Essay/Term paper: The natural

Essay, term paper, research paper:  English Term Papers

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act;
but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act
G.K. Chesterton, Generaly Speaking

Some people think that fate is something you are born with, something that follows you around for the rest of your life until the day you die. I think that fate is something that exists in your sub-conscience, therefore making it nothing more than your conscience.

In the book The Natural by Bernard Malamud the main character Roy Hobbs had a very distinct flaw, a flaw that millions of American men and women both have...... an obsession with sex which affected his charecter and which made him a very unsuccessful man. From the very beginning of the book when he went to that woman Harriet"s room for a quick thrill I had an idea of what kind of person Roy was, I mean even I would have though that he learned his lesson about messing around with people he just met after she shot him. Well, that"s all right, its only fifteen years off his career and the end of his pitching. Strike one!

I guess that he didn"t learn his lesson because one night while Roy"s new so-called friend Bump leads him to a hotel room knowing that his girlfriend Memo is lying buck-naked on the bed. When Roy notices her there he doesn"t stop and think,"Hold on a second their is a naked woman in my bed mabey I should turn on the light and ask her what she"s doing here" No, he just jumps into bed and runs the bases. So one day Bump dies and Roy thinks that Memo"s all his, boy is he wrong. This new found passion totally messes up his train of thought and guess what? Yup, you guessed it another woman falls into his life. Strike two!

The woman is a very attractive....grandmother???? Her name was Iris who he meets at a baseball game standing in the crowd. So he decides to go after her and one fine day he forgets his rubbers and gets her pregnant, but he still is in love with Memo. While Memo and Roy were talking one day she said that she needed a man that would buy her a car, get her a housekeeper etc. so he goes and excepts this payoff to blow the game so that he can buy Memo all those things. Strike three!

It was game day and the crowd was going wild and there was a smell of roasted peanuts in the air or was that the stench of love well whatever it was it stunk. Roy was up at bat and the game was on him and he thought to himself and he decided not to blow the game so he tries but he strikes out.......YOUR OUT!!!

What was it fate or a flaw in character, well if you ask me he had the deadliest flaw of all...love.