The Quest Of The Spiritual Picaros

Saul Bellow (1915-2005), Nobel Laureate and winner of numerous other awards, astonished the reading public by"the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work"(Brucker 892). As a noted Jewish-American writer, Bellow's works have received great concerns worldwide. Bellow portrays wide social life to reflect the"furnace"property of American culture and reveal the spiritual crises of modern people.Closely reading Bellow's works, we will see there is a sense of wandering in his full-length novels. Bellow raises the question"how should a good man live?"in his Dangling Man, his first novel, and portraits the images of the spiritual wanderers who take spiritual journey in order to find a way out of the existential predicament and into a better future of human beings. Bellow succeeds in connecting the living predicament of modern westerners with Jewish cultural connotation so that he can make use of the Jews to represent the loss of foothold, the sense of unbelongingness and the eagerness for a home of spirit that affect the modern human. In this thesis, the novels Dangling Man and Herzog will be chosen as the cases for the study of the motif of wandering in Bellow's works. The thesis consists of six parts:Part I gives a brief introduction to the motif of wandering in literature and Saul Bellow's life and critical attentions from the world. Wandering has been abstracted into literature as one of the basic motives. The picaresque novel, as a medium of the motif of wandering, is traditionally used to reflect the situation in which the picaros live. Bellow's rich life experience provides cultural backgrounds and the realistic materials for his wonderful works.Part II emphasizes on the introduction of the sense of wandering in Bellow's works. It is not a coincidence that the motif of wandering goes into almost all of Bellow's novels. The sense of wandering has become the race concept of Jews and Americans that has developed during the long history. Bellow, as a Jewish descendant, is under the great influence of the Jewish culture that is hard to break up. Living in America since a teenager, Bellow has gotten a deep knowledge of American spirit. His American experience also provides him perspectives to view the society that symbolizes modern civilization.In Part III, the thesis focuses on the introduction of Bellow's two spiritual picaresque novels Dangling Man and Herzog. The traditional narrative type of picaresque novel is used to reflect the motif of wandering. The thesis introduces the inheritance of Odyssey in Bellow's in order to outline the process of spiritual restoration of the picaros. Moreover, the writing devices employed by Bellow to analyze the inner quest journey of his heroes will be discussed. The traditional narrative type and the innovative employment of writing devices help in delineating the dangling imprisonment of Joseph and Herzog's thoughts about the fate of human beings.In Part IV, the thesis concentrates on the analysis of the mental journey of Joseph and Herzog. The quest and the returning to community are involved in the wandering process of the spiritual picaros. This process, which is similar to Odysseus', witnesses their self-examination and change of heart which brings them to the final integration with the community.The two influences that motivate Joseph and Herzog's returning will be explained in Part V. A humanistic writer, Bellow inherits optimism toward life from Jewish culture and shows the life full of love and goodness to human beings. The emphasis on individuality is also a point in his worldview. The significance of individuality is what Bellow gets from the American cultural tradition. These two motivations direct Bellow's picaros'return to the community with the essence of self.The last part is a conclusion. As a sensitive historical observer, Bellow represents the spiritual crisis to people in modern society through the wanderers'spiritual predicament and spiritual pilgrimage. What he is concerned not only is the existence of the Jews in American mainstream society, but also covers universally the fate of all human beings.