Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Natural, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Ambition, Failure, and the American Dream
Baseball and American Vice
Mythology, Heroism, and Stardom
Femininity, Stereotypes, and Destruction
Summary
Analysis
The novel cuts to the perspective of a woman, Iris, waiting on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, thinking about the man she is about to meet, and reflecting on an experience she had as a young woman, in which a “man twice her age” sexually assaulted her in a park at night. Hobbs drives up and greets Iris Lemon, whose picture he found in the papers after his win against the Cubs: she is the woman from the stands, and he resolved to call her after his victory. Though the two are somewhat disappointed by each other’s physical appearances at first, they nonetheless initiate conversation. Hobbs thinks about Memo, whom he considers “remote, even unreal,” feeling grateful for Iris’s support by contrast. Eventually, they drive to the lake and get out of the car.
This scene parallels an earlier scene between Hobbs and Memo, though Iris is Memo’s opposite: even before Hobbs comes to know Iris, he finds her supportive and kind, though his own superficial attitudes about women make him critical of her appearance. As with the other female characters in the novel, only a few details are revealed about Iris’s life and background, and these details are not fleshed out: the relevance of Iris’s sexual assault is never made entirely clear, though it is suggested that she became a young mother because of the rape.
Themes
Hobbs asks Iris why she decided to stand up for him in the stands, and she eventually explains that she “hates to see a hero fail” because there are so few heroes in the world. Iris hoped to help Hobbs regain his confidence—overcoming his “jinx”—and though Hobbs struggles to open up at first, he begins to confide in her about his past, remarking that his life didn’t turn out like he expected it to. At one point, he thinks he hears a train sound and jumps up, alarmed. Iris asks Hobbs if he is afraid of death, and Hobbs tells her about his encounter with Harriet; he explains that this is his “shame in life,” since he is convinced that he will always be defeated “in sight of his goal,” as he was by Harriet fifteen years ago.
Iris is clearly a maternal figure for Hobbs, since she offers support for him; this makes her the opposite of both Memo and Harriet, who are vicious and sexually attractive (whereas Hobbs initially feels repulsed by Iris’s appearance). While talking with Iris, Hobbs hears the sound of a train, representing his traumatic past—the train journey that brought him to Chicago, where he almost died. His reaction again indicates that his past will continue to follow him around, no matter where he goes or whom he is with.
Themes
Iris and Hobbs discuss suffering and past trauma: Iris promises she will never hurt Hobbs and tells him that “suffering is what brings us toward happiness.” Hobbs responds by saying that he is tired of suffering. Iris admits that she is thirty-three, and Hobbs asks her why she has never been married; she evades the question. Hobbs gets into the lake, and Iris strips alongside him, though she refuses to kiss him once they are in the water.
Whereas Iris wants to help Hobbs overcome the suffering he has experienced, Hobbs views things more simplistically: he simply wants to rid himself of all suffering without properly acknowledging what he has experienced. Iris might help Hobbs to transcend his past, but Hobbs seems stuck in his old ways still—treating Iris like a sexual object, despite her obvious discomfort.
Themes
Hobbs stays underwater for too long, hoping to “touch the bottom” of the lake. “A sense of abandonment” grips Iris, who reflects that she stood up because Hobbs is a “man whose life she wanted to share.” Iris pulls him out of the water, and they sit by the lake to dry off. When they begin to have sex, Iris admits to Hobbs that she is both a mother and a grandmother, shocking him.
Despite Hobbs’s flaws, Iris is drawn to him and feels protective of him: like Memo and Harriet, her identity is inextricably tied to Hobbs. Moreover, Iris’s embarrassment at sharing that she is a mother and a grandmother reflects the gender politics of the era: Iris is an object of ridicule because of her status as a young mother, despite the suggestion that her pregnancy was the result of being raped.
Themes
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