A Study On War Trauma Writing And Mentor-Guided Trauma Recovery Mechanism In Saul Bellow’s Mr. Sammler’s Planet And Ravelstein

As the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature,Saul Bellow is one of the greatest American writers in the second half of the 20 th century.Saul Bellow has composed a large number of works including novels and plays,which have attracted extensive attention and received high praise from scholars at home and abroad,and hence there are many research papers and academic monographs from various perspectives.In Bellow’s novels,there is a large amount of trauma writing,such as ethical trauma in Humboldt’s Gift,historical trauma in The Bellarosa Connection,etc.“Mentor”,an important concept in Bellow’s novels,is pervasive in Bellow’s Bildungsroman Mr.Sammler’s Planet and Ravelstein,which mainly describe war trauma.Nowadays research on Mr.Sammler’s Planet and Ravelstein is abundant,which mainly focuses on the writing techniques,topics,or character analysis while research into the way in which mentors construct trauma recovery mechanism is not adequate.In the two novels,the Jewish protagonists both suffer from war trauma and have their respective mentors who adopt various measures to help the traumatized protagonists.Therefore,with the methods of text perusal as well as deduction and induction,this thesis,based on trauma theory,analyzes the traumatic symptoms of the protagonists,traces the leading measures adopted by protagonists’ mentors,explains the coherent order inside the mentors’ measures,and clarifies the mentor-guided trauma recovery mechanism which is constructed by mentors for protagonists.Research from the perspective of mentor can help to deeply explore the connotation of Bellow’s works.After research into war trauma writing and mentor-guided trauma recovery mechanism in the two novels,it can be seen that the positive impacts of leading measures on the traumatized protagonists reflect the importance of “mentor for trauma recovery”.Mentors’ kind heart and optimistic attitudes reflect Bellow’s humanitarian care for life and positive creation view.Mentors’ guidance not only shows Bellow’s anxiety over American Jews’ religious and historical consciousness but also reflects Bellow’s objection to wars and hope for peace.This thesis consists of six chapters.In Chapter One Saul Bellow and his novels Mr.Sammler’s Planet and Ravelstein are introduced.There is a summary of overseas and domestic research,and then this thesis comes to the theoretical framework and significance.Chapter Two focuses on Sammler’s war trauma in Mr.Sammler’s Planet and Chick’s war trauma in Ravelstein.This chapter probes into the traumatic symptoms of the two protagonists.Chapter Three introduces protagonists’ mentors,Gruner and Ravelstein and analyzes leading measures by mentors.Chapter Four summarizes the forming process of mentor-guided trauma recovery mechanism and its guiding effects on the protagonists.Chapter Five analyzes the literary significance of the mentor-guided trauma recovery mechanism.Chapter Six comes to the conclusion of this thesis.