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Walter “the Whammer” Whambold
Harriet is a mysterious, attractive woman Hobbs encounters on the train to Chicago. Though she hardly gives him the time of day at first, she seems impressed by his prowess in the competition against the Whammer, which she witnesses. Hobbs is intrigued by her beauty and odd, rambling commentary, and when she suggests he meets her at her hotel in Chicago, he does so willingly. However, it is there that she shoots him with a silver bullet from a .22 caliber pistol. It is suggested that Harriet has killed other impressive athletes, and that she gains satisfaction from cutting down young sportsmen in their prime. Her violent actions suggest both the damaging consequences of ambition—she only shoots Hobbs after he declares himself to be the future “best player” in the sport—and the dangerous power of women in the novel, since Harriet is the first of several women to ensnare Hobbs.
Harriet Bird / The Woman Quotes in The Natural
The The Natural quotes below are all either spoken by Harriet Bird / The Woman or refer to Harriet Bird / The Woman. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Pre-Game Quotes
[B1]Harriet brightened, saying sympathetically, “What will you hope to accomplish, Roy?”
He had already told her but after a minute remarked, “Sometimes when I walk down the street I bet people will say there goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was in the game.”
She gazed at him with touched and troubled eyes. “Is that all?” […] “Isn’t there something over and above earthly things—some more glorious meaning to one’s life and activities?”
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Hobbs is helplessly confused about what he wants to achieve in life, apart from fame and fortune as the “greatest ever” baseball player. This confusion about his own identity, future, and desires leads him down dangerous paths: he pursues the wrong woman (Memo Paris), gambles recklessly, and alienates others around him by prioritizing his own egotism. Though Hobbs is unaware of it at this point in the novel, Harriet Bird will attempt to murder him after he declares that he will one day become the best baseball player in the nation. Harriet is clearly deranged, obsessed with male sports stars, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta
She pulled the trigger (thrum of bull fiddle). The bullet cut a silver line across the water. He sought with his bare hands to catch it, but it eluded him and, to his horror, bounced into his gut. A twisted dagger of smoke drifted up from the gun barrel. Fallen on one knee he groped for the bullet, sickened as it moved, and fell over as the forest flew upward, and she, making muted noises of triumph and despair, danced on her toes around the stricken hero.
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This passage demonstrates Malamud’s adept staging of narrative action. Malamud’s prose provides a slow-motion, cinematic depiction of Hobbs’s near-fatal wounding (note the “soundtrack” Malamud provides when Harriet pulls the trigger), suggesting the dramatic intensity of this encounter—an encounter that will resonate throughout the entire novel, since Hobbs is unable to move past his own trauma. Additionally, Malamud’s subtle reference to “the forest,” which flies “upward” as Hobbs falls recalls Hobbs’s obsession with nature, which serves as his sanctuary; Harriet’s malicious actions puncture the sense of safety that the image of woodlands provides for Hobbs. Harriet is based on a real Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accus
Batter Up! Part 4 Quotes
He felt he had been running for ages, then this blurred black forest slid past him, and as he slowed down, each black tree followed a white, and then all the trees were lit in somber light till the moon burst forth through the leaves and the woods glowed. Out of it appeared this boy and his dog, and Roy in his heart whispered him a confidential message: watch out when you cross the road, kid.
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As Hobbs tries to evade Max Mercy, who is chasing him through the Midtown Hotel in order to question him about his past, Hobbs again imagines himself as a child with his dog, and he realizes that the image he saw in the road while driving with Memo—a ghostly apparition of a boy and a dog—came from his own memory. Hobbs’s past continues to intrude forcefully on the present (especially given Mercy’s non-stop questioning about his background), including both this idyllic image of his childhood and his memories of the traumatic encounter with Harriet Bird. Despite his “inside motion,” his Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia ap
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Harriet Bird / The Woman Character Timeline in The Natural
The timeline below shows where the character Harriet Bird / The Woman appears in The Natural. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Pre-Game
...pulls into a station, Roy watches as Eddie helps the new passenger aboard: a sumptuous woman whose “nyloned legs [make] Roy’s pulse dance.” Eddie collects the woman’s luggage to bring to...
(full context)
As the woman settles into a seat with a cigarette, Roy agonizes over how to strike up a...
(full context)
...for the girl with the black hatbox (whose name, Eddie has told him, is Miss Harriet Bird), and goes to grab him. While Sam is gone, Max remarks that Sam was...
(full context)
Later on, the Whammer is talking to Harriet about his career, slipping his hands around the back of her seat. Annoyed, Hobbs leaves...
(full context)
...a stop and a dozen passengers get off for a half-hour break, including Hobbs, Sam, Harriet, the Whammer, and Max Mercy; Hobbs takes the bassoon case with him. Sam spots a...
(full context)
...wager with the Whammer, claiming that Hobbs can strike him out with three pitched balls. Harriet, watching Hobbs and the Whammer (and clutching a kewpie doll the Whammer has won for...
(full context)
...other side of the tracks as Roy and the Whammer gear up for play, though Harriet stands close by, her eyes shining at the sight of the two men. Roy pitches...
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...his defeat of the Whammer and spends the next leg of the journey talking with Harriet, who, rambling excitedly, compares Hobbs and the Whammer to the myth of David and Goliath....
(full context)
Harriet asks Hobbs if there is any “glorious meaning” to his ambitions with baseball—if he has...
(full context)
...answer it, he picks it up on the second ring and discovers that it is Harriet, who invites him to her room in the same hotel. He takes his bassoon case...
(full context)
A “great weight” goes off of Hobbs’s mind when he sees Harriet. Hobbs watches her put on a black feathered hat with a veil, removing it from...
(full context)
Batter Up! Part 1
...himself walking down a corridor with the bassoon case, knocking on a door, and encountering Harriet, who seems “less and more than human,” with her pistol. Harriet cuts him down “in...
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...him in a country field. At one point, a door opens and a naked redheaded woman gets into bed with him. Hobbs thinks he is still dreaming, but he almost screams...
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Batter Up! Part 6
...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...
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Batter Up! Part 10
...a column about the scandal, as well as a picture of Hobbs shot down by Harriet; Hobbs will be excluded from the sport in the future because of his involvement with...
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