The Natural

by

Bernard Malamud

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Natural makes teaching easy.
The Knights’ embittered manager and a former baseball player, infamous for an incident from the end of his career as a player for the Sox known as “Fisher’s Famous Flop,” in which he failed to make a crucial home run during the World Series. An inheritance from his mother allowed Pop to buy a half share of the Knights, which he co-owns with Judge Banner, the majority stockholder of the team. However, Pop is plagued by the suspicion that he might be cursed—and that his team’s lack of success might be his own fault. Though Pop has a managing contract for life, Judge Banner hopes to push Pop out of his job by making trades that hurt the team’s performance and make Pop seem like a poor manager, and the Knights are divided by conflict and strife. Pop has a medical condition, “athlete’s foot of the hand,” that only seems to get better once Roy Hobbs appears and begins to win games for the Knights: Pop’s physical health is directly connected to the team’s success, which Hobbs’ talents facilitate. In the end, Hobbs betrays Pop’s confidence by failing to win the final game of the season—thus simultaneously failing to heal Pop’s physical ailments or the team’s reputation.

Pop Fisher Quotes in The Natural

The The Natural quotes below are all either spoken by Pop Fisher or refer to Pop Fisher. 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:
Ambition, Failure, and the American Dream Theme Icon
).
Batter Up! Part 2 Quotes

Staring at the light gleaming on Pop’s bald bean, Roy felt himself going off … way way down, drifting through the tides into golden water as he searched for this lady fish, or mermaid, or whatever you called her […] Sailing lower into the pale green sea, he sought everywhere for the reddish glint of her scales, until the water became dense and dark green and then everything gradually got so black he lost all sight of where he was.

Related Characters: Roy Hobbs, Pop Fisher, Doc Knobb
Page Number: 67
Explanation and Analysis:
Batter Up! Part 3 Quotes

Even the weather was better, more temperate after the insulting early heat, with just enough rain to keep the grass a bright green and yet not pile up future double headers. Pop soon got into the spirit of winning, lowered the boom on his dismal thoughts, and showed he had a lighter side […] His hands healed and so did his heart.

Related Characters: Roy Hobbs, Pop Fisher
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:
Batter Up! Part 5 Quotes

[Hobbs] woke in the locker room, stretched out on a bench […] He sat there paralyzed though his innards were in flight […] He longed for a friend, a father, a home to return to—saw himself packing his duds in a suitcase, buying a ticket, and running for a train. Beyond the first station he’d fling Wonderboy out the window.

Related Characters: Roy Hobbs, Pop Fisher, Memo Paris, Iris Lemon
Related Symbols: The “Wonderboy” Bat
Page Number: 133
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Natural LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Natural PDF

Pop Fisher Quotes in The Natural

The The Natural quotes below are all either spoken by Pop Fisher or refer to Pop Fisher. 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:
Ambition, Failure, and the American Dream Theme Icon
).
Batter Up! Part 2 Quotes

Staring at the light gleaming on Pop’s bald bean, Roy felt himself going off … way way down, drifting through the tides into golden water as he searched for this lady fish, or mermaid, or whatever you called her […] Sailing lower into the pale green sea, he sought everywhere for the reddish glint of her scales, until the water became dense and dark green and then everything gradually got so black he lost all sight of where he was.

Related Characters: Roy Hobbs, Pop Fisher, Doc Knobb
Page Number: 67
Explanation and Analysis:
Batter Up! Part 3 Quotes

Even the weather was better, more temperate after the insulting early heat, with just enough rain to keep the grass a bright green and yet not pile up future double headers. Pop soon got into the spirit of winning, lowered the boom on his dismal thoughts, and showed he had a lighter side […] His hands healed and so did his heart.

Related Characters: Roy Hobbs, Pop Fisher
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:
Batter Up! Part 5 Quotes

[Hobbs] woke in the locker room, stretched out on a bench […] He sat there paralyzed though his innards were in flight […] He longed for a friend, a father, a home to return to—saw himself packing his duds in a suitcase, buying a ticket, and running for a train. Beyond the first station he’d fling Wonderboy out the window.

Related Characters: Roy Hobbs, Pop Fisher, Memo Paris, Iris Lemon
Related Symbols: The “Wonderboy” Bat
Page Number: 133
Explanation and Analysis: