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Teachers & SchoolsThe Supernatural
Rabbit's foot? Check. Lucky penny? Check. Special undies? Check. Evil eye necklace? Check. Now we're ready to play baseball.
Bernard Malamud's The Natural uncovers all the wild superstitions that live inside a baseball team's locker room, but the supernatural doesn't stop there. Roy Hobbs, the protagonist, seems to have some special powers, where things that he wishes for or imagines come true, at least on the field. This usually turns out pretty badly for other peopleāone guy that he wished was dead actually smacks into the outfield wall and dies. Malamud takes the ordinary superstition that most athletes and sports fans will recognize and elevates it to a more supernatural level.
The Natural shows the power of the human mind to influence your outcomes, but the players don't recognize their powers; they think it's something supernatural.
In The Natural, superstitious rituals distract the characters from their own responsibility in the events in their lives.