An Analysis Of Malamud’s The Fixer From Rene Girard’s Theory Of The Scapegoat

Renowned as “the heart of Jewish literature”, Bernard Malamud had devoted all hislife writing the Jews from the most real and meticulous perspectives. The Fixer, which waspublished in1966，told a story of Yakov Bok, who wanted to shake of poverty by honestwork and tried his luck in Kiev, which was a city caught in fierce waves of anti-Semitism.Denying his Jewish identity, Yakov worked for a member of a powerful anti-Semiticorganization. When a twelve-year-old Russian boy named Zhenia Golov was found dead ina cave, drained of nearly all his blood, this Jewish fixer was accused of ritual murder. Thecruel prison torture made him feel desperate but at the same time, showed him a complexand dark anti-Semitic conspiracy. His national consciousness was gradually awakened andhis understanding of fate and history became clear and definite. This poor andless-educated fixer was finally turned to a tough and courageous national fighter.The “Scapegoat”, as a culture phenomenon, deeply rooted in human civilization. Thefamous French anthropologist and literary critic Rene Girard concluded from numerouspersecution texts four persecution stereotypes: a state of crisis, the special marks on thevictim, the crimes accused and the violence. And then Girard put forward the scapegoatmechanism. In a process of persecution, the persecutors would firstly spare no effort toincite the crowd to persecute someone (the victim). Then, after the victim’s sacrifice endedcrisis and restored social orders, he was worshiped in return, which was his second identitytransition. In The Fixer, Yakov Bok’s sufferings and changes matched exactly with ReneGirard’s persecution stereotypes and mechanism.The cornerstone of Rene Girard’s scapegoat theory was “mimetic desires”, which wasalso the cause of admiration, jealousy, hatred and persecution in human society. This thesisaims at putting the virus of persecution under the microscope of Rene Girard’s scapegoattheory and interpreting the causes of anti-Semitism from a new aspect of mimetic desiresbetween nations.