Alienation In Saul Bellow’s The Victim

Saul Bellow is one of the most important writers in contemporary American literature. His works elaborate on American social culture from the perspective of Jewish immigrants, exploring the spiritual crisis of the modern man and its solutions. The Victim is chronologically the second among his works, one not favored by critics. But it is considered by Ihab Hassen as a milestone of Jewish American literature. The present research on The Victim involves thematic study, character study and study on ideological connotations from the angle of Jewishness, psychoanalysis and ethics. Concerned with the protagonist Asa Leventhal’s existential dilemma, this thesis explores alienation in The Victim with the application of existentialist theories.This thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter One exposes Leventhal’s identity as an alienee. In Leventhal’s view, the world is absurd, oppressive and restrictive. At the mercy of unknowable mysterious power, individuals are powerless and others are perceived as results of reification seen through the projection of animals. So Leventhal is indifferent toward others and estranged from his family and friends. Unable to face his true self, he resorts to self-deception, self-hatred and self-fragmentation.Chapter Two explores Leventhal’s attempts to shake off his identity as an alienee by transcending alienation. He attempts to overturn his belief in naturalistic predetermination, to unveil the mysterious force that determines fate and to gain control over his own future. He attempts to live up to his duty to others, to discover humanity in himself through brotherhood and to veer from the state of estrangement. He also attempts to confront his true self, to know his own weaknesses and evils in order to transcend self-alienation. However, his efforts in the three aspects all end up in failure.Chapter Three analyzes the causes of Leventhal’s failure. Firstly, his familial and ethnical background determines the difficulty in his transcendence with the former leading to insecurity and the latter to uncertainty and persecution complex. Secondly, Leventhal’s low self-esteem causes him to deny his own contribution to his achievement, rendering it impossible for him to view the world objectively. Thirdly, Leventhal’s ingrained anxiety about his fate builds up his defensiveness toward others, hindering his attempt to transcend social alienation in brotherhood. Meanwhile, unable to accept his true self, Leventhal evades his evils. With these attributive factors, Leventhal’s attempt to transcend self-alienation becomes a failure, too.This thesis elaborates on the alienation theme in The Victim. It reveals the existential dilemma of individuals in modern society and expounds the complicated relationship between man and the world, man and others and man and himself. With the epitome of Asa Leventhal, Saul Bellow discloses modern man’s appeal to rid himself of the existential condition of alienation, intending to arouse the consciousness of modern people suffering from the same predicaments to resort to thorough self-examination and sincere self-acceptance so as to obtain a new comprehension of humanity and life necessary for transcending alienation.