Prototype Of "the Clerk" Interpretation

Bernard Malamud was one of the most important Jewish American writers in the history of American literature. As his representative work, The Assistant, not only won him great internal reputation, but also set the basic tone of all other latter works of Malamud by its writing style, subject and the spirit of Judaism. Meanwhile, it was inevitable for Malamud to be influenced by the Christian culture, since he lived in America. So there were a lot of archetypes which derived from The Bible or the Greek and Roman mythologies in his works.This thesis intends to analyze the archetypes which have been used in The Assistant, through the mythological-archetypal approaches. The archetypes deepen the theme "everybody is a Jew" in The Assistant, and also make it more popular among the readers. Thus along with the passage of time, The Assistant will still be a great work.