did not overshadow his foolish behavior off the field. Roy is both a fool and a hero during the novel, just as Percival is in the medieval tale. Percival “made a fool of himself trying to make sense of sophisticated ways” (23). His complete misunderstanding of the events that occurred around him doomed him for years, and in Roy’s case, doomed him for life.A further example of symbolism in the novel is Malamud’s use of birds to show Roy’s fate, using the Greek and Roman phenomenon that birds can predict the future. From ancient mythology and society, both the Greeks and Romans looked to birds to see into the future. Whatever the birds hinted by their actions, the ancient societies planned the future in accordance with what the birds did. In The Natural, birds serve the same purpose. Roy’s best pitch looks like a bird in flight as it approaches and passes Wambold by, striking him out (26). As Roy winds up and pitches the ball to Whammer Wambold, Malamud describes the ball as a bird in mid-flight. This description means one of two things: either the bird, flying at high speed, symbolizes Roy’s quick exit from baseball, or it symbolizes his eventual stardom in baseball by striking Wambold out.Roy’s talent is displayed when he catches a canary in his glove, thinking it was a fly ball hit with blistering speed (26). After catching the bird in his glove, he discovers to his repulsion that the canary is crushed inside of his glove with blood everywhere. The catching of the canary represents Roy’s incredible talent as fielder. However, while showing his talent by catching the bird, the crushing of its body on impact symbolizes Roy’s hard fall from baseball heroism at the end of the novel.The hamburgers that spell out Roy’s fate look to Roy like dead birds as they are served to him (26). As Roy sits down at a hotel restaurant in New York after partying with Memo on the c...
