T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

has writte?. The eight Ma?.imud':. prordgonists fall lnto twocategories: ROY Hobbs. Frank Alpine and Yakov Bok arepoletarians who come from the lowest wrung of socio-economicladder; S. Levin, Fidelman, Lesserrnubin and Cohn are marginalboUrgeOlS figures. Essentially, each one of them is an "avatar"of the down-trodden cnes of the Thirties.Two truths energe from the ascouct of the past llfe ofthe Malamud protagonist: poverty end subsequent alienation fromsociety. Money or lack of it runs as a recurrent motif in hisnovels. The Initla1 ambltion of Frack Alplne, Levine, Bok andthe rest 1s t'2 make ttelr fortune, to rise a llrtle high up inthe soclo-economic sphere. Each pursues his cwnway- as ballplayer, store assistant, college teacher, handyman, painter-sculptor, novelist,biographer, and reformer - but the ulteriorend 1s the same.The motif of education or enlightenment 1s another mOtlfthat informs the form and content of Malamud's novels. Eachnovel describes a yradunl progress ot the protagonist'sawakening to a fresh and different sense of self, soclety andlife ln qeneral. Each protagonist 1s made to lose his soulflrst, then flnd ~ t , and flnally enter soclety inorder todlscover his true indivlduality/idenrity. Hence, all the eightnovels of Malamud are "educationu novels- tracing the painfulprocess of growth of the protagonists (not qulte young) towards