Rebirth Out Of Suffering

The Assistant has been warmly accepted since it was first published in 1957. Bernard Malamud won the Rosenthal Award of the National Institute of Arts and Letters for this work. It has been universally held as the very book that has consolidated Malamud's reputation as a major American novelist. In this book Malamud uses many images to convey the suffering and rebirth theme. He gathers these images from the concrete observation of nature and the objects of daily life and gives them implied meanings. Those images have profound functions, such as providing certain atmosphere, helping the development of plot, intensifying themes, etc. He frequently repeats certain particular images so that the frequency reminds us of their appearance. Beneath the deceptive simple and clear surface the novel is thematically rather profound. This thesis attempts to analyze the suffering and rebirth motif in terms of imagery in The Assistant. This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one presents a brief introduction to the author, his literary status in the history of American literature and the novel, The Assistant, its plot and significance. Chapter two examines the suffering motif in light of the imagery. The store, the domestic animals and the weather are discussed in detail. Chapter three examines the rebirth motif in light of imagery. The birds, St. Francis and the seasons are particularly mentioned. Chapter four focuses on the relationship between the two motifs, that is, rebirth is out of suffering. Chapter five draws a conclusion that the usage of the imagery, which is Malamud's individual way of expressing his imaginative vision, intensifies the motif of rebirth from suffering in the novel.