Moral Regeneration In Malamud's The Assistant

Bernard Malamud is generally acknowledged as a standard-bearer in Jewish American literature after the Second World War. He is expert in depicting the miserable life of Jews to excavate a big theme of pursuing moral virtues through suffering. The Assistant (1957) is such a characteristic novel. In the novel, Malamud treats Jews' suffering for human beings as the real embodiment of responsibility. For Malamud, Jews are no longer the Chosen People of God, but the representative of the whole humankind in a broader sense. Moral regeneration is the basic theme of the novel.The theme of Frank's moral regeneration runs through the whole novel. Frank is a person of double characters. On the one hand, he does harm like Ward again and again;on the other hand, he seeks to possess good things like St. Francis. Under Morris' moral influence, Frank, as Morris' assistant, begins his painful struggling and achieves his moral regeneration. After moral regeneration, Frank is an orphan who has found a father;a drifter who has found a home with warmth;an emotional loser who has found love to communicate. Frank's moral regeneration is not only his individual moral rebirth, but also the reflection of Malamud's writing purpose. In Malamud's view, one has to endure suffering to redeem oneself, more importantly, to redeem non-Jews. In The Assistant, Malamud not only mirrors the Jew's living condition, but also interprets the universal truth from Jew's life.The thesis consists of three parts: the introduction, the body and the conclusion.The introduction makes a general survey of the criticism of Malamud as a Jewish writer and moral one. Different interpretations ofThe Assistant are presented in this section. The introduction also gives readers the purpose of this thesis.The body is composed of three chapters.Chapter One is a brief introduction of Malamud's life experience and an analysis of The Assistant. The reasons why Malamud pays more attention to man's moral problems are also discussed in this chapter. Malamud's particular life experience and the present American novels of devaluation of man are the two factors which make Malamud believe that man can keep his moral virtues only in sufferings.Chapter Two analyzes Frank's similarity with Ward and St. Francis, who are two extremes on moral side. We can see that Frank is a morally-divided person. Frank, after he becomes Morris' assistant, gradually understands Morris' Jewish spirit. His moral transformation has undergone a painful and hard process.Chapter Three points out that Frank's moral regeneration is reinforced by many images used in the novel. His moral regeneration is also a change from I-It to I-Thou. This chapter also offers the profound and universal significance of his transformation.The conclusion stresses that Frank, under Morris' moral influence, struggles and strives painfully to achieve his moral regeneration. Through Frank's moral regeneration in The Assistant, Malamud claims that he never gives up the hope for man and firmly believes that man is kind and hopeful.