| Malamud is an American Jewish writer. The Assistant is one of his most prestigious and representative works, which won him the Rosenthal Award and the Daroff Memorial Award issued by the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and established his position in American Literature. The book describes the spiritual growth of the protagonist, Frank Alpine. His growth from a person of selfish, pleasure-seeking to a person of self-love, altruism and meaning-seeking fully reflects the essence of the humanistic psychology.On the basis of humanistic psychology and Maslow’s self-actualization psychology, this thesis explores the self-actualization of Frank, the protagonist in The Assistant, so as to help the readers to further understand the deep connotation of the text.This thesis consists of three parts:the first part includes the development of Jewish American Literature, the life and works of Bernard Malamud, the plot of his The Assistant, the literature review on the novel at home and abroad and expounds the writing purpose of the thesis; In the next three chapters, the thesis first introduces humanistic psychology and Maslow’s self-actualization psychology, then, analyzes Frank’s self-actualization, the internal and external reasons of his self-actualization and the psychological development in his self-actualization; Finally, the thesis points out Malamud’s humanistic thoughts that the text displays, indicates that we can better understand the ideological content and the literary value of the novel and the positive significance of humanistic psychology for the human being. |
