| dc.description.abstract | The aim of this study is to show how Bernard Malamud affirms the potentials of human existence in a time that has emphasized the alienation and fragmentation of man. Aided by tools provided by various thinkers, the study delves into four types of love developed in Malamud's novels. Each type of love helps man escape his alienation. Using Paul Tillich's definition of love as "the drive toward the unity of the separated," the present study identifies and discusses man's separation from and love for self, God, others, and nature. The first love alienated man must experience is love of self. Malamud's heroes are seen as men alienated from self, in quest of some kind of self-love. As Tillich points out, self-love may be used accurately only in a metaphorical sense. This investigation, for the sake of clarity, defines self-love as generally synonymous with Nicolas Berdyaev's definition of personality and proceeds to show how the heroes of Malamud's novels succeed or fail in their quest for personality, or self-love. Some attention is given here to Malamud' s code of ethics. A Malamud hero is unable to achieve personality without the aid of some supernatural force. An examination of his novels reveals that Malamud appears to discredit both the Judeo-Christian and the pantheistic concepts of God and adheres to something similar to Jasper's concept of the Transcendent. A Malamud hero in quest of self-love finds that he cannot achieve self-redemption. At the point of despair, he experiences a kind of mystical affirmation or union with the Transcendent and is subsequently able to achieve et least a measure of self-love. He then embraces an infinite passion the goal of which is ameliorating the human experience. In escaping alienation, man must experience love for others. This study examines three kinds of love for others. The first is sex, an attraction that may develop into a higher, spiritual type of love called eros. While eros is, in Malamud's novels, experienced between a man and a woman, the third type, agape, disregards sex. In the present study the societal implications of agape are given primary consideration. Malamud is seen to say that neither the isolationist nor the fanatic reformer experiences true agape love or is able to experience a saving love for others. The final type of love which this study explores is love of nature. Each of Malamud's heroes has a strong affinity with the natural world, and his life patterns are related to the vegetation cycle. Man is not necessarily controlled by nature; rather, the successful Malamud hero is one who modifies the effects of nature by his subjective response to it. In Malamud's novels nature is most often an indicator of the quality of a man's existence. This study defines and demonstrates the quest pattern of Malamud' s novels, beginning with the hero as a fragmented and alienated being and culminating with his success or failure in achieving love of self, God, others, and nature. | |
