background for The Natural…lifted without shame (but with credit) from Sparknotes by D. Cason
Mythology
It is difficult to appreciate The Natural without some knowledge of the mythological traditions
behind it. The most important of these are the legends of the Waste Land and the Fisher King. Malamud loosely
based his novel on the story of Sir Perceval and his quest for the Holy Grail, originally recorded in the eleventh
century by the French writer Chrétien deTroyes. In Chrétien’s story, Perceval starts out as a country bumpkin,
much like Roy. Raised in the forest by an overprotective mother, he has little knowledge of manners or chivalry.
One day, Perceval meets several knights of King Arthur, and he immediately wants to join
them. He goes to Camelot, but Arthur refuses to make him a knight until he proves himself. Perceval goes out to
do so, and he proves his worth by winning many matches; he turns out to be a surprisingly good knight. Perceval
meets a knight who arms him and teaches him about chivalry, particularly the idea that he should not chatter,
and should instead remain quiet most of the time. Perceval plans to return to his mother and show her his new
skills, but he is waylaid by an infatuation with a woman named Blancheflor. Finally, one day,
Perceval comes upon a strange castle. Inside is an old man, who presents Perceval with a fine sword. Perceval
then witnesses a strange procession: several youths enter the hall carrying a bleeding lance, golden candelabra,
and a golden grail. Perceval, remembering the advice of the knight who instructed him, decides to stay quiet and
wait to ask the old man about the mysterious procession until the next morning. When Perceval wakes up,
however, he finds the castle and its inhabitants have disappeared. He rides on and meets a woman who tells him
that if he had only asked the right questions, he would have learned about the lance and the Holy Grail and could
have healed the Fisher King, and thus also the Waste Land. Though Chrétien died before he finished the story of
Perceval, scholars are reasonably sure, based on the sources from which Chrétien worked, that Perceval returned
to the Fisher King and, swallowing his pride,asked the questions necessary to obtain the Grail and heal the King.
The correlation between this story of the Fisher King and The Natural is a complicated
one. It is fairly easy, however, to match a few characters…..(more to follow on this point as we get further into
the novel). In The Natural, Roy Hobbs is a kind of Perceval. Like Perceval, he becomes enamored of the idea of
being a ballplayer (or a knight) without really thinking about what it means or entails. Both Perceval and Roy
get carried away with the conventions of their chosen profession: Perceval wants to rack up defeats against other
knights, whereas Roy wants to break as many records as he can. Both enjoy the life, so to speak: Perceval and
Roy each have very clear ideas of how knights and ballplayers, respectively, are supposed to live, and what they
have coming to them. Furthermore, both Perceval and Roy must overcome their own self-centeredness in order
to achieve their goal. Roy, unfortunately, ______________________.....
Vegetative Myth
Like T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land,” much of The Natural is informed by a book entitled From
Ritual to Romance, by Jessie Weston. Weston examines the many myths and legends that have grown up around
the Holy Grail, particularly Arthurian legends, arguing that these Celtic and Christian stories have evolved from
rituals relating to ancient fertility cults. These vegetative-fertility myths are so primeval, argues Weston, that
they have insinuated themselves in myth and literature ever since the creation of writing. These vegetative
myths are based on nature, particularly on the cycle of the seasons. Spring is clearly a time of life and birth,
when the trees grow leaves and animals come out of hibernation. Summer is the high tide of this life; in the fall
things start to die, ending with the dark and dormant months of winter. Many ancient rituals marked the passage
of the seasons, often occurring at times of solstice or equinox—even Christmas has strong roots
in pagan winter solstice festivals. These rituals often invoked one god or another; when fall and winter came,
these gods or goddesses were often thought of as "dying" only to be reborn, or replaced by new gods, the
following spring.
In the Grail stories, Weston sees many characters as having parallels in the older
vegetative-fertility myths. Most significant is the figure of the Fisher King, who, like the vegetative god, is
inherently tied to the land. When the Fisher King is ill, the land itself is ill. This is the quest that Sir Perceval
must fulfill: he must find a way to heal the Fisher King, and thus heal the land. In The Natural, Roy Hobbs is
easily identified as being the Perceval figure, just as ___________ is the Fisher King. But Roy is not simply
Perceval; he is also the hero-god of the vegetative cycle itself, who defeats and replaces the previous god
(the Whammer) only to be_______________________ many years later.