An Illustration Of Man's Spiritual Growth In The Modern World

Jewish-American literature is an important part of American literature. Jewish-American writers have made great achievements and become very popular among readers all over the world. What's more important, they write not exclusively for a certain ethnic group, but for all humans. They depict the suffering, marginality, victimization, alienation, and redemption of common people under modern conditions, though they write from a particular Jewish perspective.Bernard Malamud is one of the most remarkable Jewish-American writers of the 20th century. He devotes his attention in his fictions to the problems of American society with a strong sense of Jewishness. His experiences endow him with a strong awareness of people's suffering and offer him an insightful perspective in explaining their suffering in modern society.Suffering has a unique meaning in Malamud's fiction. On the one hand, he believes in the Jewish idea that human suffering has redemptive and educative power, which will improve man's moral character and promote the society toward perfection. On the other hand, Malamud believes that community has an important influence on every individual's search for a new life. The experience of suffering can teach people to devote themselves to the community, and communal efforts will eventually lead to a diminution of prevalent evil and suffering. Furthermore, Malamud points out in The Fixer that to be involved in the community also means to learn to assume responsibility and to lead a life of moral entanglement.The Fixer is one of Malamud's best realistic works. In the novel, Yakov, the hero, is a bereft and bewildered wanderer, who yearns to find the secret of life and happiness. He searches for perfection in a world of imperfection but fails. He suffers a lot in the prison and becomes a scapegoat in the world of anti-Semitism because he is a Jew and he can't reconcile his inner self with the dehumanized outside world. Through suffering, Yakov finds out the meaning of human's existence. He is completely awakened, achieves his growth in conscience, and wins a victory over social force and power. Yakov becomes a metaphor for the good man striving towithstand the dehumanizing pressures of the modern world. Malamud connects thesuffering of Yakov not only with the fate of the Jewish people but also with that ofother oppressed minorities of the world. The novel contributes a lot to ourunderstanding of the world around us. As Yakov says "Everyone is a Jew".