Cultural Influences Underlying Saul Bellow’s Representation Of New Women In His Fiction

For studying the representation of the new women in Saul Bellow’s fiction, this thesis chooses his three novels, namely, Herzog (1964), Humboldt’s Gift (1975), and More Die of Heartbreak (1987). The study finds that Bellow has represented the new women as individuals who are lacking in familial responsibility, as collaborators with consumerism and social climbers, and as irresponsible sadists and followers of sexual liberation. Based on such findings, the thesis further analyzes the influences on this representation from three perspectives—Bellow’s origin of birth, that is, the Jewish culture in him; the cultural tradition in which Bellow was steeped in his lifetime; and the influence on Bellow of social and cultural movements in contemporary America after the1960s.Through analysis this thesis comes to the following findings. First, influenced by family concept characteristic of the traditional Jewish culture, Bellow criticizes the new women’lack of familial responsibility and set the plot in which his protagonists take the new women’s lack of familial responsibility as the moral stronghold for their attacks against the women. Secondly, under the influence of the traditional culture, Bellow sticks to his humanistic belief to combat alienation, placing heavy emphasis on inner self, on mental pursuit of arts, and therefore represents the new women as collaborators with consumerism and social climbers. Collaborating with consumerism, they alienate themselves from individual values; social climbers alienate others because they see others only as instruments by which they achieve their own ends. Thirdly, in face of social and cultural movements in America after1960s, Bellow takes a conservative position, which explains his attitude toward sexual liberation and feminism and his delineation of the new women as irresponsible sadists and followers of sexual liberation. However, it is worth noting that despite such representation, Bellow is in no way patriarchal or anti-feminist as some critics argued. As the present thesis points out, Bellow’s sympathy with and support for Kathleen who is under, and rebels against, the oppression of Humboldt reflects Bellow’s objection to oppression of women. His position is a humanist one characteristic of a responsible intellectual, rather than that of an anti-feminist.