The Protagonist Of Saul Bellow Four Psychological Analysis

Saul Bellow is one of the most prestigious contemporary American writer. As the Nobel Prize winner with worldwide acclaim, Bellow's greatness lies in his insightful perception and depiction of the dilemmas of modem man. The body of my thesis is divided into three parts.Chapter One deals with the existential dilemma of the four heroes in the four novels. Bellow's protagonists are alienated and masochistic. They are in conflict with the forces in the society. They are confronted with family crisis. They are cut off from their relatives and are sometimes betrayed by their friends. Their career is almost a failure.Chapter Two focuses on the formation of mental patterns of the four heroes whose failures in life are analyzed in the following three parts. They are crippled not only by flaws in character but also dangling between Judaism and Americanization. They are lost in traditionalism and modernism.Chapter Three aims to analyze the transformation of the four Jewish Americans. Bellow's heroes, however, do not choose desperation. They learn that the world is still a place worth living and they have to accept the reality. Thus they have to transform. They resort to psychic roaming for self-salvation. The heroes are helped toward their transformation by saviors. Finally psychic union will be discussed.