Construction Of Jewish American Identity In Bellow’s Herzog

Saul Bellow(1915-2005) is the most important American writer after the death of Hemingway and Faulkner. Herzog is generally considered his masterpeice, in which Bellow describes the rootless existential state of the Jewish people and portrays a typical spiritual wanderer for the readers. The protagnist Herzog, a Jew, was in a awkward predicament because he inherited the Jewish tradition and adopted values inconsistent with the Christian culture. After a desperate struggle, he overcame difficulties and sought for a Jewish American identity in the crash of Jewish trditions and American culture.With a close reading of the novel, the author intends to analyze the reasons of Herzog’s identity crisis and the new identity Bellow tries to construct for him in the novel. The main part of the thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter one makes a brief introduction of the whole thesis, including Saul Bellow’s career, the novel Herzog and the subject of the thesis:Jewish American identity. In this part, I also make a literature review of Herzog. Based on a careful study of the text of the novel, chapter two and three mainly analyze the reasons for identity crisis of Herzog. Chapter Two starts from the angle of social values; it analyzes the differences between the traditional Jewish values held by Herzog and the core American values defined by Bellow in this novel; it proves at the end of this chapter that the conflicts of the two values make Herzog fail to adapt himself successfully to the American social lives and thus there appears the problem of identity crisis. Chapter Three analyzes the reasons from the perspective of existential predicaments; it holds that Herzog doesn’t do well in dealing with the relationship between individual and the society and that there are violent conflicts between his noble ideals and the reality. This chapter proves that the existential predicament of Herzog is a factor which leads to his identity crisis. Chapter Four of the thesis explains in detail what kind of new identity Saul Bellow has constructed for the protagonist. This part discusses this problem from three aspects. First, the protagonist learned to view himself in an appropriate way and embrace an obscure existence. Second, Herzog learned how to deal with the problem of the relationship with other people; he became a person who could keep balance between loving attachment and independence. Third, he learned how to cope with the problem of the relationship with the society and became a realistic person.On the above analysis, the author draws a conclusion that the new identity Bellow constructs for his protagnist is one who can embrace an obscure existence, keep balance between loving attachment and independence and be realistic at the same time. The paper examines the inner creative motivation of Saul Bellow, provids a new angle for the Chinese readers and it will help deepen the reseach on Saul Bellow in China.