Once upon a time, a hero would be seen courageously riding on his magnificent steed into the cave of a fearsome dragon, clad with his shinning helmet, his enormous gauntlets, his breastplate displaying his coat of arms, and in his hands, a magnificent broad sword, prepared to strike at an instant. Today, that hero is seen confidently walking to home plate, his shinning helmet replaced by a dusty cap, his gauntlets replaced by batting gloves, his breastplate replaced by a simple jersey bearing the name and colors of his team, his broad sword replaced by a Louisville Slugger, primed to pummel any pitch with which the looming hurler might challenge him with.
Bernard Malamud’s novel The Natural is the tale of a young man’s quest for love and greatness in early twentieth century baseball. Roy Hobbs is thirty-four years old when he joins the baseball team the New York Knights. When he was nineteen years old and an unknown prospect, he vowed to a woman that he would be the best in the game, and she shot him with a silver bullet. Everyone who watches Roy play is amazed at his intrinsic ability to crush all pitches that are thrown to him. The lovely Memo Paris, niece of the team’s manager Pop Fisher, soon catches Roy’s eye, and he pursues her love vehemently. His desire for her eventually hospitalizes him when he eats until his stomach ruptures. Roy’s downfall comes when the teams owner, The Judge, offers him a bribe which he accepts and forces him to attempt to lose the championship game. After the game, Roy lives the remainder of his life in utter shame. The novel contains many events that actually happened, which enhances the mythic significance of the novel, as baseball is the foundation of contemporary American folklore (Wasserman 45-46).
The Essay on Williams Edu Cobb One Game Baseball
On December 18, 1886 Tyr us Raymond Cobb was born into the of W. H. Cobb and his fifteen year old wife Amanda Chitwood. Ty grew up in the southern town of Royston, Georgia. Ty's father W. H. Cobb was a schoolteacher and a college graduate at a time when there were few. W. H. raised Ty on a 100 acre farm where he taught Ty the values of hard work and. Ty's mother Amanda Chitwood was only twelve ...
The characters are rich with mythological similarities, another element that enhances its mythical aspect. In addition, many elements of mythology enhance the story. It is the modern-day embodiment of the Arthurian myth (Hershinow 21).
Baseball is the basis of contemporary mythology. The entire survival of baseball relies on its mythology, for without it, the game would crumble into a jumble of meaningless facts and statistics (Turner 118).
Stories of Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Yogi Berra, and an endless number of baseball legends are continually passed down through the generations. Every year, the President of the United States sanctifies the baseball season by throwing the inaugural pitch (Wasserman 45).
Bernard Malamud has even stated that the reason he chose to write about baseball because it “is a meaningful part of the American scene” (Malamud, Horse, 49).
Many scenes in the novel have actually occurred. Roy’s hitting a home run for a sick boy, his conversion from pitcher to outfielder, and his hospitalization from gargantuan stomach illness are all events that happened in the life of Babe Ruth. The scene in which the insane Harriet Bird shoots Roy parallels the shooting of baseball player Eddie Waitkus by an insane woman (Wasserman 46).
The sequence in which a dejected Roy is walking on the street and a paper boy says to him “Say it ain’t true, Roy” (Malamud, Natural, 219) after seeing the headlines of Roy’s being shot is almost identical to the time when a boy implored Joe Jackson to “Say it ain’t so” after he took money to throw a game. Even some of the most far fetched events in the story stem from actuality: Pop Fisher’s attempt to catch a grapefruit that is dropped from an air plane, the player with the penchant for crawling on window ledges, and Pop’s fall between third base and home in the championship game, the Fisher Flop, that lost the game (Hershinow 17).
The Essay on Another Baseball Paper Teams Game Played
The activity that I enjoy most is Baseball, which is a competitive game of skill played between two teams, each with nine players. Baseball is Americas National Pastime and is played by people of ages. Abner Doubleday, a former American Civil War officer, is the inventor of baseball. Born in Ballston Spa, NY, Doubleday attended school at the United States Military Academy. As a young man, ...
Sam Simpson, the Cubs’ scout that acts as Roy’s paternal figure, resembles the former baseball player Ed Delahanty. Both were heavy drinkers, and were formerly baseball players. Sam has a dream of having a fight and then falling over a waterfall, while in actuality, this is exactly how Ed Delahanty eerily died (Keats 102-104).
Since baseball is the foundation of modern mythology, and since the story includes parallels to actual events, the novel has a greater mythic significance.
The characters parallel many characters from mythology. Roy Hobbs, the main character, embodies a hero, in the sense that a hero does good deeds for children, for instance when he hits a home run for a dying boy (Helterman 29).
Roy has the values of a hero, attributes that distinguish heroes from normal people in that their values are so different. A hero is someone who acts within and for a mythology (Turner 116).
In Roy’s case, the mythology is his baseball career and his superior abilities, for Roy believes that he has a mythic quest to become the best baseball player of all time. Although Roy is a hero of mythology, and performs the duty of one, he ultimately fails because he is unable to see reality beyond his myth (Turner 116-117).
He cannot accept the harshness of real life because he is trapped inside the mythology. When Roy decides to fix the pennant game, he acts outside the myth for the first time and when he tries to reattach himself to it, by deciding he wants to try his hardest to win the game, he cannot (Turner 116-117), for his bat, Wonderboy, breaks. Another is that he is too narcissistic and cannot see beyond himself or notice the concerns of others (Tanner 132).
His narcissism causes him to treat Iris Lemon, the girl that helps him hit out of his slump, in the way that he does, by fornicating with her and then refusing to have a relationship, for he fears the fact that he would become a grandfather if he were to marry her, since she already has a granddaughter. Roy’s inability to learn from the past also hinders him, and causes him to repeat his past suffering (Richman 30).
The Essay on Greek Heroes
Heroes played many roles in Greek mythology, where several people were tried and admired in a variety of ways. The Greeks consider heroes as people who go on an extraordinary journey, completing an impossible task, and being courageous. According to the Websters Dictionary, the definition of a hero is a man who is admired for his achievements and qualities, but the definition varies in the ...
Roy also holds many similarities to the knights Percival and Lancelot, both of whom are heroes of Arthurian mythology. Roy is similar to Lancelot in the way that they both are motivated by love and both are reproached by their lovers (Hays 90).
Roy parallels Percival in the sense that they both have an inborn talent at baseball and knight hood. Roy is also similar to Percival in that they both are heroes as well as fools. They both are fools in the sense that they both come from the country and make fools of themselves when they try to adapt to the sophisticated ways of both baseball and knighthood (Helterman 23-24).
Roy shows himself a fool when Bump Bailey, the star player of the Knights when Roy joins the team, tricks Roy into trading rooms with him and Memo Paris inadvertently fornicates with Roy, because she thinks it is her boyfriend, Bump. Percival shows himself a fool when he fails to ask the Fisher King about the Grail procession that he had just witnessed, because if he had asked then the Fisher King’s ailment of bandaged hands would have been healed. Both Roy and Percival are heroes because they were both called to heal the Pop Fisher, who represents the Fisher King, and restore life to the Knights’ field, which represents the Arthurian wasteland (Helterman 24).
The most significant similarity between Roy Hobbs and Percival is that they are both “too wrapped in their self image to recognize the awesome responsibility that comes with their great talent” (Helterman 24).
Other characters have functions in the myth as well. Harriet Bird acts as the woman, in the tradition of grail mythology, who is sent to the hero, Roy, for his worthiness (Richman 32).
She performs this function when she shoots Roy, and in turn, Roy proves his worthiness by returning to baseball fifteen years later. Memo Paris functions as a temptress and is described as a “green-eyed siren” (Malamud, Natural, 175) when she lies on the bed as Roy falls terribly ill. Memo has evolved from the Arthurian Morgan le Fay, a temptress who kills many knights (Wasserman 49).
Memo symbolizes death as she has a “sick breast” and is forever mourning for the dead Bump Bailey, after he crashes into the outfield fence and dies. Iris Lemon is the foil to Memo Paris, in that she represents life and fertility, for she has a daughter as well as a granddaughter at an early age. Iris seems to be the embodiment of the Lady of the Lake from Arthurian mythology, for both women help knights, Roy in Iris’ case, and Iris knows Lake Michigan intimately by often swimming there (Wasserman 49).
The Essay on Hero and Mrs. Fisher
Heroism is a role model and someone who helps others with out personal gain or need, and they show support. Tangerine by Edward Bloor contains characters that are heroes and non-heroes. Paul Fisher is a hero while his brother, Erik, is not and Mrs. Fisher also has traits of heroism. Paul Fisher is a hero because he puts others before himself despite personal danger and because he does the right ...
Gus Sands, the underhanded bookie, is the modern day embodiment of Merlin the Magician, for he seems to manipulate the outcome of every event so that he always wins (Wasserman 49).
Sam Simpson functions as Roy’s initial guide, as all Arthurian heroes have a guide, in place of Roy’s father (Richman 31).
Pop Fisher represents the Fisher King, who is also known as the Sinner King, whose lands have been barren since he sinned long ago. Pop Fisher has not won a pennant since his famous Fisher Flop, his sin, and the Knights field is dry and the stands are empty (Helterman 26).
Pop and the Fisher King even suffer the same affliction, a rash on the hands (Wasserman 47-48).
Many elements of Arthurian mythology likewise enhance the story. Within the story, numerous events occur that parallel the sort of event that occurs in mythology. When Pop tells Roy to “knock the cover off of [the ball]” (Malamud, Natural 70), Roy does so and, in turn, mystically ends a drought and heals Pop’s ailment (Hershinow 23).
Even earlier, when Roy strikes out the Whammer Whambold, the greatest player of Roy’s youth, his feat is “an inspiring sight… of David jawboning the Goliath-Whammer, or was it Sir Percy lancing Sir Maldemer, or the first son (with a rock in his paw)” (Malamud, Natural 24), the act of a novice defeating a well respected expert. Another likeness between the story and mythology is the scene in which one opponent, sick at the thought of pitching to Roy, envisions him “in full armor mounted on a black charger… coming at him with a long lance” (Wasserman 47).
The Knights’ quest for the pennant is similar to the Arthurian quest for the Holy Grail in that although they forever search for it, they cannot attain it (Wasserman 47).
Roy’s bat, Wonderboy, is also a source of mythological parallels. Wonderboy is made from the wood of a lightning-stricken tree, and seems to have mystical powers that are derived from nature’s own (Wasserman 48).
Wonderboy is so brilliantly white that an umpire orders Roy to dull the bat, because its shine blinds the opposing pitchers. Wonderboy is to Roy as Excalibur was to Arthur, in that both Roy and Arthur are invincible when they are using Wonderboy or Excalibur, but are very conquerable without them (Helterman 35).
The Essay on Star Wars Luke Story Hero
For the last quarter of a century, the world has been entranced by the vision of George Lucas. His famed Star Wars trilogy, arguably the greatest movie series in history, has had an incalculable effect on society. What most people fail to realize is that this story began as the embodiment of Joseph Campbell's book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Lucas and Campbell were very close friends, and ...
When Wonderboy breaks, and Roy must use an ordinary Louisville Slugger, Roy strikes out because he is powerless without Wonderboy.
Not only does the story contain mythical events and descriptions, but it also holds to the basic laws of Arthurian Grail mythology. The first section, before Roy is shot, establishes its mythic pattern: a young hero sets out in search of fame and fortune; encounters and conquers an aging hero, the Whammer; and he is laid low by a mysterious temptress, Harriet Bird (Hershinow 22).
The events of the first part of the novel also parallel the events of the second and recapitulate the mythic formula of initiation, a hero sets out on a quest, separation, the hero is deterred from his quest, and return, the hero returns to his quest, when taken together (Richman 30).
The story also has a theme of fertility and rebirth. When an old Roy is struck out, in his final game, by the young opposing pitcher, Youngberry, the mythic Arthurian fertility cycle is completed: an aging hero is beaten by a rising ace (Tanner 131).
The theme of rebirth is prevalent as Roy returns to baseball as a Knight after being shot by Harriet Bird (Hays 91).
As the story holds to the laws of Arthurian mythology, it more greatly resembles the Arthurian myth.
Bernard Malamud’s novel The Natural is the modern day embodiment of the Arthurian myth. Since baseball is the foundation of contemporary mythology, the story holds a greater mythical significance, as it includes many parallels to actual baseball events. Characters create parallels between the story and Arthurian mythology, and in turn, create a mythic atmosphere. Mythical elements in the story educe the feeling of an Arthurian myth from it. The Natural is a modern day Arthurian myth.