1 
The Natural: a baseball movie, and so much more. The Natural, based on a novel by Bernard Malamud, used lots of classic and mythological elements. Malamud made an Aristotelian tragic hero out of Roy Hobbs (the protagonist), alludes to the Fisher King and the Grail Legend, and displays the Circe and Beatrice myths with his own modern characters. Malamud also shows the rites of passage from generation to generation. All of these and more prove that director Barry Levinson uses lots of classic and mythological elements in The Natural. 
The Natural tells the story of a ballplayer named Roy Hobbs. Roy was a farm boy with a talent for the game. His career was put on hold when he was shot, but he eventually makes it back into baseball. Throughout the story Roy is tempted and drawn to evil, but is then saved by the good. Roy ends up realizing he is wrong and winds up, after his baseball career, at home with his family.
Roy Hobbs is an Aristotelian tragic hero. Aristotelian tragic heroes always have four characteristics that makes them heroic: they are high born, they have a tragic flaw, they move from ignorance to knowledge, and they are blessed by the gods. Roy was high born; his dad was a farmer so he had higher moral fiber. Roy did not drink, nor did he swear. Since Roy's dad was a farmer, he was "king" of his land. Roy had a tragic flaw: pride; he wanted everyone to say, "There goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was." He also moves from ignorance to knowledge. Roy used to tell everyone everything, even people he should not tell. He realizes this and keeps his mouth shut. When he had a meeting with the Judge and he did not understand words the Judge said, instead of pretending he knew what they meant he asked. Roy's final move to knowledge is when he realizes Iris' son is also his. Roy was blessed by the gods. They gave him his talent for baseball. Also, when his dad died, lightning hit a tree and Roy made his bat out of it. Lightning was his father and every time something major happened to Roy lightning struck.
The movie uses the Fisher King story as well. Pop Fisher was the manager of the Knights, and his Fisher King character. Like the Knights of the round table, Pop's team was the Knights, his "grail" is the pennant. Pop Fisher and his team is a wasteland; even the water in the dugout was undrinkable. The Contemporary Literary Criticism writes "The mystic pattern in The Natural is that of a wasteland- a dry (baseball) season of no wins, the hopes (or prayers?) for rain (victory), and the 'romantic agony' in their attempted attainment." A dry, winless season is in the need of rain or a win, just like the Fisher King's land was in need of help, their savior was a knight, and the savior for the Pop Fisher is Roy. The Contemporary Literary Criticism continues, "Roy Hobbs, the baseball hero, is the 'knight' in search of the holy grail of a fame (or quest), which in this instance involves not the winning of a lady's favor, but the World Series." The pennant is the "grail"; once it is achieved everything on the field would be better, and back to the way it was. Roy does help Pop and the Knights find the "grail", when they do finally win the pennant.
Levinson also gives modern characters to the Circe ane Beatrice myth. Men are attracted to evil women and saved by the good. Roy is attracted to Harriet Bird; Harriet calls Roy to her room, and leads Roy astray from baseball and into captivity when she shoots him. Sixteen years pass and Roy is back into baseball; this time Memo Paris leads Roy from baseball. Roy falls into a slump that he just can not get out of. Finally in Chicago the Beatrice character, Iris, shows up. She is wearing a hat that symbolizes a halo, and good. Roy feels her presence and finally breaks out of his slump. But Memo does not give up; she pulls Roy back and ends up poisoning him. Roy is in the hospital and misses the last three games of the season, and the Knights have to go into the playoff for the pennant. Iris once again saves Roy, this time for good. While visiting Roy she never actually tells Roy to play, but he gets the message and plays. The Knights win the pennant and Roy is saved from evil for good.
Rites of passage was also a huge part of The Natural. The sun showed this best. When Roy is pitching to the Wammer the sun is setting for the day, and for the Wammer's career. The sun comes back during Roy's last game; it is once again setting, this time on Roy's career. The pitcher that pitches to him is a young farm boy. Life makes a complete circle. Roy also helps a boy make a bat similar to his own. Bobby Savoy was the bat boy for the Knights and Roy passed down what he learned to Bobby. The other thing that showed rites of passage are the parallel scenes. At the beginning of the story Roy is diving across a field catching a ball that his father threw. This scene comes back at the end when Roy's own son is diving across the same field catching a ball that Roy threw. Once again the circle of life makes a complete rotation from one generation to the next.
In conclusion, Malamud and Levinson did use classic and mythological elements when making The Natural, Roy being an Aristotelian tragic hero, because he was high born with higher moral fiber, he had a tragic flaw that was his pride, he moved from ignorance to knowledge by just getting some common sense, and finally he was blessed by the gods with his talent for the game. Malamud and Levinson also use the Fisher King story: Pop Fisher, the Fisher King, has a wasteland, he has to find the holy grail, the pennant, and has to have Roy do it. Roy does lead the team out of the wasteland and finds the grail by winning the pennant. Malamud also uses the Circe and Beatrice myths. Harriet and Memo lead Roy away from baseball, but Iris saves Roy on at least two occasions just like Beatrice did Dante. Finally rights of passage, the sun sets on the Wammer's career in the beginning and in the end it sets on Roy's. And the circle of life from Roy to his son diving and catching the ball in the field that was thrown by their father.


2 
Contrary to the pessimistic, naturalistic style of Bernard Malamud's novel, The Natural, the film adaptation, is a triumph. Its positive, uplifting style has the main character, Roy Hobbs, overcoming all odds. The movie also contains blatant allusions to Greek myths and fables. It compares the main character, Roy Hobbs, to an Aristotelian tragic hero. It compares Roy's childhood and one true love to Beatrice from Dante's Inferno, and makes two characters, Harriet and Memo, play the role of Circe from Homer's The Odyssey. On top of these similarities, there is also the comparison of Roy Hobbs and his baseball coach, Pop Fisher, to the Fisher King. These commonalities between The Natural and Greek mythology, as well as The Fisher King, were not accidental. 
Bernard Malamud's The Natural is about a young farm boy who manifests an uncanny ability to pitch, making him a natural at baseball. His ego and other obstacles drive him away from the game, only to return at an older age and triumph.
The Natural's Roy Hobbs can be compared to an Aristotelian tragic hero. There are four guidelines to being said type of hero. One must be high born, have a tragic flaw, move from ignorance to knowledge, and be blessed by the Gods. All four of these apply to Hobbs. He is high born in that he is a farmer's son and therefore one with the land, which makes him royalty in one aspect. His tragic flaw is his ego and overconfidence in his abilities. Roy begins the tale as a young, egotistical, naive plebe, but after his resurrection he slowly gains knowledge and realizes what is really important: not fame and fortune because of your gift, but passing it on. Roy's attitude at times makes the story's theme appear to be something like, "He could of been a hero," as Herbert Fold wrote in his essay about Malamud. Hobbs is blessed by the Gods with his ability to pitch, and is later blessed his father in heaven who told him that he couldn't rely only on his gift and thus gave him a mystical bat.
Another Greek myth intertwined with this story is that of Circe, the evil temptress of Homer's The Odyssey. Two characters from The Natural play the role of Circe. The first is Harriet Bird, who tried to seduce Hobbs, and once she had him in her hotel room, shot him with a silver bullet, and then killing herself, scarring him for life twice: once with the silver bullet that ate away at his stomach for years, and once by leaving a scandal that would follow him forever. The other character is Memo, who seduced Roy, causing him to have a terrible hitting slump, nearly destroying his already-brief career.
The Beatrice myth comes into play through the character, Iris, Roy's true love. Her purity and light (the iris is the part of the eye that lets light in) lead him to safety three times. The first when she stood up at Roy's game because she "didn't want to see him fail," the result being a home run, ending his slump. The second salvation came when she visited Roy in the hospital and inspired him to play. The last came during his final game when she informed him that her son was also his and he was in the stands watching his father play.
There are two characters in The Natural that play the role of the Fisher King searching for the holy grail, a symbol of God's divine grace. The first is Pop Fisher (the last name cannot be a coincidence), the coach of the Knights, whose holy grail is the pennant. Pop has been coaching this terrible team for years, hopelessly striving for the pennant. The water in the dugout was not even fit to drink until Roy Hobbs came along, making it at least palpable. For Pop Fisher, Roy Hobbs was the knight who brought him his grail, the pennant. The other character to play the role of the Fisher King is Roy Hobbs. His holy grail was fame. But because his grail was based on greed and selfishness, it was unattainable until he found another base for it. As Herbert Gold wrote in his essay, "For Roy Hobbs, the protagonist, the problem is the proper and pious use of his gift, that natural talent which has its meaning only in its free exercise, the gratuitous, poetic act." This is why he came across obstacles like Harriet and Memo. It was not until he used his gift properly that he obtained his true holy grail.
It is easy to see that Bernard Malamud's style of writing grew from classical and mythological roots. His style gives The Natural what it takes to rival Melville's Moby Dick. The Natural is easily one of the best motion pictures ever produced, and with its utilization of allusion to such educationally beneficial resources, it deserves much praise.

3 
The Natural is a movie about Roy Hobbs, a man from the Midwest whose greatest dream is to be a famous baseball player. Throughout the movie there are several recurring themes taken from classic mythology. There is a Beatrice character, Circe characters, rites of passage, and a quest for the Holy Grail. 
Iris is the Beatrice character. She saves Roy numerous times when he is being led astray.
The first time is after he loses his focus. He has recently started dating Memo after Bump Bailey died in an accident during a game. All of his focus is on Memo and not the game; he goes into a slump. Iris goes to a road game just to see Roy again. When he comes up to bat he can feel something but he does not know what; he keeps looking to where Iris is sitting; he does not know she is there. Finally, on the third pitch, with two strikes, she stands up. He hits the ball through the glass face of the clock in center field. Her presence and goodness brought his focus back on the game.
The second time she saves him is when he is in the hospital, he has been told that if he plays another game it could kill him. Memo has come in and pleaded with him, telling him that Gus will pay him also if he just walks away. The Judge has come and talked to him and asked him not to play, promising him money if he does not; he also threatens to blackmail Roy with pictures he found, taken sixteen years ago when Harriet Bird shot him. Roy decides not to play, only because of the effect the pictures could have on his image and the fans. Iris comes and visits him; he asks if she is going to the game and if her son will be with her. He then decides to play because of that; he never told her about the payments or the blackmail and she never tries to talk him out of playing, but her being there made up his mind; it brought back his focus again.
The third and final time is when he is up to bat in the bottom of the ninth, two out, two on base and he is up, he has struck out the other times he was up. She sends a note to him. He gets up to bat, takes one strike, two fouls, and a couple of balls. Then he hits the ball into deep center, knocking the lights out and winning the game.
Harriet Bird and Memo Paris were the Circe characters; they led the hero, Roy Hobbs, away from his destiny.
Roy met Harriet on the train to a try out for the majors. Earlier that day he had struck out The Whammer, a great hitter from the majors, at a fair. Harriet had been following The Whammer because she wanted to kill him. When Roy struck The Whammer out, she shifted her focus to Roy. Once they have reached their destination and are in the hotel, Harriet calls Roy and asks him to come to her room. Once there, she shoots him and jumps out the window. It takes him sixteen years to go back to baseball.
Roy meets Memo once he comes back to baseball. He is playing for the New York Knights. She is the girlfriend of Bump Bailey, an outfielder for the Knights. When Bump dies in a collision with the wall, the conspirators against the team need a new 'insurance man.' They turn to Memo to lure Roy in; he falls for it hook-line-and-sinker. He loses his focus and goes into a slump, losing game after game. When he finally regains his focus, Memo poisons him so that he cannot play; he is still unaware that she is deliberately keeping him from the game. Once he has overcome the poisoning and is going to play, she pulls a gun and he realizes now what she has been up to and takes the gun and leaves; the Circe spell is broken.
There are several rites of passage Roy completes on his trip to the top: his fathers death, striking out The Whammer, sitting the bench, playing again, losing his bat, and finally passing all that he knows on to his son.
When his father died, he lost his best friend. His father shared his dream that Roy would play baseball and be famous. When lightning struck the tree under which he had died, Roy made a bat of the wood and used that throughout his career. Striking out The Whammer was the end of one career and the beginning of another. As the sun went down The Whammer struck out, thus ending his career and beginning Roy's. During every athlete's career there is a time when they must sit and watch. Roy sat the bench for a long time, then the coach, Pop Fischer, told Roy he was being sent to the minors. Roy stood up and fought for his right to play, and Pop let him. When Roy lost his bat, he had to accomplish the impossible on his own; he used a bat he had helped the bat boy, Bobby Savoy, make. Finally, he passed all that he knew on to his son, thus completing the circle.
Several characters are searching for their own personal Holy Grail. For Pop Fischer it is the pennant; for Roy Hobbs it is fame and recognition; for The Judge, Gus, and Memo, it is money. Pop Fischer needs to win the pennant so that he can buy the team, retire, and use the money from ticket sales to buy a farm. Roy wants to be recognized as the best, partly to fulfill himself and partly for his father. The Judge, Gus, and Memo already have money; they just want more and more and more.
The movie The Natural is an excellent film containing many themes taken from classic mythology.