Suffering, Struggle and Loneliness: A Passage To the Threshold of Redemption And New Life

Abstract

This article attempts to study the suffering and alienation faced by the protagonist in ‘The Assistant’ and how it becomes instrumental in redefining and searching out a new identity for himself. It is a novel written by a famous Jewish American fictionist Bernard Malamud. His fictional world mostly revolves around the lives of the people who suffer endlessly and intensely in their lives to combat the hardships associated with modern existence. Suffering and compassion become instrumental in the process of their transcendence and search for a new life. They suffered to secure the human values and also to universalize the importance of humanity which was lost somewhere in the post World War scenario amidst the blind material pursuits of modern man. Thus Malamud’s characters after acknowledging love as redemptive and sacrifices as uplifting, try to breakthrough the barriers of personal isolation by entering into meaningful human relationships, living in a world of interpersonal relationships and reaffirming their faith in the goodness of others, they try to redefine their lives and search out a new identity for themselves.