The Natural

by

Bernard Malamud

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The Natural: Batter Up! Part 9 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
The morning of the final game against the Pirates arrives, and the fans on each side begin to riot: the Knights’ fans are nervous to know if Hobbs has returned to play in this crucial match. Hobbs shows up at the game; he has refused to tell Mercy or any other journalists about what happened at Memo’s party. Pop apologizes to Hobbs for benching him earlier in the season and blames Memo for Hobbs’s continued bad luck, encouraging Hobbs to try his best in the game and relating a story about a rookie third baseman who succumbed to injuries and quit baseball. Pop tells Hobbs that he will be satisfied if they win this final game, even if they don’t end up winning the World Series, and that he himself will quit baseball immediately afterwards. Hobbs resolves to try his best.
Pop can see what Hobbs cannot: that Memo is disloyal and a negative influence on Hobbs. As Pop warns Hobbs against Memo—and relates a story, about the rookie third baseman, that suggests how dangerous baseball can be, especially in Hobbs’s fragile state—Hobbs begins to wonder if he has made the right decision, and he feels guilty about betraying Pop, who believes that he will be redeemed if the Knights win this final game. 
Themes
Ambition, Failure, and the American Dream Theme Icon
Baseball and American Vice Theme Icon
Femininity, Stereotypes, and Destruction Theme Icon
Hobbs goes up to bat, but he is distracted by thoughts of Memo, as well as a memory in which his mother “drowned the black tom cat in the tub;” Iris, too, weighs on his mind, and Roy strikes out. The game progresses slowly, with neither team scoring in either the third or fourth inning, and when Roy goes up to bat again, he feels pained and exhausted. He manages to get to first base, and he begins to think about quitting the deal with the Judge, though he is not sure how he will admit this refusal to Memo. When he goes up to bat again in the next inning, Hobbs feels revitalized, and he realizes that he regrets agreeing to Banner’s bribe.
Despite Pop’s warnings, Hobbs still prioritizes Memo, viewing marriage with her as the ultimate goal—something that might replace his goals of becoming a baseball star, since it is nearly certain that he will never be able to play again. Yet here Hobbs seemed poised on the threshold of a revelation, ready to redeem himself and eschew his unrealistic, foolhardy desires, which have led him to compromise his morals.
Themes
Ambition, Failure, and the American Dream Theme Icon
Baseball and American Vice Theme Icon
Femininity, Stereotypes, and Destruction Theme Icon
When Otto Zipp mocks him from the stands, Hobbs sends a foul ball in his direction; Hobbs notices a dark-haired woman in a white dress in the stands nearby. Unable to hold his swing, his next foul ball goes toward Otto, hits him in the skull, and is deflected up to hit the woman in the face. She collapses. Hobbs follows the crowd toward her, realizing that it is Iris. When he carries her into the clubhouse, she tells him that he must win for “their boy”—revealing that she is pregnant with his child. Hobbs feels a sudden disgust for Memo, and he kisses Iris. She thinks that he looks like the man who assaulted her in the park many years ago, but she believes that “this will be different,” and silently calls on Roy to protect her.
Hobbs is moved by Iris’s devotion and by her revelation that he is the father of her unborn child: her news gives him a new purpose in life, far more important than a vacuous life of excess and debauchery with Memo. Nonetheless, he has already made his decision by agreeing to the bribe in order to win Memo’s favor—demonstrating the power women hold over his own decisions. The fact that she finds him similar to the man who assaulted her suggests that he, too, is corrupted, and that he will not ultimately be able to protect her as she wishes.
Themes
Femininity, Stereotypes, and Destruction Theme Icon
Hobbs goes back out to bat again and ends up cracking Wonderboy in two on a foul ball. Fowler, another Knights player, says that he knows what Hobbs has been up to—that he is striking out on purpose—but in a change of heart, Hobbs seems to have resolved to win the game instead. Hobbs begins to feel confident that the team will succeed, but Pop is losing hope: his hitters keep getting struck out. Pop entreats Roy to “murder” the ball, and Hobbs goes out to hit again; Vogelman, the Pirates’ pitcher, is overstressed, made nervous by Hobbs’s “burning eyes,” and he passes out.
Wonderboy proves fallible—no longer the mythic, magical symbol of power it seemed to be earlier in the novel—leaving Hobbs to rely on his “natural” talents in this final, crucial moment. Hobbs is filled with ruthless drive (evidenced by his “burning eyes,” which intimidate the Pirates’ pitcher), though it is not clear if this will be enough to reverse the corrupt course of action he has already set out upon.
Themes
Ambition, Failure, and the American Dream Theme Icon
Baseball and American Vice Theme Icon
Mythology, Heroism, and Stardom Theme Icon
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A twenty-year-old pitcher, Herman Youngberry, is brought in to replace Vogelman. Youngberry wants to be a farmer, and he plans to earn only enough money in baseball to buy a large farm and quit the sport forever. Youngberry is a brilliant pitcher, and Hobbs is struck out: Bump’s “form” glows red on the outfield wall where he was injured, and the crowd in the stands vanishes suddenly.
Ultimately, Hobbs’s talents fall short when he is up against the younger, more talented prodigy Herman Youngberry: Hobbs has failed to achieve his dreams of success and fame—which he has only ever experienced temporarily—and he has sold himself out along the way. Like Bump, whose image on the outfield wall serves as a reminder of his defeat, Hobbs has been easily replaced (by Youngberry), sacrificed to a system in which success is nearly impossible to come by, given the sport’s corruption and cut-throat politics.
Themes
Ambition, Failure, and the American Dream Theme Icon