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In the works of Bernard Malamud, the issue of imprisonment is fundamental not only as a symbol of the acceptance of human being's limitations in life but also as a way to evidence his/her subjection to superior forces such as Nature's laws. Ironically, in Malamud, imprisonment is a key element in the protagonist's freedom. In this paper, I will focus on the presence of Spinoza's concepts of God, Freedom and Historical Necessity, and State in Malamud's The Fixer. It will be shown that reflecting on these concepts in the light of Spinoza's Ethics will eventually help us understand Yakov Bok and his role and position in the world.
A
key commonplace in Bernard Malamud's novels is the presentation
of the hero as an individual, who has not found his
place in life because he still has not come to terms
with himself. For this reason, he searches for a connection
with the world carried out on the basis of Malamud's
assumption that both the present and the past are linked.
Typically, the past reappears in the hero's present
life as part of a life full of errors. When the hero
learns from them - Frank Alpine in The Assistant
(1957) and Yakov in The Fixer (1966), among others
- he is finally redeemed; conversely, if he does not
learn from themas is the case with Roy Hobbs in Malamud's
first novel, The Natural (1952) - he is doomed
to fail.
Throughout
his learning process, the protagonist is usually subject
to such an intense suffering and hard imprisonment that
he feels compelled to question God's goodness. Imprisonment
is a milieu Malamud uses, to facilitate both his protagonists'
selflessness and understanding of the difficulties man
must face. Once they realize that the painful experience
they have gone through has transformed them into better
human beings, they are ready to recover their ancestors'
faith and religion.Imprisonment
is, therefore, a fundamental issue in Malamud: it is
not only a symbol of the acceptance of man's limitations
in life (Leslie and Joyce, 1975, p. 12) but also his
subjection to higher forces such as nature's laws. Ironically
enough, he presents the theme of imprisonment as a way
to reach freedom. In this sense, as will be shown below,
I consider it essential to analyze Malamud's novel The
Fixer in the light of Spinoza Baruch's concepts
of God, Freedom and Historical Necessity, and State
because they help the protagonist better understand
his life by making him reflect on his role and position
in the world.
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