The Elusive Form: The Use Of Female Characters In naked Nude :: essays research papers

The Elusive Form The usance of Female Char doers in "Naked Nude"dissertation and OutlineThesis In his picturesque short legend, "The Naked Nude", Bernard Malamud usesthe female characters to develop, enact, and part Fidelmans epiphany and tobring just about the protagonists final, artisanic self-understanding.I. Introductory paragraph--statement of thesis.II. The prostitutesA. in contrast to Fidelmans sign idea of the artistic nudeB. "maybe too many au naturel(predicate) women around made it impossible todraw a nude"--establish tail end of conflict within Fidelman III.TeresaA. flat, unruffled character--functions totally as a measurement forFidelmanB. provides Fidelmans first turn towards artistic epiphanyIV. Bessie, his sisterA. childhood memory brings about full epiphanyV. Venus of UrbinoA. aesthetic constant--she, as a painting, remains staticB. Fidelmans method of viewing her evolves, providing hisepiphanyVI. Relationship of female characters VI I. Conclusion and restatement ofthesis.     Bernard Malamud, a lead-in contemporary Jewish author, skirts betweenfantasy and reality in his close to allegorical short fiction, teaching the readera lesson through coincidental elements of beauty and comedy. Venturing away fromhis usual, inner-city Jewish element, Malamud tackles new challenges of subjectand setting in his novelistic collection of short stories, Pictures of Fidelman .Malamud develops his protagonist through a series of six, coordinated shortworks, each of which may function entirely independent from the others. In "TheNaked Nude," for instance, Fidelman comes to a new, artistic maturity throughhis attempt to model the famous painting "Venus of Urbino" by Titian Tiziano.Malamuds recurring theme of self-knowledge through piteous permeates thisshort work. Scarpio and Angelo, as primary antagonists, provide the bulk ofthis suffering for Fidelman. It is his own mental captivity con cerning thefemale nude, however, that gives cause for Fidelmans eventual epiphany asanartist and as an individual. His relationship to the women in the work shapeshis ability to capture the process of the "Venus" and to come to grips with hisown self-worth. In "The Naked Nude," Bernard Malamud uses the female charactersto develop, enact, and make up Fidelmans epiphany and to bring about theprotagonists final, artistic self understanding.     At the storys outset, Fidelman is forced to act as janitor andmanservant to a group of ill mannered prostitutes under the traffic of thepadrone, Angelo. These offensive characters establish the first of a series ofmental obstacles in the imprisoned protagonists attempt to copy Titians nude.They torment Fidelman with cynical laughter and function his demeaning position.His sexual insecurity is established at the beginning of the story when heponders his violent guillotine sketch, asking "A mans head or his sex?...eithercase a terrible wound" (Malamud 318).