Endeavor Of Finding The True Value Of Human Life--An Existentialist Approach To The Study Of Saul Bellow's Works

Entitled with "Endeavor of Finding the True Value of Human Life-an Existentialism Approach to the Study of Saul Bellow", this paper is going to analyze four Bellow's novels, namely Dangling Man (1944), Seize the Day (1956), Herzog (1964) and Humboldt's Gift (1975), under the methodologies of New Criticism and Reader-Response Criticism. To construct the thesis, this paper is going to use existentialism approach to explore the philosophical thinking and ideas contained in Bellow's words. This paper is going to argue that though critics regard Bellow's heroes and anti-heroes as masochism and alienated or think his works are full of skepticism; however, if we use existentialism to analyze Bellow's works, we can find Bellow actually offers us a hope that human beings have the potential or possibilities in finding their true selves through self-endeavor.Existentialism is a philosophy about the concrete individuals, which advocates that we are born biological beings and we must become existential individuals by accepting responsibilities for our actions and to become what we are. Normally speaking, there are five themes of existentialism. But the two themes:existence precedes essence and humanism are two important ones. So this paper chose these two themes to analyze the four characters in four novels written by Bellow. By saying existence precedes essence, it means people are what they make themselves to be instead of what they are destined to be. And humanism articulates that existentialism is a philosophy about the "care of self" and its focus is on the individuals'pursuit of identity and meaning among the society. To Bellow, his business is to find enduring institutions of what things came real and what things are important. In Dangling Man, Joseph touches upon a conception of freedom and realizes real freedom should be accompanied by comprehension. In this sense, Joseph is remarkable because he has the strength to keep his eyes open and his mind awake to the quality of his experiences. In Seize the Day, Bellow does not conceal his attitude towards the humanist possibility for Tommy weeps not only for the stranger but also for himself. In Herzog, Moss Herzog finds his new angle on the modern condition and breaks his mental chain. And Citrine in Humboldt's Gift gains the light of being from the legacy given by his life-long friend Humboldt. So as to say, the four characters that awaken to some sensation and thought proceed to discover signs of personhood, freedom as well as their authentic beings in their own modes.