Renewal Through Suffering

Saul Bellow (1915 ? is believed to be the most important living American novelist. Thewinning of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976 has established Bellow as a representative figurein contemporary American literature and a vanguanl of contemporary fiction in the wake of ErnestHemingway and William Faulkner Bellow has persistently sought the true meaning of humanexistence by focusing on the onlinaiy inner agonies and conflicts in the hearts of the centralcharacters in his novels.Herzog, acclaimed to be Bellow's most important representative work, demonstrates thenovelist's preoccupation with the individual and the safekeeping and maintenance of the uniqueself. Iike most other Bellow's creations, Herzog shows an amazing perseverance both in hispursuit of the ultimate truth and in his endeavour to work out his individual fate. Like most of othercharacters, Herzog is mereilessly plunged into a spiritual crisis wherein his self is disintegrated andhis identity forfeited as a result of his own failings. What is unusual about Herzog, however, is thathe extends his spiritual quest through both his memories of past events and his philosophicalruminations. This juxtaposition brings Herzog into direct confrontation with the intricacies andcomplexities of reality This confrontation enlightens Herzog as to the question of human existence:that is, the meaningful human existence pivots on the integration of self into world. Therefore,Herzog marks the transition of Bellow's philosophical attitude from gloom to light in that thehero's salvation is founded on a solid foundation. The dissertation, fivm an Existentialist point ofview, attempts to demonstrate Herzog's spiritual progress from darkness to light, from negation toaffinnation, from chaos to order, and from despair to hope. Throughout its argumentation, thedissertation aims at convincing the reader of literature that life is not meaningless as expounded by40Renewal through Sufferingsuch vanguards of Existentialism as Sartre and Camus; that the modern man is able to sustainhimself as long as he faces up to reality and renew his courage to be.The dissertation consists of five chapters.Chapter One, Introduction, presents an analysis of the major aspects predominant in thecharacter of the Beilovian hen) and the predominant tt~nd in the philosophy of Existentialismexpounded by Saiirc, Camus, Dostoevsky and others. This chapter makes a biief comparisonbetween and a discussion about the philosophical views of most Existentialists such as Sartre ar4Camus and those proposed by Paul Tillicb, and points out that the modern individual will not loseout in his struggle for salvation with the resumption of the courage to be.Chapter Two, The Disintegration of l-Ierzog's Self; traces the causes of Herzog'sdisintegration and its immediate consequences. This chapter is composed of three parts. Part Oneanalyses the root-causes of the marginalization of I-lerzog by the external world. As an intellectualimbued with profound philosophical ideas, Herzog launches a spiritual rebellion againstinstitutionalized ideologies and social demands upon him as an individual. Consequently, he lapses.into the cocoon of self-love and the tendency to negate other selves. This leads him to pursue Beingwithout its incorporation into Becoming. Part Two of this chapter deals with the conflict betweenself and world. Due to his narcissism and negation of others, flerzog tends to completely repudiateinstitutionalized ideologies and intellectualization that claim to embody the truth and meaning ofhuman .reality Thus Herzog resists Becoming with the result of him being deprived of anexistential relation to himself and to his world. Herzog's self is inevitably cut off from participationin its wOrld. Part Three compares Herzog with Joseph~ two men dan...