Alienation and Suffering in Bernard Malamudâ€...

Alienation and Suffering in Bernard Malamud’s The Assistant

Author Name : Dr. Rupali Mirza

ABSTRACT

Bernard Malamud is a widely acclaimed novelist in the field of Jewish-American Literature. His works have the underlying theme of familial relationships along with loss and suffering. They deal with the isolation of an individual in spite of all the existing family ties where the protagonist evolves spiritually to overcome these worldly constraints. Malamud exposes the emptiness in worldly relationships. One of his major works which exemplifies this style of writing is The Assistant (1957). Malamud and other Jewish writers have dealt with the theme of suffering because of the historical background of the World Wars due to which there was bad faith and nothingness prevailing in the very fabric of the Jewish society which reflected completely in Jewish fiction. As a religious group, the Jews suffered at the hands of fate and as a result of the Holocaust which left them devoid of their very roots. Therefore, we see widespread suffering in Malamud. All of Malamud’s characters start in life with the desire to succeed and earn money and status. In this whole process they undergo a phase full of sufferings by which eventually they learn that there is hollowness in the pursuit of success through money. Success in life should not be attained through money, on the contrary, it should be gained by love and compassion for one’s fellowman.

Keywords: success, Jewish society, suffering, emptiness, desire