Seeking Poetic Habitation

Saul Bellow is another master of American literature following Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. His works are absolutely typical to suggest American social life after World War II and their mental attitude. Because of his deep humanitarianism feeling and existentialism sense, Bellow's works profoundly reveal a great many existential problems of contemporary American people. Beginning with his early story "Hanging man "till his latest fiction "Lavisitine ", Bellow always pays much attention to the problems of modern man's existence. Most of his works embody a sense of humanistic concern.In his works, Bellow exposes all kinds of existential crises of contemporary American people, especially the crisis of intellectual. He thinks about the existential problems in every aspect and expresses his own deep anxiety. By analysis and comprehension of his main works such as Herzog, the paper tries to demonstrate and discuss his ideas of humanistic concern. In my opinion, Bellow's concern and anxiety reveal firstly on his delineation of the predicament of contemporary people: dirty natural environment against poetic existence, commercial civilization extruding man's existent space, social system suppressing individual freedom and so on. Bellow reveals embarrassing living situation of human being, which man must pay enough attention to. Bellow is anxious about modern people's fate in living predicament, and especially cares about spiritual wandering of protagonist, decline and degeneration of humanity. Revealing the relationship ofestrangement among people, he shows his human anxiety as an author. While showing the absurdity and chaos of the word, Bellow doesn't get lost in despair. He together with his protagonist begins his suffering experience of search. He makes efforts to find out in the absurd and disorderly word the nature and meanings of life and an ideal inhabitation for man. Bellow endeavors to do some active research and find out the answers to the living problem, which embody his human anxiety and concern. Although some of his answers are not so excellent, they're helpful to modern man who is in search in confusion. In short, Bellow's works are "more extensive, flexible, various, well-organized, comprehensive description, which expounds some problems of importance such as "what on earth is human being" "who are we " and "what are we living for". As modern American writer Aoci once pointed out, what Bellow cares about was nothing but the fate of our civilization in his glorious passages.By analysis of his works, the paper also discusses the relationship between his humanistic anxiety and historical remembrance of Jewish nation, thinking that his human anxiety is not only from influence of Existentialism, but also is a product of worrying about his national fate. It is a beautiful flower that comes from national culture. Bellow often worries about Jewish historical situation with a sense of suffering, and connects it with the living situation of modern man. Thus, the Jewish historical fate is considered not only Jewish but also man's.