything.” His voice boomed out of the silence. She waited. “I had a lot to give to this game.” “Life?” “Baseball. If I had started out fifteen years ago like I had tried to, I’da been king of them all by now.” “The King of what?” “The best in the game,” he said impatiently. She sighed deeply. “You’re so good now.” “I’da been better. I’da broke most every record there was.” “Does that mean so much to you?” “Sure,” he answered…. “But I don’t understand why you should make so much of that. Are your values so--!”(p. 156)
If the statements made by Harriet were not powerful enough to show you that everyone noticed that Roy didn’t care about any poor Jewish kid that was getting picked on at school, or a poor Jewish business man getting ran out of town, maybe the second woman in his life words were enough.
Sam Simpson got to know Roy Hobbs and more. Their relationship grew and as a young man Hobbs put his trust in Simpson and as result he got him connections to the Major Leagues. Only if the big headed baseball star would have got to know Harriet before he would have gone into her hotel room once they landed in Chi-town maybe he would have never had to leave the game and could have stayed as the most dominant pitcher in the world. In the analysis of his stubbornness Turner had this to say:
“Roy Hobbs is one who lives and finds his meaning only within the mythology and that is his tragic weakness. He is obsessed with a sense of mission which is nothing less than to fill out the heroic proportions which the pattern casts for those who would follow it. Roy’s lack of any values outside mythology is a major source which Malamud has imparted in the novel.” (Turner p. 136)
Harriet was an extremely attractive lady, probably in comparison to today’s Megan Fox. Roy being young and naïve as he was did not care what price he had to pay, he was going to get to know her, or try to. He only knew her for a matter of hours before entering into her hotel room in Chicago. I can only imagine that if he had the chance he would have gotten to know her just a little bit more and figure out what her intentions were before she took the only thing in his life away from him. Roy was so obsessed with pleasing the best looking gal and so focused on being the best baseball player, he had no communication with the fans, he didn’t get to know his true supporters and they really didn’t get to know him. There were several instances where Max Mercy wanted to do a biography of him so the people of New York could get a feel for him, get bits and pieces of his background but Roy refused time after time. Following the unsuccessful run at the pennant and after Roy confronts the Judge and Harriet one last time he leaves the ball park and is faced into the real world to find it only as an evil place. Malamud gives us an example immediately following the confrontation with the two:
“When he hit the street he was exhausted. He had not shaved, and a black beard gripped his face. He felt old and grimy. He stared into the faces of the people he passed along the street but nobody recognized him. “He coulda been a king,” a woman remarked to a man.” (p. 257)
Malamud indirectly shows that if he would have let people get to know him as he did Sam Simpson, that the community would have helped him and supported him through not only the glory which is what they were doing but also through the rough times which were absent until now. Keats prepared an overview of both Hobbs and Simpson’s ambition:
“Malamud portrays Simpson as an alcoholic ex-ballplayer who hopes to regain respectability by discovering a great star for the game. Hobbs will be that ballplayer, but Sam dies on the train of a heart attack before he can get Roy to his tryout. Sam’s death is preceded by an extremely vivid dream, one that involves getting thrown off a train and later being swept over a waterfall…The details given by Malamud in his account of Sam’s dream bear a close resemblance to the actual death of Ed Delahanty who was a huge hard drinking Irishman whom happened to also be a powerful hitter and eventually a hall of famer” (Keats p. 103)
Just as Roy Hobbs was the cream of the crop when it came down to the game of baseball, so is this excerpt from Patrick Keats when concerned around the theme of “The Natural”. It combines the fact that there is more to life than baseball with the fact that it is a necessity to get to know somebody and know their limitations before you try and allow them into your life. He uses Simpson as an example. He was once in the situation of Roy and they trusted each other to achieve greatness. He also uses him as an example in a way in which that he is trying to give back to the game. Sam knows that he screwed up and he feels that by giving the game such a talent like Roy, he could get the guilt off of his shoulders for letting so many faithful down. “The Natural” is truly the novel in which lessons could be learned and morals could be fixed. All it takes is a little more realization and a little less mythological reasoning to grasp that there truly is much more to life than the game and to grasp that you must get to know an individual before you accept them into everyday life.
From objects being created that potentially have the power to take out the planet earth, to racial segregation being outlawed, or to starting and finishing of the Korean War, the 1950s was the most dangerous decade in United States history, if not world history. The events that occurred in the storied decade of the fifties are ones that catch the attention of one who even is not interested in any sort of history at all. If the topic of a bomb which could essentially wipe out an entire nation is possibly being produced by multiple countries does not interest a human being, you are not welcome on Earth anyways. There are multiple people who cannot get into history, they just cannot find that edge to care and focus, and that is until they reach the nifty fifties, post-World War II era.
After the tragic passing away of the most successful president in America history, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1945, Missourian Harry S. Truman had tremendous shoes to fill and he made certain that he did so. He definitely did not waste any time. Only a little over a year that he was in office, President Truman ordered for the atomic bomb to be used on December 3, 1946 on Hiroshima and only three days later to be used once again on Nagasaki. The power of the bomb was not underestimated; they knew exactly what was coming. Britain’s 82 year old Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s voice was heard throughout the process and creation of the bomb. This is what he had to say when the United States and the Soviet Union ignited their first hydrogen bombs:
“The entire foundation of human affairs has been revolutionized, the original atomic bomb, for all its terror, had not carried matters outside the scope of human control..” and that is exactly what the hydrogen bombs produced by the states were, out of human control. “..but the new H-bomb placed humanity in a situation both measureless and laden with doom. What out we to do? Which was shall we turn to save our lives and the future of the world? It does not matter so much to old people. They are going soon anyway. But I find it poignant to look at youth with all its activities and ardor, and most of all to watch the little children playing their merry games and wonder what would lie before them if God wearied of mankind.” (Carter, Paul A. pg 260)
The bomb took over the warfare state in the fifties and if any country was to remain a power house and stay in contention for the strongest military, the bomb was a necessity and the nuclear buildup would have to continue. Without question, nuclear power was necessary, but was the sums of money that were being put forth really worth it? Eisenhower addressed the subject:
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than thirty cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of sixty thousand population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete highway..” Although I did not mention the significance of the construction of interstates in the fifties, it was crucial. “..We pay for a single fighter plane with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than eight thousand people. Is there no other way the world may live?” (Carter, Paul A. pg 262)
No doubt the topic of fighter jets and dropping deadly bombs is an extremely hot topic to debate. It definitely had its down falls and the production of them happened to be a tremendous downfall.
America’s diverse ethnic and racial groups really caught tension in the post war world. With having twenty-five percent of the population of European decent and African-Americans making up ten percent in the fifties, the “pure breads” really had to learn how to accept the fact that they were all one and James Patterson approached it best:
“The war, in so many ways was a powerful force in the domestic history of twentieth-century America, was an engine that accelerated acculturation. Millions of Negroes and first- and second-generation Americans served in the armed forces or pulled up stakes to work in defense plants, thereby leaving their enclaves and mixing for the first time with “old-stock” white people. Having joined in the war effort, they also came to identify more emotionally with the United States. As Cold War tensions mounted over the next two decades, many European-Americans, especially those who had roots behind the iron curtain, emerged as among the most patriotic—and super-patriotic—of United States citizens.” (Patterson, James T pg 16).