Ilha do Desterro (Sep 2009)
The Self And Beyond: A Reading of The Fixer, The Centaur, And Henderson The Rain King The Self And Beyond: A Reading of The Fixer, The Centaur, And Henderson The Rain King
Abstract
Toward the end of the three novels I'm going to discuss, the protagonists make the following statements. Eugene penderson, in Bellow's Henderson the Rain Xing, days: "Whatever gains I ever made were always due to love and nothing else." In Updike's The Centaur, George Caldwell realizes that "Only goodness lives. But it does live." And Yakov Bok in Malamud's The Fixer recognizes that "There's no such a thing as an unpolitical man." Isolated though they may be from the contexts in which they appear, these statements summarize appropriately enough the lessons learned by the three protagonists after periods of intense doubts and suffering. Toward the end of the three novels I'm going to discuss, the protagonists make the following statements. Eugene penderson, in Bellow's Henderson the Rain Xing, days: "Whatever gains I ever made were always due to love and nothing else." In Updike's The Centaur, George Caldwell realizes that "Only goodness lives. But it does live." And Yakov Bok in Malamud's The Fixer recognizes that "There's no such a thing as an unpolitical man." Isolated though they may be from the contexts in which they appear, these statements summarize appropriately enough the lessons learned by the three protagonists after periods of intense doubts and suffering.
