On The Sense Of Tramping In Saul Bellow's Novels

Saul Bellow, the winner of the Nobel Prize of Literature in 1976, astonished the reading public by"the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work". Saul Bellow's works include novels, short stories, plays, essays, memoirs and so on, with full-length novels being his major and most remarkable genre. In his novels, Bellow portrays wide social life to reflect the"furnace"property of American culture and reveals all kinds of spiritual crises of contemporary people. By analysis of his works, we can see there is a typical characteristic of tramping in his full-length novels. He connects the living predicament of modern westerners with Jewish culture connotation so successfully that a series of contemporary vagabonds who have special ways of recognition are created. The tramping consciousness is just like a small bead that refracts all the radiance of Bellow's novels. In this thesis, the sense of tramping is explained from four indispensable angles: cultural details, inquiry for value, mode of picaresque narration and spiritual return.The thesis consists of six parts. The introduction is about Bellow's literary achievements, the present study and the place neglected. Chapter One analyzes the cultural details of the sense of tramping in Bellow's novels. As a Jewish writer, Bellow inevitably inherits some properties of Jewish culture. He dispels the Jews'tramping consciousness that enlightens his contemplation about the living condition of Jews and the people all over the world into the potential medium in literature, and internalizes it into the theme structure of his novels. Meanwhile, American culture has strong influence on Bellow, which leaves many marks of American spirit in his works. Chapter Two discusses the presentation of the tramping sense in Bellow's novels. Bellow reveals the living predicament of modern man and the loss of identity, and shows his protagonists'brave struggle for the meaning of life. The third chapter focuses on the mode of picaresque narration that is divided into two patterns: the mode of picaresque and the mode of spiritual picaresque, which properly contains the sense of tramping in Bellow's novels. The sense of tramping is searching consciousness. At last, Bellow's protagonists all obtain spiritual return-the return to society, to reality and to love. This is not only...