An Analysis Of More Die Of Heartbreak From The Perspective Of Consumerism

Saul Bellow is an outstanding American writer. Bellow completed the novel More Die of Heartbreak in his old age. The novel depicts the failure marriage of Benn who is a botanist and reveals the consumer picture of the post-industrial society of America.This thesis seeks to analyze the survival crisis of the post-industrial society in More Die of Heartbreak from the perspective of consumerism, discussing Bellow’s humanistic concerns. Baudrillard’s consumer society theory is applied to find the causes of consumerism and mammonish phenomena in the novel with a picture of post-industrial society. Also, it discloses the spiritual crisis of people leading from the pursuit of materials. However, Bellow not only criticizes the reified people in the novel but also gives ways for salvation of the consumer crisis.The thesis is divided into three parts: Introduction, Body and Conclusion.The first part—Introduction contains life and works of Bellow’s, precious studies on More Die of Heartbreak in China and abroad and Baudrillard’s consumer theory. The current researches about Bellow’s works mainly concentrate on criticism of archetype, Jewishness, human puzzles and so on. However, with the development of theories of criticism, the research perspectives for literary works are more and more diversified. Therefore, this thesis which applies consumerism to analyze the novel has some realistic meaning.The second part is the body part of the thesis and it contains three chapters.Chapter One focuses on the consumer crisis of post-industrial society in America. After World War II, America goes through a short period of depression and then comes into prosperity. With the background of the post-industrial society, plenty of material life dominates people’s social life. Consumptions become the first pursuit of people. Commodities can be consumed and politics can be consumed, too. Money can not only buy commodities but also buy status and rights. However, with more and more consumptions, people’s mental world fills with vanity. Except consumptions, people no longer have any pleasure. Culture is dominated by consumptions; human souls are dominated by consumptions. The squander of money and transient happiness of consumption bring a serious living crisis.Chapter Two reveals the influence of the consumer crisis. In the reified world, people enjoy the carnival of consumptions. By means of consumptions, people can get cars, status, friends and even love and kinship. Consumptions can only get the sign-value of the commodities rather than the use-value. The change of consumer value strikes the whole value of people. The desires for consumptions break people’s original cognition for the happy life. Anything old is regarded as uselessness and the previous American puritan spirit is no longer accepted by Americans in the consumer society. The pursuit of sign-value makes people lose the self-value. People have no confidence and passions in family and marriage. Love is for benefits; kinship is over for money and consumption is the link of friendship. Therefore, consumptions bring only vanity and coldness to people rather than happiness.Chapter Three introduces Bellow’s ways for salvation of the consumer crisis through his humanistic concerns. The hero Benn suffers from the consumer society and experiences the tricky marriage and some inner pains. Finally he comes back to his real self. Bellow uses his humanistic cures to save Benn. Though Benn lives in the messy environment, he still has belief and hope; he finds the pure love and eternal art and he comes to the embrace of his beloved nature in the end.Through the analysis of More Die of Heartbreak from the perspective of consumerism, this thesis gets the conclusion: As a witness of the post-industrial America, Bellow not only depicts a vivid consumer picture but also gives some cures for the consumer crisis. Therefore, as for the consumer problems in the modern days, the analysis of More Die of Heartbreak from the perspective of consumerism is meaningful.