Ryan Horstman
World Lit 12
12/17/09
A-Block
“2nd Quarter outside Reading Book Review”
“The Natural” by Bernard Malamud. Puffin books, 1952 Genre: Fiction
“The Natural” one of Bernard Malamud's most outstanding novels, displays a young talented star,
Roy Hobbs, 19 years of age, whose dream is to pitch in the major leagues.
Taking place in the Bronx, New York , Roy finds himself in touch with the Chicago Cubs
scout. Roy decides to travel on a train to try out for the Chicago Cubs. Roy finds himself on the
train with the biggest star of the game, Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth is on the train with a sports
journalist, Max Mercy. The train decides to stop off at a carnival where both Roy and Babe
put a show on. Roy and the Babe meet up and introduce. Sam, the cubs scout who wants
Roy to play for the Cubs, bets that Roy can strike out the Babe. The Babe takes the bet. At
this point everyone is watching to see what happens. Surprisingly Roy strikes out the Babe and
the Babe is deeply embarrassed. A woman named Harriet, was so impressed by Roy, that she
invites him to her hotel room. Roy tells her that he is going to be the greatest baseball player
to enter the game. She then shoots him and basically destroys his career. Roy then returns
15 years later to play for a team called the New York Knights. Roy is by far the most outstanding
baseball player anyone has seen and he is 34 years old at the time.
"This book was not only an inspiring book but also was a great sports
Novel that could be read over and over again." ("Alex Fowl)"
“The Natural,” is one of Bernard Malamud's best sports novels. Bernard Malamud
loves to write fabulous sports-related fiction novels. The Natural shows
a young Adult who is fighting for his dream, to pitch in the major leagues
, one of the biggest dreams anyone has growing up. This is one of the
only novels where he talks about personal experiences. Bernard
was a little boy whose dream was to also play sports. He like to write
sports novels for young adults and most of them are young adult characters throughout
each novel. This novel familiarizes me with the novel The Big Field written by
Mike Lupica. Both novels display baseball, very similar, but The Natural
is a novel that talks about having dreams, fighting for what you want and
facing real life conflict.
1.) Wonderboy flashed in the sun. It caught the sphere it was biggest. A noise like a twenty-one
gun salute cracked the sky. There was a straining, ripping sound and a few drops of rain spattered
to the ground somebody then shouted it was raining cats and dogs. By the time of Roy got in from
second he was wading in water ankle deep.
2.) "Experience makes good people better." She was staring at the lake. "How does it do that?" "Through
their suffering." "I had enough of that," he said in disgust. "We have two lives, Roy, the life we learn with
and the life we live with after that. Suffering is what brings us toward happiness All it taught me was to
stay aware from it. I am sick of all I have suffered." She shrank away a little.
This quote, the second quote, from "Batter Up!" part VI, reveals just how little Roy has learned from his life, and what
it will mean if he does not choose to be with Iris. Iris has a wisdom that Memo does not even come close to having.
Iris's statements about the necessity of suffering as a way of truly appreciating happiness recall a constant theme
in Malamud's novels. Roy will not come to understand these words until the very last pages of the novel, when he
thinks, "I never did learn anything out of my past life, now I have to suffer again." The essential point is easy to grasp
: only through suffering can one recognize happiness for what it is. Roy dreams of wealth and fame, of breaking
records and getting what life "owes" him, are only a mere childish fantasy of what happiness is supposed to be.
This quote, the first quote, is from Chapter II of "Batter Up!" It represents Roy's first hit, and again, there are several
levels of symbolism and metaphor packed into a few sentences
I am a true fan of Bernard Malamud. He is a fantastic sports novelist. I face many conflicts
that are in my way, but I fight and stay strong so I can fight for my dream. This book has
made me feel great about my dream. This book is helping me do my part in life, so my dream
can come true. Sports are the most fantastic thing in the world to me and Bernard Malamud writes
novels about them which I love. He is a Great Writer!
Friday, December 18, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
New Experiences
It was one afternoon when I realized a taxi pulled into my driveway. I totally forgot that today was the day that Siddhartha would be coming to visit me. From the looks of Siddhartha, I believe that he wouldn’t really like any of the places around South Hadley, but I had some ideas in mind. The reason why I believe that Siddhartha wouldn’t like any of the places around South Hadley are because he is dressed like no one I’d seen before, although this is just me judging a man that I’ve never seen in my life.
I decided to bring Siddhartha to the Mall in Holyoke so I could buy him some clothes that suited a regular person of the area Siddhartha is being exposed of. I bought him a pair of shorts, a hat, a t-shirt, socks, boxers and a pair of Nike Air Force ones. The trip to the mall was pretty exciting although everyone I walked by was staring because of what Siddhartha was wearing. Other than that it went pretty well I’d say. The next trip is off to the Summit House about a mile outside of South Hadley.
The Summit House is a beautiful place wear you can enjoy the weather, hang out with your friends, and feel the breeze blowing by as well as the sight. You can even exercise. This is a place where I have been going since I was about 8 years old. This place hasn’t changed since the last time I have been there. From the looks of it I think Siddhartha already likes this place as well as the environment around it. You can enjoy the natural beauty and wilderness as you reach the top of the Summit House. As we approached the top, Siddhartha and I decided sit down on a rock. As I looked over to my side, I saw Siddhartha sitting their, meditating like nothing I’d seen before. It was as if nothing was living around him. He was so calm and relaxed. I imagined he was connecting with Atman. I tried speaking to him, but no response of course.
Well I was right about Siddhartha enjoying the Summit trip. Now is the time for the exciting and stimulating part of our adventure. Our next trip is off to high rock. High rock is a place where you can hang with your friends, go swimming and cliff jump. The stimulating part is standing on top of High rock, looking down into the water. It is a high jump. Siddhartha had that look in his eye, feared by the height. Although I imagined Siddhartha not enjoying this place, I decided to take him anyway, to show the experiences that this town achieves. I jumped off into the cold water. I looked up to see Siddhartha running away from the cliff. I hurried back up to the cliff to catch him, but there was no Siddhartha in sight. There was a piece of paper that blew by my face. I grabbed it quickly. It read, “Ryan, my dear friend, I had the wonderful experience of visiting you, to see the differences this area was to the area of India. It was inspirational visiting the Summit House, but the downside was visiting High Rock. I had never experienced someone risk their lives like that before. It was upsetting in my eyes. At least I know that there are beautiful places to visit in this country.” – Siddhartha
It was fun spending time with Siddhartha. I never thought it would have gone as well as it did. I thought he wouldn’t stick around to face the adventure I had planned out for him. I now understand that there are many differences in people, such as from other countries. The good thing was that Siddhartha had some fun, well at least I had thought. It was an amazing time. I wonder how Siddhartha made it back home though.
I decided to bring Siddhartha to the Mall in Holyoke so I could buy him some clothes that suited a regular person of the area Siddhartha is being exposed of. I bought him a pair of shorts, a hat, a t-shirt, socks, boxers and a pair of Nike Air Force ones. The trip to the mall was pretty exciting although everyone I walked by was staring because of what Siddhartha was wearing. Other than that it went pretty well I’d say. The next trip is off to the Summit House about a mile outside of South Hadley.
The Summit House is a beautiful place wear you can enjoy the weather, hang out with your friends, and feel the breeze blowing by as well as the sight. You can even exercise. This is a place where I have been going since I was about 8 years old. This place hasn’t changed since the last time I have been there. From the looks of it I think Siddhartha already likes this place as well as the environment around it. You can enjoy the natural beauty and wilderness as you reach the top of the Summit House. As we approached the top, Siddhartha and I decided sit down on a rock. As I looked over to my side, I saw Siddhartha sitting their, meditating like nothing I’d seen before. It was as if nothing was living around him. He was so calm and relaxed. I imagined he was connecting with Atman. I tried speaking to him, but no response of course.
Well I was right about Siddhartha enjoying the Summit trip. Now is the time for the exciting and stimulating part of our adventure. Our next trip is off to high rock. High rock is a place where you can hang with your friends, go swimming and cliff jump. The stimulating part is standing on top of High rock, looking down into the water. It is a high jump. Siddhartha had that look in his eye, feared by the height. Although I imagined Siddhartha not enjoying this place, I decided to take him anyway, to show the experiences that this town achieves. I jumped off into the cold water. I looked up to see Siddhartha running away from the cliff. I hurried back up to the cliff to catch him, but there was no Siddhartha in sight. There was a piece of paper that blew by my face. I grabbed it quickly. It read, “Ryan, my dear friend, I had the wonderful experience of visiting you, to see the differences this area was to the area of India. It was inspirational visiting the Summit House, but the downside was visiting High Rock. I had never experienced someone risk their lives like that before. It was upsetting in my eyes. At least I know that there are beautiful places to visit in this country.” – Siddhartha
It was fun spending time with Siddhartha. I never thought it would have gone as well as it did. I thought he wouldn’t stick around to face the adventure I had planned out for him. I now understand that there are many differences in people, such as from other countries. The good thing was that Siddhartha had some fun, well at least I had thought. It was an amazing time. I wonder how Siddhartha made it back home though.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)