2 Prodiges Manqués (Two Failed Prodigies)

I'm watching The Natural again, and I'm matching it up with the book in my memory, and I am also matching up Roy Hobbs and Noah, the two failed prodigies who blossomed as geniuses later in their lives, but missed their youthful years of prodigy....
They spent more than forty days in the desert, came back, and then they changed their lives, the lives of others, and sometimes the world and moral order.

What gives? Whaddya think?

Refer back to the previous post: The Illusion of God.
Bernard Malamud published his novel in 1952. World War II had ended only 7 years or less before. In the novel, Roy Hobbs is destroyed by his acquaintance with the gambler, Gus Sands. In the film, however, Roy Hobbs attains the pinnacle of fame and heroism.
After the Holocaust and the War, God - and by strict implication, the Hero - was dead in the West.
By the time the film was made, God and Hero were struggling to re-insert themselves into the narrative of the West. They still are.
We hit the old horsehide off the ball, lightning flashes... and there is not a dry eye in the house!
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