An Insight into the Destruction of Mankind through Malamud’s Allegorical Imagination - Focusing on God"s Grace -

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze why Malamud predicts the human future with a pessimistic perspective in the form of fable. Unlike his previous works that deal with common human activities, to make readers aware of how serious the current ecological crisis is, Malamud used an excessively allegorical form and brought the characters in God’s Grace such as God, primates, and only a man called Cohn who has managed to survive a nuclear war. The protagonist, Cohn, clearly learned that God was angry at human arrogance and greed, and destroyed all human beings except for Cohn himself because of God’s mistake. However, Cohn soon forgot God’s wrath and kept his selfish behavior and confrontational relationship with the chimpanzees, exploiting theories of several scientists whenever he needed to rationalize his dogmatic behaviors. Throughout this novel, Malamud strongly expresses that the human self-centered mind and unstoppable desire are the source of destruction. This novel that Malamud’s powerful appeal permeated helps heed the warning from God’s Grace.