Identity Crisis Of Jewish Americans In Seize The Day

Saul Bellow(1915-2005),an outstanding novelist in America,kept a keen observation and insightful interpretation of the contemporary living state throughout his writing career and he was awarded the Nobel Prize(1976)for his"humane understanding and subtle analysis of the contemporary culture".Seize the Day is a representative one which marks the maturity of Bellow' s writing skills.The novelette follows his previous focus on the footlessness,helplessness and hopelessness of man,both Jewish and American,living in the modern society.The novelette has been covered by oversea and domestic researchers from a variety of perspectives and the output turns out to be rich and colorful.Nevertheless,critical attention has not been laid on the psychosocial identity problems of the protagonist.Therefore,the thesis,with reference to Erikson' s concept of social and personal identity,probes into the identity problems encountered by the protagonist as a result of his failure in identification.In Seize the Day,the social identity of the protagonist,a Jewish immigrant,is closely related to his cultural identity and family identity.As a man with dual cultural backgrounds,the protagonist dangles constantly between the culture of his holding land and that of his origin-he aspires to become a true American yet the traditional Jewish inheritance he receives from his ancestors and his people keeps him from doing so.This is the critical reason for many of his problems in the domain of family and career.The protagonist's confusion in family identity is another major concern with regard to his life in crisis.Bellow continued the lasting theme of father-son relationship in Jewish literature and bestowed it with the new meaning of his time.The major conflict of the novelette lies between the dangling son and the American father who claims to be Jewish.Apart from that,another conflict in family goes to the protagonist's marriage life and his inability to reconcile with his wife.The Eriksonian personal identity is best demonstrated in the domain of career in this work.All the choices made by the protagonist in his work are a reflection of his internal values and surely of the contextual influences as well,and the financial or other crises he falls or is caught into are also a result thereof.On this basis,the thesis is organized into five parts.The first part,Introduction,begins with a brief introduction to both the novelist and the novelette,and it flows to the previous academic studies on the work,both at home and abroad,and then to Erikson' s theory of identity crisis.The middle three parts constitute the body of the thesis,of which Chapter One portrays the identity crises encountered by the protagonist according to Erikson's theory of identity crisis-ruptured relation with his father and irreconcilable conflict with his wife in the family,as well as speculation and immaturity in profession.In Chapter Two,the previously elaborated crises are analyzed with regard to the cultural and social background of the protagonist.He is split by the dual cultural identities and is held from forming an integrate identity;the conflicting American work ethics,i.e.speculation versus Protestant restraint,offers the protagonist an opportunity to choose in-between and yet suffocates him in the choice;and moreover,the rise of women' s position in the 20th century further frustrates the protagonist for his lack of recognition and confirmation from his wife.With reference to the elaborations and analysis above,Chapter Three suggests some possible solutions to solve the protagonist's identity problem.Of the two cultural identities tangling the protagonist,Bellow implies his intention to transcend the Jewish or American experience into a universal one and he also indicates the possibility of retreating to a country life to escape from city problems,but neither would become possible without the protagonist's self-improvement in his later life.Part five concludes the thesis with a review of the protagonist's identity searching experience and Bellow's life-long creating focus.