The Natural

     The Natural by Bernard Malamud is an inspiring novel about Roy Hobs, a character who appears heroic up until the end of the novel yet encounters countless problems in his quest to be "the best there ever was in the game".  The book, written in 1952, was made into a movie that I remember watching when I was little.  I don't remember much from the movie except for the iconic Roy Hobbs played by Robert Redford.  In a way I was glad that I didn't remember the movie so that it wouldn't spoil the novel for me.  Although it was Malamud's first book, I felt that it was well written and I am sure that most people would agree as The Natural is one of the most famous baseball-related books of all time.  The book follows Roy Hobbs in his attempt to reach the majors, except for skipping over 15 years, which placed much emphasis on the fact that Roy was very old when he finally made it to the bigs.  The exception of this 15 year period was caused by the largest problem Roy faced, one that affected him all throughout the book, and even in the end.  First off, at the beginning of the novel Roy is a young man who hopes that he will one day (as I mentioned previously) be the best in the game.  He is on his way to try out for the Chicago Cubs and everything is going well until he meets a girl on a train en route to Chicago.  As innocent as this girl, Harriet, appears, she actually is deranged in a way that causes her to purposely shoot Roy for no reason other than to prevent him from being the best there ever was.  About 15 years later Roy shows up to Pop Fisher, coach of the utterly failing New York Knights.  At 34 years old, Roy Hobbs is looked upon with disgust by most people and considered too old...but when Roy finally gets his chance to play he wows everyone with his "natural" skill.  Yet not all is good for Roy as he encounters several relationship problems but all along he loves Memo, the niece of Pop.  Other than this, Roy falls into a slump, gets a women pregnant, eats so much that he has to go to the hospital, and strikes out causing his team to lose the pennant.  In the end Roy almost can't handle the fact that he could have been in the majors since he was 20 had it not been for Harriet.  In the end Roy visits the stingy judge, who is the owner of the Knights and has been paying Roy very little even though he is the best player on the team.  Roy beats up the judge and Gus, a man Roy is jealous of, and calls Memo a whore.  He also sees a newspaper claiming that there was a suspected sellout, meaning that Hobbs had lost the game on purpose to make more money.  This was not true but there is nothing for Hobbs to do but weep.  In fact the last sentence of the book occurs after a newspaper boy asks Roy if the sellout is true: "When Roy looked into the boy's eyes he wanted to say it wasn't but couldn't, and he lifted his hands to his face and wept bitter tears".

     The ending was so tragic since I was imagining so many other endings that could have occurred. For example, I figured Roy would have hit a home run to win the pennant for the Knights.  This would have been the perfect happy ending since the whole book appeared to lead up to this point.  Roy insisted that he go in the game to hit, and I was sure he would hit a home run to win the game, even though he was still injured.  Despite that, "He struck out with a roar".  It was such a disappointment.  When Roy wasn't the hero in the end, I figured that he would at least end up marrying Memo rather than calling her a whore and leaving her for good.  Roy Hobbs ended up with nothing...no women to love, not much time left in his life for baseball, not much money, a scandal that scarred his fame, and so much more.  The line that captured Roy Hobbs and the character he represented was the last line on page 230 and it read:  "He [Roy] thought, I never did learn anything out of my past life, now I have to suffer again."  The Natural, as the author of the introduction puts it, is an antiheroic tale about a baseball player whose ambitions and desires are constantly thwarted".  Roy Hobbs wants to be the best, yet he never will be and he doesn't realize this until the end of the book when everything appears to take a turn for the worse.

     The Natural was such a sad novel as I felt bad for Roy Hobbs since he was such a confident, seemingly nice, ballplayer who, although quite arrogant, loved the game of baseball and wanted his team to win no matter what.  Don't get me wrong, Roy did care about other things, particularly Memo, but it just didn't turn out for him.  I greatly enjoyed the book and I would recommend it to anyone, as it involves baseball, romance, and a gut-wrenching story that both inspires and saddens readers.