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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What two things does Roy crave that drives his every action?

2. Where does The Judge get his money?

3. What does Roy say is the only thing he owes the public?

4. When Memo fails to accept Roy as her new boyfriend, what does he decide will win her over?

5. What happens when Roy meets Gus?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Roy feel about Iris when he finds out she is a grandmother and what does he do?

2. What problem does Pop Fisher have with his pitcher, Fowler, and how does that affect the games?

3. Discuss Memo's reaction to Roy and how is changed over the course of this chapter (Chapter 4).

4. Why does Roy have doubts about playing with the Knights when he has longed for fifteen years to play with them? What about his dream changes when he meets the team?

5. Discuss the dreams of Roy and the failures he has experienced up to this point.

6. How does Roy respond when the fans begin supporting him during the Knights' wins, after having rejected him all through his slump? How does his reaction change?

7. When she visits Roy in Boston, what excuse does Memo give for rejecting Roy during his earlier slump?

8. How does Iris feel about Roy when she meets him in person, and why?

9. Why does Roy understand Pop's feelings so well about losing the game for his team? Compare his and Pop's experiences with failure.

10. When Roy is in Memo's motel room, and she is talking about Gus, what does say about their relationship? Explain what the true nature of that relationship is.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Malamud wrote, "Sometimes as he watched the ball soar, it seemed to him all circles, and he was mystified at his devotion to hacking at it, for he had never really liked the sight of a circle. They got you nowhere but back to the place where you were to begin with." Discuss ways in which Roy travels in a circle, going nowhere but coming back to where he started from. Give examples from the book.

Essay Topic 2

Dreams appear throughout The Natural. Choose a couple of scenes including dreams and discuss how the dream scene relates to the overall narrative and its themes.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss The Natural as a novel of magical realism. Magical realism is when a realistic novel contains issues that are stranger than life, unreal, or appearing magical. What purpose do instances of magical realism appear to serve in this novel? Give examples from the novel.

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