On Saul Bellow's Typical Intellectuals

Saul Bellow is one of the most influential writers in the contemporary American literary circle. In Leslie Fiedler's word, Saul is the most charismatic person of literature after the Hemingway-Faulkner prestige. He won the Nobel Prize for "the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary literature". The main motifs of the Bellow's writing include three points. The first one is that modern material civilization depraves human's soul, which makes man outwardly united but actually divided, and makes them feel alienated. The second one is that living in these conditions man easily has high tense, loses marbles, finally becomes mentally disordered and endures suffering mental loss. The third one is that it concerns about exploring. Though there are pain and helplessness on the way to exploring, in the end salvation exists to some extent. He is humanistic and basically his heroes have good endings. He believes that strength stems from the faith in human and human's ability, as he said "a spirit resistance to the forces of our time".Bellow keeps eye on the modern man's survival. His father was a Russian immigrant of Jewish businessman. Though talking about identity, he always says he is American, but actually he is keenly aware of Jewish descend blood. Combining the Jewish culture with modern western culture and through describing the kinds of conditions of Jews'survival, Bellow successfully presents the general situations of human.This thesis is based on the two novels, Herzog and Humboldt's Gift, which are the most representative novels epitomizing the theme of contemporary intellectuals' mental wandering. In Herzog, Bellow creates the typical image of intellectuals in awkward plight in American modern society. Humboldt's Gift also describes the Jewish writers'awkward plight. This thesis uses the methods of textual analysis, comprehensive analysis of related information and Cultural Studies to analyze the intellectuals'problems, such as wandering, loss, alienation, pursuit of spirit and so on. Thus the thesis can clarify Bellovian intellectual and then reveal the intellectuals' plight and the spiritual crisis. Consequently it helps man to find way out for human existence.This thesis can be divided into five parts. The first one is introduction. In this part, the thesis will briefly introduce the author, the two works and the main characters, and then literature review home and abroad. The aims of the writing will follow. This thesis aims to analyze the influence on intellectuals'survival, which is caused by the varied and changeable modern American society. By depicting the survival state of God's chosen men, Jewish intellectuals, this thesis wants to show the human beings'survival situation so as to let readers learn more about man's problems. Chapter one will interpret the problems of the main characters'anxiety, loss, wandering of cultural identity and so on. Chapter two will reveal inter and outer reasons through the problems they show. Chapter three will analyze the characters' mental exploration. In the process of exploration, the characters find the way to return to restoration. The last one is conclusion. It will give a summary of this thesis. It tells people how to get rid of the awkward plight Bellow's characters suffer and helps them to find a positive attitude to live a life. It hopes that man can be close to nature and harmonize with diverse society.