T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

epeatedly asks in his fiction Point to the question found inthe old Testament:- "why do good men suffer while evil menfrequently prosper? Why should we be good when there is noreward for goodness? Why should we love if our love is met onlywith scorn? HOW can we have faith when there are no signs toconfirm our faith? Malamud's perspective on these age-oldis heavily influenced by the somewhat fatalistic OldTestament story of Job, a pious man who suffersunjustly without ever understanding why. He knowsonly that It 1s God's will that he suffer. To theman who suffers without any apparent reason, ~od'sways seem harsh and unlust, but Job does not attemptto rationalize this ~njustlce;rather, heacknowledges this as part of the mystery of life. Itis simply the way of the world; the sun shines asbrightly an the wicked as lt does on the good andjust. (Hershinow 1980 a.140)Malamud's overall view is that goodness is its own reward whileevll Inflicts its own punishment. He 1s not merely sentimentalbut learns from hard-headed reallsrn. He is really concernedwlth the terror of exrstence ln the Twentleth century:The horrors of Verdun, the Great Depression,Dresden, Auschwitz, Hiroshima, Vietnam- the world's"uncertain balance of terror", as President Kennedyexpressed ~t in his inaugural address - these havetheir counterparts in Malamud's fiction. Backdropsof Depressron hardship, symbolrc landscapes ofgarbage-filled back alleys and collapsing buildings,McCarthyism and anti-Semitlc injustice on a massivescale - these settings cast their dark shadows overall of Malamud's fictional world" (Hershinow1980 1,141)