Saul Bellow's Major Characters

Based on the theory of Edward W. Said, this thesis intends to choose six major characters of Saul Bellow: Moses Herzog in Herzog, Von Humboldt Fleisher and Charlie Citrine in Humboldt's Gift, Benn Crader and Kenneth Trachtenberg in More Die of Heartbreak and Chick in Ravelstein, to examine their identities as intellectuals. In other words: Are these protagonists intellectuals or professionals?The argument of this thesis is, according to Edward Said's views on intellectuals, that Saul Bellow's major characters are not intellectuals but professionals. The thesis is composed of three chapters and the first two chapters deal with Herzog and Humboldt's Gift separately and the third chapter examines More Die of Heartbreak and Ravelstein. The six protagonists of the above four novels are analyzed through interpretations of Said's view of intellectuals from four aspects: 1) the mnemonic function; 2) the situation of exile and homelessness; 3) professionalism and amateurism; 4) speaking the truth to power and representing the poor and weak. The finding of this thesis is that the protagonists of Saul Bellow who have been deviated from the insistences of intellectuals' social functions, do not display the mnemonic function, all of whom cannot be called intellectuals who represent the poor and the weak and speak the truth to power. In conclusion, they are professionals but not intellectuals.