On Yakov’s Historical Trauma In Bernard Malamud’s The Fixer

Bernard Malamud is one of the most famous Jewish American writers in the20thcentury. He has an important place in American literature. The Works of BernardMalamud mostly portray the poor, but enduring Jews at the foot of the social ladder.Because of the unique Jewish complex in his works, he is known as the most “Jewish”modern Jewish American writer. The fourth novel of Bernard Malamud, The Fixer, isrecognized and highly valued when being published. In1967, The Fixer won theNational Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for literature.Bernard Malamud metaphorically represents the historical experience of theJewish people through the personal encounters, and closely associates the historicaltragedy with the character’s fate. In this thesis, the historical trauma mainly refers tothe pain born by the oppressed groups in history. This pain has never been truly cured,and has been passed from generation to generation, which causes historical trauma.The Fixer not only vividly describes historical trauma of the protagonist, Yakov, butalso concentratedly represents the historical trauma suffered by the Jewish people inthe history.This thesis makes a detailed research on the historical trauma of BernardMalamud’s The Fixer. It chooses the experience of protagonist Yakov as a researchobject. It analyzes the novel from three aspects: the historical trauma of Yakov,Yakov’s understanding of Jewish history and Jewish historical trauma, and hisstruggle against historical trauma. The first part analyzes the traumatic experiences ofYakov. He grows up in the Jewish town, and lives in poverty. His parents died young.Moreover, he is trapped in the prison for the accusation of blood accusation. Thus, thehistorical trauma causes great harm to Yakov. The second part probes for Yakov’s newunderstanding of Jewish history and the Jewish historical trauma. After experiencingthe trauma, Yakov attempts to look for the root causes of trauma in national history,and wants to find the personal links with history. A Jewish descent, as he finds, mustaccept and face the heavy history of the Jewish people. The third part gives an in-depth analysis of the ways Yakov seeks to recover from the historical trauma. Byreturning to the family and the Jewish community, Yakov is free from isolation. Forthe clarity of his faith, Yakov finds the way of salvation.The conclusion states that Bernard Malamud represents the historical trauma inThe Fixer, seeking a way of salvation to achieve self-development. He furtherindicates the real power of salvation lies in the inner strength, courage andresponsibility of the Jews. Finally, through the representation of historical traumaBernard Malamud hopes that various ethnic groups can find beneficial ways ofsurvival and develop from the reflections on the past.