The Thematic Study Of Predicament In Bernard Malamud’s Writings

Bernard Malamud(1914-1986) was an important American Jewish writer in20thcentury. He created8novels and4story collections. His writings were profound inmeaning which have been appreciated by readers and scholars. In return, he won manyawards and prizes including National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize. The Natural andThe Fixer were adapted into films. People never stop in studying his works. Butresearchers at home and abroad seem to focus on his works from the angle of society,history and culture. Psychological and aesthetic concern was seldom made. This thesisattempts to interpret his works from the internal aspect relying on theory of trauma,psychological theories, philosophical ideas and catharsis theory. Malamud concerns thestruggling of common people, whose loneliness, frustration, disappointment andinsistence, thus he was called “spokesman for humanism”. He pondered the suffering ofJews and of human beings and hoped that solutions for trauma could be found inliterature. In modern time, with rapid development of science and technology, peopleare suffering from spiritual vanity. Psychological and spiritual trauma is morecommonplace and worse. Research on trauma and predicament of human beings canmake it possible to balance well the external and internal worlds. The which is therealistic meaning of this paper.Malamud is a realistic writer. His writings of suffering have rich realistic materials.Firstly, he grew up in extremely poor Russian Jewish family. Poverty impressed him inall his life. He knew the suffering of struggling for success in poverty. He grew up inBrooklyn, a slum area in New York and he witnessed the suffering and misery of poorpeople all the time. Individual trauma was the direct origin of his writing. Social traumais the second. He experienced different social turbulence: end of WWI, GreatDepression, WWII, the Cold War, etc., which caused mass trauma. Thirdly, nationaltrauma is forever pain. The tribulation of Jews is Malamud’s endless writing materials.Malamud integrated individual trauma, social trauma and national trauma together toform his unique artistic points of view. Salvation in tribulation runs through all Malamud’s works. The idea of sacrificeand salvation rooted in Judaism and Jewish spirit, based on which, Malamud advocatedredemption in suffering. Roy Hobbs in his first novel The Natural failed in redemptionbecause he couldn’t understand suffering at all. He was exploited and corrupted byAmerican materialism. In the end he wandered in street lonely, leaving his traumaunhealed. In The Assistant, Morris is poor all his life, but he insisted on his belief, ontruth, goodness and beauty of life. Although he failed in materialism, he fulfilledspiritual redemption both of himself and others. He is symbol of morality. Malamudbelieves that morality can be effective solution for loss of life and trauma.Identity loss, identity crisis and belief crisis is modern problem. People areimprisoned in variety of predicaments and dilemmas, being further from ideal freedom.Malamud ponders this problem in The Fixer based on history and reality. Yakov Bokowes all his suffering to his Jewish identity. He left hometown, abandoned his belief anddisguised himself a gentile in order to pursue new life and freedom. But he wasrewarded imprisonment. The predicament in prison offered him freedom in thinking. Heintrospected himself and rethink about Jewish people. At last, he took the responsibilityof Jews and fought against tsarist anti-semitism in order to rescue his people. Hereconstructed his identity,achieved spiritual freedom and healed his trauma.Malamud expressed predicament by using unique artistic techniques. Weeping andprison are two images running through his writings. Their multiple meanings providehis creation with profound artistic effect. Jewish people is symbol of all mankind. Heattempts to solve human’s problems by morality and reason and to heal differenttraumas. Research on the mechanism of these images can help us appreciate his themesprofoundly.Malamud’s suffering themes have realistic and aesthetic value especially catharsisfunction. The tragic characters, sudden reverse in plot and special narration all arousereaders’ pity and fear. Through spiritual cleansing and emotional purgation, the readerscan get spiritual pleasure and moral purification, which is instructive and warning tomodern society.Malamud left the world he beloved in the last decades of last century. Society hasdeveloped rapidly since then: information technology, material construction, ecological crisis and spiritual loss. People are suffering from the gap between spiritual world andmaterial development. People are more sensitive, fragile and depressed, thus,psychological and spiritual trauma and suffering became wider and more concealing.Only facing the trauma, stressing on the recovery of spirit, can human beings balancerelationship with the outside world, which is the aim and value of this thesis. Literatureis art of man. Malamud’s writings not only influence the society because of its universalcare, but also warn and instruct people to some degree.