Saul Bellow's defense of man: the pattern of alienation, purgation and reconciliation in Saul

155 Pages·1610·3.54 MB·English

UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA
DEPARTAMENTO DE LÍNGUA E LITERATURA ESTRANGEIRAS
SAUL BELLOW'S DEFENSE OF MAN: The Pattern of Alienation,
Purgation and Reconciliation in Saul Bellow's Fiction
Tese submetida à Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina para a
obtenção do grau de Mestre em Letras
Catarina Bogo Lapate Setembro - I98O
Esta Tese foi i^gada adequada para a obtenção do titulo de
MESTRE EM LETRAS
Opção Inglês e Literatura Correspondente e aprovada enr sua
forma final pelo Programa de Põs-&raduação da UFSC -
Prof. Hiláfio“'Inácio Bohn, PhD '
- Coordenador do Programa de P6s-Graduação
em Inglês e Literatura Correspondente -
Prof. John Bruce Derrick, PhD
- Orientador -
Apresentada perante a banca examinadora
composta pelos professores
Prof. John Bruce Derrick, PhD
Prof. Paul Jenkins, PhD
Prof. Dilvo^I. :^^off', M.S.
A meu esposo
AGRADECIMEHTOS
A Dttivereidade Federal de Santa Catarina
A Universidade para o Desenvolvimento do Estado de
SaSitsL Catarina
Ao Prof. John Derrick
A Rosemary das Graças Kern
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introductory
1.1. Statement of Problem ....... ........... ...................1
1.2. Review of Criticism .......................................... 4
1.3. Statement of Purpose ............................ ........1?
2. Alienation and Masochism in V, SP and HG ............. . 23
3« Purgation and Reconciliation in V, ^ and HG ............. 50
4» The Adventures of Augie March ......................... . 70
5. Seize the Day ............................................ 86
6. Henderson the Rain King........ . — ........ ...............101
7. Herzog...... ............. .............................. . 119
8. Conclusion....... ...................................... ...►.I36
Bibliography ...................................... ..........I43
ABBREVIATIONS
1- ^ - Dangling Man
2- V - The Victim
3- ^ - The Adventpres of Augie March
if- ^ - Seize the Day
5- H - Herzog
6- HRK - Henderson the Rain King
7- HG - Humboldt*s Sift
8- SP - Mr. Sammler's Planet
A B S T B A C T
Through three decades - from 1944 to 1975 - Saul Bellow
has written one highly acclaimed novel after another. Winner of three
National Book Awards, he has been regarded by critics and the reading
public alike as one of the greatest Anerlcan writers nowadays.
This study deals v/ith eight of his novels - from Dangling
Kan (19Zfi4-) to Humboldt's Gift (1975), and is an attempt to depict a
cycle that may be seen at the bottoms of each book; the cycle of
alienation and masochism which are purged so that the hero can enjoy
life again. Alienation is manifested in the protagonist's tenden­
cy to withdraw from the world, and masochism consumes him with guilt
feeling, often indeterminate and obsessive. But the role of victim
confers dignity on him, so, on the other hand, he pursues a superior
life nourished in his world of thought. This transcendental impulse
may represent a false solution, merely an extension of the hero's
egotism. Finally Bellow submerges his hero in purgatory so that he
faces his human frailty and finds potential redemption through self-
acceptance and the search for human community.
Such a pattern reveals Saul Bellow's attitude toward man:
while the author examines the dilemmas of modern man, he also looks
for an optimistic solution to them, showing his belief in human dig­
nity and possibility. We note the author's undograatic moral concern
which is eased by his touches of humor and his playful innovations
of style.
R E S U M O
Ao longo de três décadas - de 1944 a 1975 - Saul Bellow
escreveu sucessivos e muito aplaudidos romances. Vencedor de três
•'National Books Awards", ele tem sido considerado pelos críticos
e pelo público leitor como um dos maiores escritores americanos
da atualidade.
Este estudo aborda oito de seus romances - desde Danpilin^
Man (1944) até Humboldt's Gift (1975) - e é uma tentativa de des­
crevei? um ciclo que pode ser acompanhado na essência de cada livro:
o ciclo de alienação e jnasoquismo que são expiados de modo que o
herói possa apreciar a v i d a novamente, . A alienação é mani­
festada na tendência do protagonista se retirar da sociedade, e o
masoquismo o consome com o sentimento de culpa frequentemente ob-
sessivo e indeterminado. Mas o papel de vitima lhe confere digni­
dade, então, por outro lado, ele persegue uma vida superior alimen­
tada no mundo do seu pensamento. Este impulso transcendental pode
representar uma solução falsa, meramente uma extensão do egoísmo
do heròi. Finalmente Bellow mergulha seu herõi no 'purgatório' de
modo que ele encare sua fragilidade humana e encontre uma 'reden­
ção potencial' através da aceitação própria e na procura da comu­
nidade humana.
Tal modelo revela a atitude de Saul Bellow em relaçao ao
homem: enquanto o autor examina os dilemas do homem moderno ele
busca também uma solução otimista dos mesmos, demonotrando sua con­
fiança na dignidade e possibilidade humanas. Mór observamos a preo­
cupação moral não dogmática do autor, a qual ô mitigada por seus tra­
ços de humor e por suas jocosas inovaçoes do er^tilo.
CHAPTEB OKE
IHTRODUCTORY
1^1. Statement of Problem
This thesis on Saul Bellow is an attempt to show that his
novels reflect a cycle of alienation resulting from some innate mas-
sochism which is purged, so that the hero can re-enter society. In
dealing with eight of his major works of fiction I try to see that
very ‘emergent’ pattern and Bellow’s final attitude toward man:
while he examines the dilemmas of modern man, he also looks for an
optimistic solution to them, showing his belief in human dignity and
possibilities.
Erich Fromm describes the phenomenon of alienation as a
modern problem, as an effect of Capitalism on personality. This is
a world in which the individual has become hostile and estranged; he
feels alone, isolated, insecure, powerless, doubtful and full of
anxiety. Fromm writes:
By alienation is meant a mode of experience in which
the person experiences himself'as an alien. He has
become, one might say, estranged from himself. He
does not experience himself as the center of his
world, as the creator of his ov/n acts and their con­
sequences have become his masters... The alienated
person is out of touch v/ith himself as he is out of
' touch with any other person.!
In Humboldt’s Gift, Saul Bellow says that alienation is. a
phenomenon humankind has experienced from the beginning under the
name of ’’boredom,” but in modern times the question has been dealt
with as ’’anomie” or "alienation.” And he adds through his narrator:
]hmyself I could observe the follov/ing source of te­
dium: 1) the lack of personal connection with the ex­
ternal world... The educated speak of the disenchanted
(a bdring) world. But it is not the world, it is my
own head that is disenchanted. The world cannot be
disenchanted. 2) For me the self-conscious ego is the
seat of boredom... For to be fully conscious of one­
self as an individual ic also to be separated from
all else.2
The problem of alienation as it is treated by Saul Bellow,
is differently characterized, but reviewers often reach a common
agreement where we may trace Bellow's universal intentions,
Keith Michael Opdahl points out that Existentialist and
Romantic influences on Bellow's work are concerned with the "strange
ness” that defines alienation. In the view of men such as Sartre and
Emerson, the meaning of alienation is diametrically opposed, so Ex­
istentialists and Romantics "represent opposing poles which corre­
spond to Bellow's contrasting views of strangeness," Bellow's psy­
chological interpretation of strangeness follows Sartre's view. "His
hero is intensely sensitive to historical conditions and feels that
man finds his true self only in communal action. But*»Bellow's tran­
scendent interpretation of strangeness allies him v/ith Emerson,
Wordsworth, Whitman and Thoreau who clearly believe in God," These
Romantics base their faith "on v/hat is perhaps the source of all re­
ligious belief - man's infrequent but persistent intuition of a
spiritual reality" - v/here they discover the spiritual self.^
But the most pervasive aspect of alienation is concerned
with Bellow's Jewish heritage. According to Opdahl, Bellow describes
the Jev/ish experience in terms that makes it representative of his­
torical alienation and determinism. "The problem of alienation,
identity, mobility and pov/erlessness all form a link of kind, though
not of degree, between the oppressed Jew and the faceless modern
man."^
In a study of Henderson the Rain King, Jeff H. Campbell
points toBd-low’s knov/ledge of "the angst and isolation of the modern
i
individual," Henderson "can be seen as a modern Everyman ... a modern
man who is aware of certain contemporary answers to estrangement and
alienation..."^