Self-refashioning And Reconciliation

Herzog is a book of Nobel Prize Awards, through the book, Saul Bellow’s humanistic concern, the detailed description of psychological anxiety with which the modern people are confronted, the social and moral problems and even the deep philosophical thinking about the whole human’s living and happiness, are all discussed. It can be said that all the themes Saul Bellow refers to before in his works are all integrated in this novel.The protagonist of this novel Herzog is a knowledgeable history professor who is proficient in American culture, Jewish culture and western romanticism. He has made achievements in academic circle, whose name even enters the blue book and some of his works become textbook of college students. He is a contradictory anti-hero; however, he owns debt to the romantic disposition, ignorant of worldly affairs. He despises this industrial and profit-seeking society, but he enjoys material comforts brought by it. In the novel, he is betrayed by his beloved wife Madeline and his best friend Gersbach, and then is driven out of his own home and becomes a tramp, and later is also deceived by his lawyer and his doctor. He feels very agonized, but has nobody to tell about his anguish. His emotional suffering state makes him not be able to work or think calmly. He gets lost himself in his belief and becomes confused. He is eager for consolation and sympathy, urgent to reestablish his faith and find a way which is suitable for him to continue his life. On the edge of his psychological crisis, he writes unsent letters madly to anyone, friends, relatives, enemies, scholars, philosophers, statesmen, and even the dead. He struggles hard to find his faith and his root in order to make him be accepted and melt into the reality without losing real self by debating and self-communing. At last, he learns to shoulder the responsibilities and duties as a human being; he is able to cherish the dignity of life and live a meaningful life again. That is to say, he undergoes his spiritual journey from greatest depression to a true recovery, a process of his self-refashioning and reconciliation to the reality world.In the light of the theory of motivation and personality proposed by Marslow, the humanistic psychologist, Herzog’s mental activities are analyzed to see how his long journey progresses from disorders to calmness. The whole thesis consists of four parts, the first part makes a brief introduction of great literary achievements Saul Bellow had made, of Herzog and of the theory of motivation and personality. The main body consists of the following two parts. In the second part, the thesis discusses the causes for Herzog’s psychopathogenesis by using the theory of threat and basic needs. The four reasons are classified as:(1) Herzog’s personality is threatened,(2) his self-actualization is hindered,(3) conflicts between American culture and Jewish culture and (4) lack in the needs of love and respects. In the third part, the theory of psychological health is employed to explain how Herzog clarifies his mental disorders to attain a peaceful mind in the end by means of self-communing, reminiscing and self-ridiculing, and how he re-shoulders his responsibilities as a father and a human being with the help and love from his brothers and friends. The last part of the thesis is a conclusion. It points out its enlightening meaning for the people who live in the industrialized but moral degraded society that one should have firm faith in order not to lose himself, should shoulder the accordant social responsibilities and duties, that is to say, gratify the basic need of working which reflects the value and dignity of human, and should have the ability to love and be loved to gain a true meaning of life.