Bucky’s Search for Approval in 'Nemesis' Maarten Bronk College

As depicted in Philip Roth's Nemesis, Eugene ‘Bucky’ Cantor is an extremely athletic boy who was admired by most people for his appearance and attitude. Especially the kids he was supervising as playground director during the summer holidays saw him as a role model, they wanted to be like him. Bucky’s attitude was one to be praised, he worked hard in his grandfather’s grocery store, he excelled in sports and he was acting like a real leader at the playground during the summer where he looked well after each kid. He made sure that he had everything in his life under control; he took good care of his grandmother; nothing was too much for him with everything he did, he always wanted to help out and do the right thing and he had a beautiful girlfriend named Marcia who he was planning to marry in the near future. To cut it short, he was admired by most for all the good things he did. But even though people admired him, he was not always all that happy because he was constantly looking for approval for the situations that were not familiar to him. His late grandfather taught him how to act and react in certain situations and he earned his grandfather’s approval by doing extremely well. To earn this approval later on, he tried to join...