A Futile Escape From Chaos To Stillness

Saul Bellow is famous for his penetrating understanding of human beings and contemporary culture. Based on that understanding Bellow often endows his characters with a complex self which has a vein of paradox. That is true of the protagonist of Herzog, when he is struggling to escape from the destructive chaos to the constructive stillness. This thesis attempts to reveal Herzog’s inner possessions of meaninglessness in the light of spatial theories. It consists of four chapters besides the introduction and the conclusion.The Introduction gives a brief summary of current studies on Saul Bellow and his prestigious work Herzog. The volume of critical work focusing on the dissection of Herzog’s mind is now quite extensive and some of it also touches upon his self-perfection, but few scholars have applied space in uncovering Herzog’s psychological journey. The main body of this part puts forward the idea that space could be useful for revealing Herzog’s inner conditions.Chapter One begins with expounding the solid relationship between place and space. Herzog is always on the move so as to turn a blind eye to reality. His journey takes him from New York to Martha’s Vineyard, Chicago and Massachusetts. Owing to the change in the human place-relations Herzog has a different identity in each location. Space, as the practiced place, thus affords Herzog the chance to grasp a shaping identity.Chapter Two tries to further reveal the social space behind those different identities. Herzog suffers from failed relationships in almost every aspect of life. All social disasters create a devouring space for Herzog and compel him to live in a state of near paranoia.Chapter Three discusses how Herzog moves outwards for accommodating space in an attempt to step out the previous state of alienation. Step by step Herzog regains his ability to think rationally as he gradually becomes aware of the pointless stupidity of writing those unsent letters. In this phase Herzog is trying to construct a new self and he makes much progress in realizing this goal.Chapter Four analyzes why Herzog eventually fails to accomplish self-perfection. In Herzog’s escape from chaos to stillness he is also constructing an Utopia in conceived space. The boundary between this utopia and the real world is ambiguous to him. Although Herzog tries to construct a meaningful world, what he really creates is a utopia. Therefore, it is safe to say that when Herzog leaves his utopia and approaches the reality he will certainly find his life still full of doubt and insecurity.In the Conclusion, the thesis points out that the consequence of his escape is doomed to futility. As Herzog endeavors to escape from chaos to stillness he is also traversing graphic space, social space and conceived space. However, he has never yet found any space which could accommodate him. The futility of Herzog’s escape from picaresque destiny results from his deteriorating relationship with the existential space and thus can serve as a symptom of a common plight.