Bernard Malamud The Natural Analysis

In the novel The Natural by Bernard Malamud, Roy Hobbs is an old baseball star. He has entered Major League Baseball at the age of 34. Roy tries to balance his sudden rise to stardom and chasing the woman he loves. Roy goes through ups and downs throughout the entire novel and eventually he falls from stardom. Like all great heroes Roy falls because of his flaws, Love and Greed. In this Essay I will be discussing Historical Influences, analyzing a critical response to the novel, and creating a critical analysis of my own.
1. Historical Influence Bernard Malamud creates the character Roy Hobbs off a real life baseball player. Eddie Waitkus was a professional baseball player for the Philadelphia Phillies. He and character Roy Hobbs stories are a little different, but very close. Malamud published The Natural around three years after the Waitkus events happened. Eddie Waitkus was a rookie for the Chicago Cubs in 1946. In Eddie Waitkus’ rookie season he was know as “The Natural” because he was so good everything just came naturally to him. In 1949 a women invited Waitkus into her hotel
Critical Analysis of an Outside Source There are many theories, about the book The Natural by Bernard Malamud. Judith Steininger the author of Masterplots II: Juvenile and Young Adult Literature Series, made an observation about the entire book as a whole. Her theory is Malamud wrote this novel based on King Arthur’s Life. King Arthur was the king of the fictional land of Camelot. She believes Roy Hobbs is a modern day King Arthur.
The First Observation he makes is Roy is a modern day King Arthur. His first name, Roy, comes from the french word roi, which means king. She then points out that he plays for a team named the knights. This is derived from King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. She then states “the bat Wonderboy, a weapon reminiscent of Arthur’s sword, Excalibur.” Excalibur was King Arthur’s beloved weapon, just like Wonderboy is Roy’s