A Study Of The Role Of Mentors In Saul Bellow's Bildungsroman

As the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize, Saul Bellow (1915-2005) is a renowned contemporary American writer on a par with Hemingway and Faulkner, and he is also the most distinguished postwar Jewish American writer, who, entitled by The New York Times Book Review as the leading contemporary American writer, is highly praised by the scholars at home and abroad and attracts attention worldwide. A very prolific writer, Saul Bellow, during the course of more than 60 years'continuous writing, has composed a large number of works including novels, plays and other writings in prose form.In accord with Bellow's high prestige and literary status, we find that there are large quantities of high-quality research papers and academic monographs from various perspectives by a large number of scholars engaged in the studies of Bellow. This is an indication of the scale and depth of Bellow's research that have been achieved so far overseas. Significant progress has also been made in Bellow's research in China. but not many scholars have been paying close and continuous attention to Bellow's works, which results in relatively few in-depth research papers and academic monographs, a situation that is out of proportion to Bellow's literary reputation. It should be noted that Bellow's immigrant background, varied life experience, and close relation with a wide range of literati explain the main reasons why he favors Bildungsroman in particular. Accompanying the protagonists in Bellow's Bildungsroman are their mentors, providing the protagonists with varieties of guidance and help them overcome (or at least spiritually) the predicaments in the end.The dissertation, from the perspective of Bildungsroman, focuses on Bellow's 3 novels, i.e., Seize the Day, Mr. Sammler's Planet, and The Bellarosa Connection, in which the male protagonists are obviously influenced by the mentors, and explores primarily the measures and methods adopted by the mentors to guide the perplexed male protagonists out of their predicaments, the influence of the measures and methods on the male protagonists, and the literary meaning of the mentors. Nowadays in academia, however, little attention has been paid to the mentors'role and influence on the growth of the male protagonists in Bellow's Bildunsroman, and the literary meaning of the mentors. The dissertation aims to broaden the research perspective concerning Bellow. When conducting the textual analysis, the dissertation will, in the light of different novels, adopt some theories or some scholars'viewpoints, including Georg Lukacs's theory of reification, Jean Francois Lyotard's theory of postmodern society, Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory, Carl Jung's psychoanalytic theory, Kou Yu's"prosocial"concept,Mikhail Bakhtin's polyphonic theory and the theory of mirror image, and Walter Benjamin's concept of historical redemption, etc. The framework of this dissertation is not built on any particular theory or viewpoint, but different theories and viewpoints will be employed wherever necessary to illustrate the discussion.Chapter One is the introduction, which reviews Saul Bellow's research status quo at home and abroad, traces the concept of Bildungsroman, briefly discusses the growing-up themes in Saul Bellow's novels, and puts forward the research purpose and layout of this dissertation. Chapter Two is a relatively focused analysis of the influence of Doctor Tamkin in Seize the Day, including 3 parts, i.e., Wilhelm's predicaments, Doctor Tamkin's guiding strategies, and the establishment of Wilhelm's"prosocial"concept. Chapter Three centers on the influence of Dr. Gruner in Mr. Sammler's Planet, probing in detail the retrogression of Mr. Sammler's Judaic belief and the relevant reasons, Dr. Gruner's high-efficient guiding strategies, and resumption of Mr. Sammler's Judaic belief. Chapter Four is the analysis of the influence of the Fonsteins in The Bellarosa Connection, exploring mainly the narrator's lack of Jewish sense of history and the correlative reasons, the mentor's guiding strategies, and the awakening of the narrator's Jewish sense of history. Chapter Five rounds up the discussion in the three preceding chapters, the historical and cultural settings and takes into consideration Bellow's writing motive as is reflected in Seize the Day, Mr. Sammler's Planet, and The Bellarosa Connection to probe into the commonality of the mentors,the literary meaning of the mentor in each novel, and the literary meaning of the mentors in the macroscopic sense. The last part of the dissertation is the conclusion.From the above analysis, we discover that there has been an axial line in Bellow's mind during his writing career spanning more than 60 years. This axial line represents Bellow's spiritual pursuit, which may be order, religion, history, truth, soul, sense, mission, spirit, eternity, peace, and a man's wholeness and integrity. Bellow's axial line is embodied by the mentor's guidance in many novels. In Seize the Day, Mr. Sammler's Planet, and The Bellarosa Connection, the axial line is demonstrated in three aspects:"the establishment of'prosocial'concept in human society"(the axial line in Seize the Day),"the attachment of greater importance to religious belief"(the axial line in Mr. Sammler's Planet), and"the construction of the sense of history"(the axial line in The Bellarosa Connection). The axial line in the three novels is conceived separately in the 1950s, the 1960s and the 1980s, and without exception each was damaged and in need of some sort of"repairing". How to repair and maintain the principal axis which props up the spiritual life of humankind is what Bellow is most seriously concerned about, and for that purpose, Bellow creates different types of mentors, lifelike and at the same time symbolic, who either stand for the backbone of a certain notion (e.g., Dr. Gruner and the Fonsteins) or center on the notion and point out the direction (e.g., Doctor Tamkin). The mentors in Bellow's Bildungsroman, by means of direct or indirect guidance, and by verbal advice or behavioral influence, help those guided to approach the axial line, lead them to Bellow's desired end with the message that there is a fundamental direction in the spiritual life of humankind.