The Peculiar Character of Judge Goodwill Banner The novel “The Natural” by Bernard Malamud is a story about a character named Roy Hobbs and his unique experience with major league baseball. Roy interacts with many unique characters through the story, however Judge Goodwill Banner stands out amongst all of the others. Through Judge Goodwill Banner Malamud tells a deep story. In the story the Judge servers to be a constant presence over the club while still remaining somewhat mysterious. The Judge’s characteristics and actions are extremely peculiar and seem to share striking similarities with the Devil.
Malamud gives the Judge defining characteristics that are deeper than his simple physical characteristics.Malamud shows us the Judge watches the games from his tower. This tower is above the stadium and is crooked due to how the stadium settled. The crookedness of his tower is a blatant representation of the Judge being crooked himself. In addition the tower being above the stadium shows that the judge is not on the same level as the fans and …show more content…
The Judge strikes striking similarities with the devil through his characteristics and actions. The most interesting aspect of the Judge, however, is how little he is in the novel, that is being present in each part of the text. The Judge is not mentioned for most of the story, yet if he were removed the story would fall apart. This critical role of the Judge in “The Natural” is similar to the role of the Devil in the bible. The Devil is not mentioned in the bible very often, there are some passages but not particularly many. This is a startling similarity that is hard to decipher if Bernard Malamud meant to include. Malamud includes ample information hinting at the hidden meaning of a character who is rarely in the actual text. One can only imagine what could be learned from researching the rest the characters in Malamud’s “The
Malamud gives the Judge defining characteristics that are deeper than his simple physical characteristics.Malamud shows us the Judge watches the games from his tower. This tower is above the stadium and is crooked due to how the stadium settled. The crookedness of his tower is a blatant representation of the Judge being crooked himself. In addition the tower being above the stadium shows that the judge is not on the same level as the fans and …show more content…
The Judge strikes striking similarities with the devil through his characteristics and actions. The most interesting aspect of the Judge, however, is how little he is in the novel, that is being present in each part of the text. The Judge is not mentioned for most of the story, yet if he were removed the story would fall apart. This critical role of the Judge in “The Natural” is similar to the role of the Devil in the bible. The Devil is not mentioned in the bible very often, there are some passages but not particularly many. This is a startling similarity that is hard to decipher if Bernard Malamud meant to include. Malamud includes ample information hinting at the hidden meaning of a character who is rarely in the actual text. One can only imagine what could be learned from researching the rest the characters in Malamud’s “The