T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

untrained natural baseball player, who emulates Babe Ruth tolead the league. ROY, later gets involved with the managerisvoluptuous niece and her shady friends. ROY ~obb's early~uffering is an aocident of fate-one does not choose anunworthy mother, nor choose to be orphaned, nor choose to beshot in the belly by a madwoman. But Roy's later suffering isdifferent. Iris Lemon Suggests that Roy could save himself offuture agony lf he could only learn to make the rlght choices.But Roy rejects Iris's wisdom for Memo's materralism until itis too late. Pursuing false lcve while lgnoring true, RoyHobbs 1s doomed to repeat the past. When Roy confesses hispast In gloom, Irls consoles hlm and teaches the value ofsufferlng ana experience whlch he falls to understand. "We havetwo lives, Roy, the life we learn with and the life we livewith after that. Suffering is that brings us towardhappinessn. (TN 148). Unlike Memo, Iris plays the role of ahealthy mother. And the last act of compassion for Iris redeemsRoy.In Asslstant Malamud's next novel, the intensesufferlng of a compassionate Jew opens up the possibilities ofredemption to his gentile assistant. The "hidden strength" ofboth Morris Bober and Frank Alpine lles in their compassion.Malamud draws heavily on hls father's life as a grocer andMorris' predicament resembles hls father's who lived In ableot