An Existential Analysis Of Dangling Man

There’s no doubt that Saul Bellow is the one who has been mostly reviewedcontemporary novelist in America since the1960s. Critics regard him as the literarysuccessor of Hemingway and Faulkner. At the same time, he is also a prominentJewish-American writer. The protagonists of his works are little people who are all facedwith great mental crisis in their daily lives; they all fight alone for the self-salvation orprobe their own existential meaning. In1976, he was awarded the Nobel Prize “for thehuman understanding and subtle analysis of the contemporary culture.”①When SaulBellow’s first work was published, American narrative art had tendentious and updatingchanges. The stiff style and incoherent words had relaxed to become automatic pouringeveryday language; the stiff concise technique rarely had been mentioned. Saul Bellow’sdebut work Dangling Man (1944) was one of the signs indicating something new wasabout to appear. Award words are “Dangling Man, the man without a foothold, was thus asignificant watchword to Bellow’s writing and has to no small extent remained so.”②Compared with his other works, it has received less attention in the field of critics.However, as a foundation for Saul Bellow’s later novels, it is pretty worthy of study.Based on Existentialism, Bellow shares existential attitude towards absurdity of theworld, the alienation of human society, and the questions for human existence. Bellow isalso in line with Existentialism for the powerlessness imposed upon modern humanbeings, and sets forth to seek authenticity and meaning for individuals.Previous studies of Dangling Man mainly focus on language and writing skills, etc.Some analyze it from the perspectives of Meta-functional Grammar, feminism, realism,etc. There are also studies from the perspective of phenomenology. This thesis aims to doa research of Dangling Man from the angle of Existentialism and tries to probe into theexistential connotation in order to enrich the domestic related research of Dangling Man.This thesis analyzes the protagonist Joseph’s epiphany of freedom and his ultimatechoice of reintegrating into the society. And it analyzes the absurd and disordered worldand the phenomenon of alienation. Moreover, it illustrates the feasible path towards self-salvation and discusses the realistic significance of the work in contemporarysociety.There are three parts in this thesis, which contains an introduction, the main bodyand a conclusion. Its main contents are as follows:The first part is introduction. It states the purpose of this thesis briefly, presents abrief survey of Saul Bellow’s life and his major famous works and has a conciseintroduction of the critical reception of his works both at home and in abroad, especiallyDangling Man, as well as the necessity of this research content.The second part is the main body, which is made up of four chapters:Chapter One expounds Existentialism as well as its embodiments in Dangling Man.Firstly, it combs Existentialism from the aspects of its origin, development, itsrepresentatives and its influence on various fields. Then it analyzes the existentialelements and the embodiments of Existentialism in Dangling Man.Chapter Two illustrates the absurdity and disorder of the external and internal worldin Dangling Man. The first part analyzes decadent social morality and red tape of thebureaucratism and the absurdity of World War II; the second part studies the anxiety ofdeath of Joseph. Through this analysis, it aims to explore the profound effects of thesense of absurdity and disorder on the existential state.Chapter Three probes the sense of alienation in Dangling Man. Alienation is thestate of being an outsider or the feeling of being isolated from society and it embodies theweakness of people and the tragic fate which are impossible to get rid of. The first partanalyzes the protagonist’s sense of alienation in terms of interpersonal relationships andthe alienation between the protagonist and the inner self; the second part studies theconfusion and the alienation of the Jews on account of the Jewish background of theprotagonist. The Jewish protagonist Joseph’s present situation indicates how the Jews areviewed in secular society. The Jews have always been the representatives of humanbeings who lead wandering lives. Although Joseph does not admit that he is alienated, hisalienation is quite obvious in fact. The agony of being alienated devours him andcontributes to his ultimate transformation, breaking the shackles of the spirit.Chapter Four analyzes the protagonist’s process of self-salvation in the existentialdilemma. The first part analyzes the epiphany concerning “freedom” and “self-choice” which is got in the process of strenuously pondering by abandoning himself in a separateroom. The second part analyzes the humanistic spirit derived from Existentialism whichis also the philosophy of action. The protagonist has been always looking for the way ofself-salvation. At last, he finds the direction of his own life after experiencing so manyfailures. The journey of the heart of the protagonist is actually the conflicts between hisideal and the reality.The last part is the conclusion，which makes a conclusion of the previous chaptersthrough the summary of each character so as to illustrate the subject and the practicalsignificance of the thesis. The protagonist of Dangling Man can be viewed as therudiment of “Saul Bellow Type” heroes. Ultimately his soul was saved and he found his“existence” which embodies his existential values. Therefore, it is concluded that peoplemust modify the understanding of the world in time and try to adjust to it and that peopleshould accept the complicated realistic world with a forgiving mentality.