Quest In The Predicament

Soul is vital to life;there must be something for soul to attach to and for life torely on. Since the existence of human beings in the world there has been persistentexploration and searching for the spiritual home and the meaning of existence.During the twentieth century, after the ravages of the two brutal world wars andthe most serious economic crisis in the history, man slides irresistibly toward thenihility. Feeling lonely, helpless and disorientated, they indulge themselves in thesense of absurdity and disillusionment;they doubt the meaning of existence andcannot find its value. Confronting the harsh reality, Saul Bellow bemoans the state ofthe universe and pities the fate of humankind. He studies the essence of existence andsearches a way out of the dilemma. His works, full of remarkable insights, sparklewith humanist ideas, from which people can attain perfect enlightenment. Seize theDay, called "the classic work of our time", is Bellow's fourth novel. This thesis aimsto analyze the book with the theme "quest for the meaning of existence" to exhibitBellow's unique understanding of the human authentic existence in the world.This thesis consists of five parts.Introduction. First, this part presents a brief introduction to Bellow's life, literarycareer and the novel Seize the Day (the content, the critical response and the theme),then it traces the factors that promote Bellow to pursue the value and meaning of theexistence from a philosophical and ethnic background. Existentialism is one of themost influential philosophical thoughts in the twentieth century among the Westernnations. It reflects modern humans' sense of existential bewilderment and attempts tofind out a possible way for the people struggling in the absurd world through personal"freedom of choice";thus it motivates people to overcome alienation and "falleness"(Dasein into the inauthenticity) so that they can return to authentic Being. What'smore, Bellow comes from a Jewish immigrant family and receives the orthodoxJewish education, so he is also indebted to the Jewish heritage. The philosophy ofJudaism is full of humanism and hope. It emphasizes the holiness of existence.Furthermore, the novel is permeated with this cultural and ethical heritage. Bellowregards Jewish people as the representative or symbol of all the people to furtherdiscuss the existential issues of human life.Chapter One deals with the Difficult State of Existence. Now the world is chaoticand absurd. The whole society is congested with unrestricted material desire, whichhas shattered the established traditional value system and led to the moral degeneracy.Subsequently, there is no harmonious relationship among people. They are alienatedfrom each other. On the "waste land", the protagonist, Wilhelm, drowned in anxietyand embarrassment, has to endure the loneliness. Meanwhile, as a descendant ofJewish immigrant, he is in an awkward situation between maintaining Jewish traditionand pursuing assimilation. He has attempted to evade his Jewish identity and to beassimilated into the main stream of the host society. But on the contrary, it deepens hisfeeling of marginality in the American society. The disillusionment of the Americandream increases his anxiety. He is confronted with the crisis of existence. "To be, ornot to be" – that is the question.Chapter Two is about the quest for meaning of existence. In the predicament,Wilhelm has been thinking of, struggling and seeking the true meaning of life, whichis dealt with in three aspects. Firstly, the protagonist is seeking his personal value. Hetries to shake off external control and spend the life in his own way while he is eagerto retain the freedom of the will and stand on his dignity. Thus, he chooses to go toHollywood and later to resign his position at the company in which he has worked forover ten years. Secondly, the protagonist is pursuing romantic love and he believes intrue love. For many people, marriage is only the need of sex. Wilhelm takes a rathernegative attitude towards this view of marriage. He pays a high price for the freedomand pursues the genuine feeling. Thirdly, he is searching for the meaning of life.Facing the spiritual and financing predicament,he longs for his father's words ofconsolation and a way out of the crisis. However, his father's indifference wrings hisheart. In order to relieve the emotional stress and tension, and at the same time, toattract his father's attention, Wilhelm turns to masochism. Masochism motivates himto explore his inner world by self-reflection and self-talk. In masochism and thinking,Wilhelm comprehends the meaning of suffering and begins the search for the realmeaning of life. Tamkin acts as a spiritual father of Wilhelm. His two-soul theorymakes Wilhelm be aware of the existence of the true soul and realize that only in thisauthentic Being, can he find the meaning of existence.Chapter Three takes up the findings of the Significance of Being. His father, Adler,ascribes his troubles to emotions. Wilhlem has doubted the value of feelings. Heyearns for the country life so as to evade others and the harsh reality. Under theinfluence of Tamkin, he realizes that the need for identity and the need for love are notonly reconcilable, but also mutually dependent. The brotherhood is a primarycondition for being a person and for the realization of authentic selfhood. At the endof the novel, Wilhelm attends a funeral by accident. Confronting the inescapable death,he experiences an epiphany;he catches the meaning of "Being-towards-the-end".People should cast off the anxiety about the past and the future, and take hisresponsibility. He begins to integrate himself into society and is ready for the new life.Conclusion restates the main ideas of the thesis and summarizes Bellow's writingskills in this novel. Readers do not see the clear idea of what the existence really is atthe end of the novel, because for the quest itself, what is more important is not theultimate objective, but the incessant understanding of the truth of life. During thequest, people obtain the truth and happiness.Many scholars have made different interpretations of the novel, but they mostlyfocus on its tragic and the protagonist's sense of despair. With a new perspective,combining Bellow's cultural background, this thesis aims to find out the deepersignificance behind the crisis – the writer's confidence in the future of the humanbeings and the expectation of returning to "spiritual home". The quest theme of thenovel urges people to ponder on the meaning of life with a positive outlook and searchthe way out of the predicament.