The Fixer: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Fixer" presents a profound exploration of its major characters, centered around Yakov Bok, a Jewish handyman whose life is steeped in hardship and existential crisis. After suffering personal losses and a life filled with despair, Bok seeks to escape his grim village by moving to Kiev, only to find himself falsely accused of a horrific crime. This accusation leads him into a harrowing imprisonment that challenges his sense of identity and humanity. Throughout his ordeal, Bok grapples with themes of suffering, responsibility, and the quest for freedom, ultimately emerging as a figure of resilience and self-acceptance.
Supporting characters enrich this narrative: Raisl, Bok's unfaithful wife, prompts deep reflections on responsibility and abandonment; Shmuel, his father-in-law, represents a more traditional, faith-driven perspective; while Zinaida's complex motivations reveal the darker aspects of human desire. Additionally, figures like Nikolai Maximovitch and B. A. Bibikov highlight the societal prejudices and institutional failures that complicate Bok’s plight. Attorney Grubeshov serves as a symbol of blind justice, fixated on Bok’s alleged guilt. Collectively, these characters contribute to a rich tapestry of struggle, highlighting the varied responses to adversity and the quest for dignity within oppressive circumstances.
The Fixer: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Bernard Malamud
First published: 1966
Genre: Novel
Locale: Around Kiev, in the Ukraine, Russia
Plot: Historical realism
Time: Shortly before World War I
Yakov Bok, a poor fixer, or handyman. A tall, nervous man with a strong back and work-hardened hands, this orphan—whose mother died in childbirth and whose father was killed not more than a year later in a pogrom, a mass destruction of Russian Jews—holds a pessimistic philosophy of life. Taught his trade at the orphanage, he was apprenticed at the age of ten and has, during his thankless life, served in the Russian army and taught himself Russian as well as some history, geography, science, and arithmetic. He considers himself a freethinker and professes no interest in politics. At the beginning of the novel, he feels trapped by his run-down village and lowly job. Even his wife has deserted him. Claiming that he wants his rewards now, not in heaven, he sells all he owns except for his tools and a few books, then journeys to Kiev to find new opportunities. In the city, his basic humanity embroils him in a series of events that lead to his being falsely accused of the ritual murder of a Christian boy. Escaping the symbolic entrapment of his village, he finds himself literally imprisoned for more than three years. During this period of physical and mental suffering, he fights to understand the reasons for his cruel and undeserved fate. Through reading, reflection, and dialogue with a few people with whom he has contact, this man who once hid his Jewishness comes to accept his irrational suffering as a means of identifying himself as a Jew and as a human being. No longer fearful, he concludes that his long-sought freedom is in truth a state of mind that must be pursued actively. At the novel's conclusion, he drinks in the cheers of the crowds lining the streets as he goes to trial, a hero of the downtrodden. With a newfound spirit, he proclaims, “Where there's no fight for it there's no freedom.”
Raisl (RI-suhl), Bok's wife of almost six years. Faithless and childless, she has deserted Bok at the beginning of the novel for a stranger she met at the village inn. She visits Bok in prison to get him to sign a paper acknowledging his paternity of a child she conceived by another man. Her plea leads Bok to ponder the nature of responsibility and its role in defining oneself as a human being.
Shmuel (shmew-EHL), Bok's father-in-law. A skinny man with ill-fitting clothes, he is a peddler with the ability to sell the seemingly worthless. His philosophy of life is that God will always provide. He visits Bok in prison, where he attempts unsuccessfully to get his son-in-law to open his heart to God and accept at least partial responsibility for his troubles. He later dies of diabetes.
Zinaida (Zina) Nikolaevna (ZIHN-ay-dah nih-koh-LAYVnah), a lonely unmarried woman. About thirty years old, sharp-faced, and slightly built, she is marked by a crippled leg, the result of a childhood illness. From Bok's first appearance in her father's house as a handyman, she attempts to seduce him. Failing, she later falsely accuses him of attempted assault.
Nikolai Maximovitch, a semiretired businessman. A fattish man of about sixty-five, with a bald head and melancholy eyes, he runs his late brother's brickworks. Unaware that Bok is a Jew, this anti-Semite hires him to manage the brickyard. Later incensed by Bok's deceptions, he turns on Bok and testifies against the man who saved him from smothering in the snow after passing out from the effects of alcohol.
B. A. Bibikov, the investigating magistrate for cases of extraordinary importance. A man of medium height with a large head, dark gray hair, and a darkish beard, he is a lover of Baruch Spinoza who claims that he depends on the law. He possesses great compassion and plans to get Bok's story to journalists in the hope of saving an innocent man. He is hanged mysteriously in what is termed a suicide by authorities.
Attorney Grubeshov, a prosecutor of the Kiev Superior Court. A heavy man with a fleshy face, thick eyebrows, and hawk eyes, he relentlessly pushes for Bok's conviction of the ritual murder of the Christian boy. His obsession with Bok's guilt blinds him to reason.