An Archetypal Study Of Malamud's A New Life

Bernard Malamud is one of the major American Jewish writers of the post-World War ? period.Malamud's third novel A New Life is set in American West of the1950 s.It tells a story of Levin who moves to the West to pursue a new life.This thesis attempts to analyze the archetypes in A New Life,including the archetypal characters,the narrative structure and the themes by using Frye's archetypal criticism theory.Archetypal criticism is one of the most influential criticisms blossoming in the latter half of the twentieth-century literary theories.In literary criticism,archetype denotes narrative designs,patterns of action,character types,themes,and images which recur in a wide variety of literary works,as well as in myths,dreams,and even social rituals.Firstly,this thesis analyzes the archetypal characters in A New Life.Through the comparative analysis of characters' personality traits and life experiences,it can be discovered that the archetype of Levin is Adam and the archetype of Pauline is Eve.Adam and Eve are the first man and woman in Genesis.They can be considered as the ancestors of all human beings.Through the employment of archetypal characters,Malamud reveals the universal human virtues such as acceptance of responsibility and learning from one's own suffering.Secondly,this thesis analyzes the archetypal narrative structure in A New Life.Frye claims that the narrative structure of The Bible is roughly U-shaped.Men descend into disaster because of their disobedience to God,which is followed by redemption for men's repentance.The archetype of this U-shaped narrative pattern is manifested in Levin's experience of pursuing a new life in the West,following the pattern of falling---getting lost---deliverance.Thirdly,this thesis analyzes the archetypal themes in A New Life.Wandering and rebirth are the themes in the novel.The theme of wandering refers to Levin's spiritual wandering of pursuing self-identity to find the destination of souls.The theme of rebirth is presented as Levin's moral rebirth.It refers to the end of Levin's spiritualwandering and the process of rebuilding himself.The two themes,mingling together and threading through the whole novel,express Malamud's positive concept of morality and humanity.Frye notes that in the criticism of literature we have to stand back from the literary work to see its archetypal organization.In the novel,Levin gets a clear understanding of self-identity,society and life with his moral growth and development.This reflects Malamud's abiding moral values and his hopeful faith in human spirit.To sum up,through the archetypal analysis,it can be concluded that Malamud expresses his meditation on future development of human beings and his positive concept of moral values.