The Victimization Of Male Protagonists In Saul Bellow's Major Fiction

A winner of numerous prestigious literary awards including the Nobel Prize, Saul Bellow was reputed as one of the most eminent 20th century American writers in as early as the 1970s. In his nearly-sixty-year long literary career, Bellow successfully explores many themes, among which the victimization of male protagonists distinguishes itself in almost every single work of his. So far, though the theme of victimization has received critical attention quite early in the West, the Chinese academics have not devoted much to it. Besides, even the Western scholarship still suffers from inadequacy in terms of systematic and multi-perspective researches if Bellow's in-depth exploitation and persistent interest in the theme are taken into account. Through thematic and character analyses of Bellow's three representative works, namely Seize the Day, Herzog, and Humboldt's Gift, this dissertation is intended to reveal part of the most characteristic Bellovian victimhood of the male protagonists in the Bellow canon.In the Introduction, a concise literature review of the topic in question is conducted; an analysis of the reasons why Bellow favors the theme of victimization is made; the layout of the paper is registered; and the content of each chapter is briefed.With psychoanalytic theories of moral masochism as the referential framework, Chapter One points out that Wilhelm, the male protagonist in Seize the Day, Bellow's best novella, is a victim of his moral masochism. Wilhelm's moral masochism is ascribed to his Oedipus complex which results in his unconscious guilty feelings for his father, an epitome of the super-ego moral conscience. In order to lessen his guilt, he longs for self-destruction. Wilhelm's moral masochism renders him a complete victim in life: he chooses to be a sufferer in all interpersonal relationships --- he not only yearns to be punished by his father, but also internalizes other people mainly represented by his wife Margaret and Dr. Tamkin and even the whole world as his"father super-ego"so that he can suffer everywhere; furthermore, he intentionally makes wrong decisions at the most significant moments of his life, which leads to his failures in both career and marriage; unemployed at mid-life, he still has to give an unreasonably big sum of alimonies to his wife in separation; finally, he is cheated of his last seven hundred dollars due to his masochistic tendencies. Under the illuminating instructions of Dr. Tamkin, Wilhelm comes to realize his unconscious guilt and masochistic tendencies. Though the ending of the novella hints at Wilhelm's abandonment of his moral masochism, it more convincingly conveys the opposite message in the meantime: Wilhelm's masochistic complex will continue to harass him.Chapter Two discusses the victimization of the title protagonist in Herzog, Bellow's first intellectual novel in the real sense. The main point is that Herzog is a victim of his extreme intellectualism which is particularly manifested in his belief that great theories can give total explanations of the world and one is capable of solving all problems through reasoning so that as an intellectual he is able to transform the world with theories formed through reasoning. In brief, Herzog's extreme intellectualism prevents him from developing a correct understanding of reality as well as the competence to effectively cope with problems in life. Consequently, he is greatly victimized: immersed in the world of thoughts for long, he has no insights in reality; as a result, he is done in by his wife and best friend --- they have committed adultery for years but Herzog has been totally kept in the dark and is divorced without knowing the real reason; after being informed about the twofold betrayal of his wife and best friend, he is caught by irresistible reasoning and thinking, trying to reconsider life and humanity with the help of knowledge in his academic field; nonetheless, it is not until he truly confronts reality that he discerns no theoretic work can give total explanations of the complex humanity and transforming the world with mere theories is no more than a delusion; meanwhile, he comes to see that his potency in the world of thoughts turns out to be impotence in life and that his obsession with thinking after his divorce is in fact an evasion of reality and is attributed to his hatred for his own impotence; eventually he has to admit that his over-reliance on theories is responsible for his victimhood in life. Herzog claims that he is going to stop his endless theorization at the end of the novel, but an analysis shows the likelihood is slim that he will give up extreme intellectualist thinking and embrace life.Chapter Three posits the argument that Humboldt and Citrine, the artist protagonists in Humboldt's Gift, are victims of coarse materialism. Humboldt is a Romantic poet who establishes his reputation in American Letters in the 1930s. However, the poet supposed to be of great promise is later rendered a victim of coarse materialism: initially, American materialism with its overwhelming power compels Humboldt to reduce his Romantic ideal and seek social recognition in the material form, thus he loses his poetic inspiration; at the same time, his Romantic poems are no longer welcome as materialism is on the rise; later, his other attempts to fulfill his ideal fail one after another; successive failures turn Humboldt from a Romantic poet to a Babbitt and then to a lunatic dying a tragic death in the end. Like his teacher Humboldt, Citrine is also victimized by materialism: seeing from Humboldt's failure how American materialistic society destroys its artists, Citrine completely gives up his Romantic ideal and becomes a famous writer of pop literature; nevertheless, success does not satisfy him as expected; on the one hand Citrine indulges in material comforts while on the other hand he feels guilty of having betrayed his ideal and often finds himself in anguish owing to his spiritual vacancy; afterwards, his consecutive endeavors in seeking a spiritual life add up to nothing; ultimately Citrine, an idealist, proves unable to compete with money-minded materialists --- he is stripped to bankruptcy. An analysis of the novel's ending demonstrates that it is not very likely that Citrine will succeed in finding his spiritual life. The experiences of Humboldt and Citrine elucidate that noble spiritual pursuits and extreme materialistic demands are essentially incompatible and that idealistic poets are destined to be victimized by coarse materialism.Finally the Conclusion summarizes the dissertation: to a large extent, Bellow's enduring interest in the theme of victimization can be attributed to his Jewish background. In general, Bellow's men are rendered victims because of their conflicts with both society and themselves. As a humanist writer of a strong sense of social responsibilities, Bellow expresses his serious concern with contemporary society and profound understanding of humanity through the characterization of his victim male protagonists.