The Fixer 에 나타난 자유의 꿈 = The Dream of Freedom in The Fixer

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Bernard Malamud's fourth novel, The Fixer, is a work of high literary intent, for all the themes which had introduced in his earlier works, some of the most significant are the search for a new life, the prison motif, the necessity for involvement, the value of suffering, the scapegoat or orphan motif, etc., were refined and reworked in this books.
But in my view, one of the most significant themes here is $quot;the dream of freedom$quot; achieved by the protagonist, Yakov Bok, at the end of it by the dream and hallucination technique.
In his search for the increased opportunity outside of the prison-like confines of shtetl, his native village, Yakov Bok foolishly hides his Jewish identity and denies their God. For example, he shaved off his beard, changed his name to a Russian and threw his bag of prayer things into the Dnieper. So, not long after he had arrived in kiev the city of the anti-Semites, he was arrested and charged with ritual murder of a Christian boy.
Inside the actual prison, by refusing to confess and betray Russian Jewry, he accepts responsibility for the Jewish community and becomes actively involved in the fate of his people. And he also accepts his childless, delinquent wife, and her child as his own. It brings us to the humanity in Malamud.
But, above all, Malamud's greatness in this book is attributed to his most serious touch of freedom, the everlasing ideal of human race. We realize that Yakov becomes a brave freeman if we focuses on his last vision, $quot;If the state acts in ways that are abhorrent to human nature it's the lesser evil to destory it. Death to the anti-Semites! Long live revolution! Long live liberty!$quot;