Long Day's Journey Into Night

The Assistant is one of the early works by Jewish American writer Bernard Malamud. It has been listed as one of one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present, which manifests its importance in the literary field. Malamud has won many literary awards, and his works are mainly concerned with the lower class people, the miserable life of Jewish people, as well as the spiritual anguish and helplessness of their hard journey into the mainstream society. He has been called "humanistic spokesman" for those lamentable people for his great humanistic concern. This novel has embodied this concern to the utmost.It has been universally acknowledged that The Assistant is a humorous and comic work by Bernard Malamud. However, this is not absolutely true. His concern for the Jewish future, his tragic humanistic consciousness as well as his anxiety has been fully reflected in this fiction. Detailed analysis has been carried out from the perspective of tension in new criticism to explore how the writer constructs the tragic mood in the fiction and how the theme is conveyed. By applying the theories of New Criticism, Narratology, Aesthetics of Reception and Tragedy, we find that the tragic symbols of Bernard Malamud have been projected into the whole history of the Jews.The first part of this thesis is the introduction to the life experience of Bernard Malamud, the reviews of him and The Assistant. Based on the common viewpoint of comedy on The Assistant, different opinion is proposed that the tragic sense in the fiction cannot be neglected.The second part is the analysis of the tragic tension on the textual level, the representations of tragic tension within the text has shown the writer's anxiety and the tragic sense of the fiction. The tragic tension manifests itself from several aspects: character, narration, culture and aesthetics of reception. The tragic tension of character is embodied through the inner conflict of one single character and the conflicts among characters. The tragic tension of narration is achieved through Malamud's conscious mingling of the sweet memory of the past with the harsh life of the reality. Several main characters in the fiction are indulged in the pursuit of the sweet memories and react passively to the pressure of life. The collision of Jewishness and Americanness can bestrepresent the tension of culture and context. The macro context of the fiction is the Jews, the Bobers as the representative, fighting for survival in the American mainstream. The micro context is Frank Alpine, an alien, join the Bobers, a small Jewish community. There are many clues in the fiction about the prejudice of the Gentiles against the Jews, and also clues about the doubtfulness and insecurity feeling of the Bobers for the newcomer. Bernard Malamud has also cameraed a picture of trueness and falseness, which justifies itself in the tragic tension of aesthetics of reception. Dream has appeared many times in the fiction, which can represent another self and the inner world of the character. Readers are easily involved in the depiction of the real and the unreal in the realm created by Malamud. Sympathy can been aroused with the tragic life of the characters.The third part serves as a complement to the second part. The living situation of the Jewish people is analyzed through the social and historical context within and without the text, including the alienation of the Jew as a member in the society in terms of social alienation, the group alienation and the self-alienation. The alienation of characters in The Assistant is embodied through the fragmentation of the personality, the lack of freedom, and the sense of insecurity among people.The forth is the conclusion part about the reaffirmation of the thesis statement that The Assistant cannot be merely treated as a comedy and humorous piece. The writer's anxiety and his sentimentality about the Jewish future should be highlighted. His famous message of "Everyone is a Jew", not only conveys his concern for universal man, but more of his hope of diminishing the boarder between the Gentiles and the Jews. Just like himself, he doesn't want to be labeled as a Jewish writer. He says he first is an American, and then a Jew. In addition to this, he has called for the writers to fulfill their role and responsibility in the society as a writer. Long Day's Journey, not only for the Jewish past and the future, but also for the fulfillment of the writer's responsibility in the society as Malamud has proposed.