An Existentialist Interpretation Of Humboldt's Gift

Humboldt's Gift,Saul Bellow's well-known novel,has been attracting much attention throughout the literati of America and other countries ever since its publication in 1975. Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the fiction the next year.Especially after Bellow's winning of the Nobel Prize in 1976,the novel brought him a more important position in modern American literary history.The novel focuses on the fates of the two writers Von Humboldt Fleisher and Charlie Citrine.Through their different experiences,it reveals devastation of the material world to the spiritual civilization.The novel not only shows the influence of the ideas of existentialism on Bellow in his evaluation of human condition and their existence,but also exhibits Bellow's own understanding of human beings and the significance of their existence in the modern world. This novel is actually a searching analysis of the human nature and a profound parable of mankind's existence.The thesis attempts to probe into the existential elements in the novel through three aspects:the absurdity of the world,the alienation of existence,and freedom and responsibility,and try to study how Bellow has successfully reflected the condition of human existence in Humboldt's Gift.The paper is mainly divided into three parts.Chapter One analyzes the absurdity of the world.Through Humboldt and Citrine,it reveals the absurdity of the world and illustrates the world of chaos and irrationality.From Citrine's betrayal to his bankruptcy and losing everything,finally he receives Humboldt's gift by accident,it exposes that the life of Citrine is absurd.This is the same as Existentialists' viewpoint the "absurdity of the world".Chapter Two analyzes the alienation of the world in the novel,including people's powerlessness, meaninglessness of life,disorderliness of world,people's isolation and self-estrangement. Through the analysis of Humboldt and Citrine,of the relationship and psychological condition of people in the society,the novel reveals the profound meaning of Bellow's existentialist ideas.Chapter Three deals with the pursuit of authentic being,including the freedom of making a choice and its corresponding responsibility.This embodies Sartre's core viewpoint "freedom".By focusing on the ordinary inner agonies and conflicts in the hearts of the main characters in his novels,Bellow has continuously shown great enthusiasm in probing into the existence of the human beings.Humboldt's Gift wants to explore the meaning and value of man's existence through a detailed analysis of the condition of his existence.The analysis of existential elements in the novel helps people to understand Bellow's understanding and interpretation of human beings.In a word,the absurdity and alienation are only the starting point of this novel.Bellow's purpose is to find a new order in the realistic world.The only way to the meaningful existence is to reintegrate self with the realistic world and shoulder the responsibility both for himself and others.The ending of the novel—Citrine's abandonment of self-alienation with a tranquil mind fully shows modern man is able to find a place where one can has authentic existence in the waste land.