Searching For Self-salvation:A Structuralist Study Of Madeleine's Betrayal In Herzog

Saul Bellow(1915-2005)is the only American novelist who has received National Book Awards three times.In 1975,he won the Pulitzer Prize,and one year later,the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to him “for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in this work.” In Herzog,one of his most important novels,Bellow's female outlook has been revealed through Madeleine's betrayal of religion,family and marriage and her different attitudes towards belief,domestic ethics and love.This thesis studies the binary oppositions between Judaism and Christianity,traditional Jewish family and modern American family,and Madeleine's distorted marriage and her extramarital affair in this novel with the theory of binary opposition in Structuralism,arguing that Madeleine's betrayal of Judaism,family and marriage indicates Bellow's support for Jewish American female's pursuit of equality,independence and liberation.Therefore,Bellow is by no means a misogynist writer but a supporter of women.This thesis consists of three parts.The first part is a brief introduction to Herzog,the studies both at home and abroad,the problem to be studied and the theory to be applied in this thesis.The second part consists of three chapters in which Madeleine's betrayal of Judaism,family and marriage are elaborated,arguing that the purpose of her betrayal is to achieve the salvation of belief,ethic and love.Chapter one is a detailed analysis of sexual discrimination vs.sexual equality and original purity vs.original sin in Judaism and Christianity to demonstrate Madeleine's desire for sexual equality and intention to get salvaged through conversion.Chapter two mainly discusses ethical bondage vs.supreme freedom and patriarchal domination vs.domestic equality in traditional Jewish family and modern American family to reveal how Madeleine betrays her Jewish family and desires to establish a modern American family.Chapter three examines desire object vs.desire subject and competition vs.harmony in her distorted marriage and her extramarital affair to show how Madeleine betrays her loveless marriage and desires to seek initiative in her extramarital affair.The third part is the conclusion which summarizes the main idea of the thesis and restates that it is improper to consider Bellow as a misogynist writer merely because of his negative portrayal of female characters in Herzog.