Quest Conflict Return

As the first winner of the Nobel Prize for literature among modern Jewish-American writers,Saul Bellow incorporates Jewish tradition with American experience together, whose worksfocus on the thematic thoughts of the Jewish ethnic traits and Jewish traditional values. Seizethe Day is one of the famous novellas of Saul Bellow’s, which describes Wilhelm, as amember of Jewish immigrants, falls into a dilemma in modern society saturated with moneyworship and epicurean hedonism. At last after tortuous pilgrimage, humanity is regained andtranscendence is achieved. Taking Jewish ethnic traits as its referential framework, this thesisintends to explain and interpret three main ethnic traits of Jewish people including quest,conflicts and return to humanity. This thesis analyzes the Jewish ethnic traits reflected in thenovel in detail, which aims to urge people to consider the meanings of life positively andsearch the way out of the predicament, thus expressing people’s confidence in the future lifeand the expectation of returning to humanity.