A Research On Malamud’s Jewish Complex In "The Magic Barrel"

Bernard Malamud (1914-1986) is regarded as a famous Jewish American writer. Hesticks to take the ordinary Jews as the descriptive objects and take the sufferings as thetheme. Through the descriptions of the sufferings and frustrations of the Jews living inthe bottom of American society, he reveals the fates of all mankind. Malamud hasachieved great successes in the creating of full-length novels and short stories. Whenreferring to his works, his short stories are usually considered to be better than hisfull-length novels, reflecting his talents more. Among his short stories,"The MagicBarrel" is recognized to be his masterpiece. And the same titled collection of shortstorieshas won the National Book Award for him in1959, establishing his high status inthe American literary world.The creating of the short story "The Magic Barrel" is very unique, widely attractingthe international and domestic attentions. And though many scholars in the world havehad some studies on it from the aspects of the Jewish elements or Jewish thoughts, thereare few specialized and in-depth studies on the author’s Jewish complex in it. Thereforethis thesis will research into the Jewish complex in "The Magic Barrel" on the basis ofJung’s complex theory.The thesis contains three chapters. Chapter I mainly analyzes the Jewish complex ofBernard Malamud and its inducing reasons. Firstly, it introduces Jung’s complex theory,pointing out that the complex is a variety of impulses and emotions gathering in the deepunconscious psychology of humankind, and it stems from the collective unconsciousness.Then according to the complex theory, it fully explores Malamud’s Jewish complexdeeply inside his heart and analyzes its inducing reasons from three aspects such as thefamily background, the influences of the spirit ghetto, the weak people under the culturalbackground of guilt and the awakening of Jewishness.Chapter II mainly researches into the reflection of the Jewish complex in the Jewishcultural motifs of "The Magic Barrel". In this works, firstly through the motif of "fatherand son", the author Malamud describes the complicated relationship between father andson under the cultural conflicts and presents the typical images of them in the Jewishcultural traditions to the readers, showing the strong Jewishness of the story both from its themes and its significances. And secondly, Malamud focuses on the motif of "suffering"in his works, showing that the Jewishness exists deeply in his heart, because the sufferingis the eternal accompanying element of the Jewish nation.Thirdly, Malamud explores ingreat depth the motif of "identity", hoping the Jews can regain their Jewish identities andfind their roots of survival. These three Jewish cultural motifs in "The Magic Barrel"show the development and changes of the Jewish nation for thousands of years as well asits national spirit. It contains the profound cultural background and achievement, whicharethe important expressional features and the best reflection of the author Malamud’sJewish complex.Chapter III mainly explores the embodiment of the Jewish complex in the writingtechniques of "The Magic Barrel". Among the Jewish American writers, Malamud can beconsidered as the one who has the strongest Jewishness, so his use of the writingtechniques has the Jewish characteristics, reflecting his deep Jewish complex. Firstly, in"The Magic Barrel", Malamud subtly employs the symbolism, which can be seen as aninheritance of the artistic techniques in The Bible. And secondly, with the point of viewof the trauma of the nonentities and from the unique point of view of the trauma narrative,Malamud teaches the modern people how to face an eventful life and overcome thecontinuous difficulties in life, realizing the true meaning of life from the sufferings andachieving the moral perfection and the soul sublimation. Thirdly, in addition to the twoaspects mentioned above, the immigrant English is another method which reflects hisJewish complex most. It not only makes the images of the Jewish nonentities in theworks vivid, but also tells the people that the Jewish spirit and culture are notdissimilated in the catabolic American society. The Jewish nation still stands among thenations in the world with its strong faith and perseverance.From the researches in this thesis, we can learn that the Jewish consciousness existsdeeply in Malamud’s heart all the time, which fully reflects his Jewish complex and hisattaching emotions to the cultural tradition and cultural value of his own nation. Andmeantime, he adheres to the Jewish national culture as well as transcends itsimultaneously in his own unique way, making it get the world wide significance.