Part I: "Pre-game"

Bernard Malamud's novel, The Natural, follows the career of baseball player Roy Hobbs from his first false start to his final failure. The story is divided into two parts, the first recounting an event during Roy's nineteenth year, and the second picking up the story some fifteen years later. Although the first part is considerably shorter than the second, it is nonetheless just as important to the novel as a whole.

The Natural opens on a train hurtling eastward toward Chicago. We learn that Roy is travelling with his manager Sam for a tryout with the Chicago Cubs. Other passengers on the train include Harriet Bird, a beautiful woman who catches Roy's eye; Max Mercy, a curious sports writer; and Walt "The Whammer" Whambold, the leading hitter in the American League.

When the train makes an unexpected stop, the passengers leave the train and move...