One interchange with Harriet says it all. If we have any doubts that Malamud intended Roy to be a kind of mythic hero, think of this: when he's shot, it's with a silver bullet. He's just not made for the big city and its complexity. He's not in Chicago for more than a couple hours when he's shot. People call him a rube, a haystack, a greenhorn, "alfalfa." His naiveté seems obvious to everyone who meets him. When her first sees Harriet Bird on the train he's instantly attracted to her, but runs out of the dining car so she doesn't see how clueless he is about how to order breakfast. He definitely doesn't know how to talk to women and doesn't know danger when he sees it. Without Sam he'd feel shaky-kneed and unable to say or do simple things like ask for directions or know where to go once you had dropped a nickel into the subway. he certainly hated to be left alone in a place like Chicago. When he's on the train headed to try out for the Chicago Cubs, we learn that he doesn't know how to tip a waiter, order breakfast, or shave without gouging his face. He's not the most sophisticated guy in the world. He's from some unnamed rural town out west and hasn't been anywhere else except Boise and Portland.
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