The Natural

Major characters

A signed first edition copy of The Natural held by Oregon State University, which employed Malamud.[5]
  • Roy Hobbs – "The Natural" – Roy Hobbs, who is the protagonist of this story, is a former teenage pitching phenomenon whose career dreams were derailed after a mysterious woman shot and seriously wounded him as he traveled to Chicago to try out for a Major League baseball team. This story follows Roy’s comeback to be one of the games very greats of the game, where he ultimately falls short in the spiritual, and intellectual capacity area. But his talent on the baseball field makes him look like a mythical hero. Although in the end, in this case the hero is unable to deliver. Money, lust, and human weakness triumph over heroism in many cases in life. This story shows how, like life, the same thing can happen in baseball. Life, and baseball create circumstances in which people are left with choices, and what Roy did with those choices in this story determined the outcome of his life, and or your game. In life the good guy can not always come out on top, he doesn’t always win. The same goes for baseball. This novel uses Roy to discuss the beautiful parallel between the two, and how they compare well, while also complementing each other. Baseball, which has a rich history, is the most relatable sport when it comes to relatability, triumph, and failure, highs, and lows.[6]
  • Memo Paris – Roy's main love interest throughout the story, Memo is Pop Fisher's niece and is often in the company of Sands. She is generally unhappy and leads Roy on for most of the novel.
  • Pop Fisher – The grizzled manager of the New York Knights, Pop was once a fine player who is remembered for making a crucial error in his playing career and for never winning the big game. His name and situation are suggestive of the Fisher King of legend.
  • Max Mercy – A seedy journalist who is more concerned with unearthing facts about the players' personal lives than covering the sport itself. Mercy meets Hobbs in the beginning of the novel and later spends most of his time trying to uncover his dark secrets.
  • Gus Sands – A morally bankrupt bookie who enjoys placing bets against Hobbs until he persuades him to take a dive in the final game. He is also always around Memo, despite Roy's protests.
  • Iris Lemon – A fan of Roy's who helps him break his slump in the middle of the season. Iris makes a deep connection with Roy, although he favors Memo over her until the end of the novel.
  • Harriet Bird – The mysterious woman the teen-aged Roy meets on the train when he is en route to Chicago at the beginning of the novel. She later shoots him in her hotel room before committing suicide. Her character is loosely based on Ruth Ann Steinhagen, a disturbed 19-year-old baseball fan who, obsessed with Eddie Waitkus, shot and nearly killed him in 1949.

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