Chosen To Suffer, Choosing To Suffer

Around the theme of suffering, this thesis applies the method of text analysis, approaching Bernard Malamud's The Assistant from the perspective of the Jewish culture, exploring the motivation and religious significance of suffering. By analyzing the protagonists, Morris Bober and Frank Alpine, in The Assistant, the thesis advances the view that Morris is a passive victim while Frank, a gentile affected by Morris' morality, is an active victim. As a passive victim, Morris attributes his suffering to his Jewish identity and their Jews' fate as God's chosen people; as an active victim, Frank, inheriting form Morris, chooses to suffer what a Jew must suffer out of his own will. In their mutual influence and salvation, a special symbiotic relationship is established between Morris and Frank. And the final salvation and spiritual sublimation will never be realized lacking in either of the two.Then it integrates the archetypal theory into the text analysis, searching for the archetype of suffering Jews in the Old Testament, which the Jewish tradition and values are rooted in. In comparison of the archetype, Job, in the Old Testament and Morris in the novel, the motivation of their suffering is exposed, which helps to reveal the religious significance of suffering.It is through the transformation from passive suffering to active that the Jewish spirit is able to be continued and further sublimated. The moral power generated by passively suffering Jews will influence people around, not only bringing dignity to the Jewish suffering fate, but also bring about reformation among the gentiles, which marks the transcendence in the Jewish spirit. By virtue of the characters of the novel, Malamud in the end conveys such an ideal that the Jewish spirit will continue and transcend with the efforts of the Jews as well as the gentiles, which will eventually lead to the salvation of the whole human beings.