Wandering In The Physical World, Questing In The Moral Realm

The Adventures of Augie March is the third novel of Saul Bellow, one of the eminent American novelists in the 20th century. It describes the drifting life of a Jewish youth, Augie, in search of his "good enough fate". The story is constructed in the form of the two-level drifting, one being physical wandering, the other, moral questing. The popularity of this work can be attributed not merely to its exuberant language, delicate description and comic style, but to its profound meaning as well, which is the eternal theme of Bellow's works—the conflict between the individual and the external world.This thesis aims to conduct a detailed analysis of Augie's two-level drifting. Through investigating the origins of the preoccupation with drifting, the driving force of Augie's wandering and questing can be manifested. At the same time, Augie's journey without an end is anatomized in the light of the common mentality of the Jewish people and some of the principles of existentialism. In the end, conclusions are drawn in view of the previous analysis. First of all, it is very important for the individual to aim at a harmony with society. Secondly, there is no absolute harmony in this world, which is an ideal state that people can never reach but should spare no effort to approximate.