Major Themes
The novel draws upon several sources of mythology, most notably the story of The Fisher King. In other versions the knight Perceval fails to ask the king about the grail, so he fails to cure the Wasteland. Pop Fisher is the manager of the Knights and his team is trying to win the pennant, something he has never done in his career as both a player and a manager. His name is an obvious reference, along with his need to be "cured" by Roy. Roy Hobbs is the great knight Perceval who is meant to return the Holy Grail (pennant) to Pop Fisher. In Malamud’s version, Hobbs does not win the pennant and the reader is led to believe that Pop Fisher will fade away.
In the story of The Fisher King, the knight Perceval best portrays Roy. They are both uncultured and unintelligent. For example, Pop tells Roy to "knock the cover off the ball" as Roy goes out to bat. He does just that, and when he comes back to the dugout, Pop asks him why he did what he did. Roy tells him that it was what he told him to do. When Perceval became a knight, he asked many questions. Finally, his mentor advised him not to ask too many. Consequently he stops asking questions altogether, and thereby fails to cure The Wasteland.
The main difference between the film and the novel is the ending. In the film, Hobbs hits a home run to win the game and complete his heroic journey. In the novel, Hobbs has a tragic flaw; he has a weakness for his appetites, women, and caring too much about his own glory. These tragic flaws result in the destruction of his Excalibur (Wonderboy), and end with him failing at the final at bat. While the film shows Hobbs victorious and fulfilling his dreams of glory, the novel shows a Hobbs who is crushed by his own hubris and must now live as a forgotten man.
Read more about this topic: The Natural
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