Rebirth Of The Protagonist-Frank As A Jew In The Assistant

This thesis makes a study of Bernard Malamud’s The Assistant from the perspective of the Jewish culture and cultural and historical background of this novel trying to probe into the process of Frank’s rebirth from a morally flawed lost vagabond to a self-identified Jew. Malamud’s definition of Jewish spirit is to be good and to suffer for meaning. The rebirth of Frank elevates the Jewish spirit to a new level for its pursuit of the goodness of humanity, the breakdown of the racial barrier and the inspiration to the materialized America.Frank is a lost rootless orphan with no faith in life. Without any skills and specialty, he struggles in the American society hoping to achieve his American dream. Under the influence of American materialism, he starts to pursue material pleasure by filthy methods, such as stealing, robbing and cheating, which lead him to the way of a criminal. But Frank’s spiritual father Morris gradually initiates Frank’s understanding of Jewish spirit. Finally, Frank is moved by Morris’s spirit of being good and suffering for meaning. He chooses to inherit the spirit of Morris and gets rebirth as a Jew. Morris’s Jewish spirit roots deeply in the ideas of goodness and suffering in the Old Testaments and the modern suffering history of Jewish people. Goodness is the life faith of Morris as well as the essence of Jewish Law—orah. Suffering is a cultural mark of Jewish people. The archetype of the innocent sufferer, Job, reveals that suffering is the test of God. But the slaughters imposed on the Jewish people make some of the Jews deny their culture and get lost in their self-identity. Under such circumstances, Malamud put forward the suffering Morris trying to expand the meaning of Jewish suffering to a broader meaning by giving inspiration to those people facing inevitable suffering in life. Frank is influenced by the Jewish spirit of Morris and finally finds his life goal and self-identity, which elevates the Jewish spirit to a new level.