The Artistic Features of Saul Bellow

In the history of American literature, the significance of Bellow's works is mainly reflected in the brand-new literary world he built and the completely different characters he created.

Bellow's literary world is related to his own Jewish identity, that is, the world he created is a world full of rich humanistic spirit and Jewish national characteristics. This world is no longer dominated by Hemingway's "reason" or Faulkner's "consciousness", nor is it a world in which human beliefs are always in fear of being strangled. The world is made up of living real society and real human nature. If the previous literary world is mainly a rational world, then Bellow's literary world is a world closer to people's emotions and spirits.

Bellow's society, whether it is a real place in the real world or an artistic fictional place, is often portrayed by Bellow as a place that is almost out of order, such as new york in The Wanderer, Chicago in Humboldt's Gift, Chicago and Bucharest in Dean's December, and Africa in Henderson the Rain King. On the contrary, they are eager for moral improvement and good survival, that is, no matter how depraved and absurd this society is, their pursuit of goodness and perfection is still stubbornly alive. This is particularly prominent in bellow's Jewish world. The characters here, whether they are fathers, sons, husbands, wives, friends or lovers, all embody this spiritual pursuit from the inside out. This is inevitable. Bellow is a Jew, and the unique values of the Jewish nation will naturally affect his characterization and judgment of things.

Bellow is a writer who is good at drawing creative nutrients from his own national cultural traditions, but this does not mean that he does not pay attention to some popular themes. On the contrary, he will write something new from his unique perspective. Bellow began to write during World War II. Bellow began to write war novels, such as his first short story "That won't do", his first novel "The Wanderer", and later published "Mr. semler's Planet" and "The Back of Bellarosa". However, Bellow's war is obviously different from Hemingway's war. To put it simply, Hemingway's war is advocated as "a war that can end all wars", and its essence is an imperialist war that broke out in European imperialist countries because of uneven economic development and uneven division of interests, in order to carve up the world again and compete for hegemony; Hemingway's heroines, on the other hand, listen to the propaganda of the American government, go abroad and join in the war, and can show their "tenacity" and "elegance" in the cruel war or post-war confusion.

Bellow's war is a different story. This is genocide against the Jewish nation-about half of the Jews in Europe or one third of the Jews in the world were killed in the war. Bellow did not directly describe the scene of the war or the cruelty of the war in his novels, but focused on the indifference of the American government and citizens to the war and the influence this attitude brought to his Jewish compatriots.

There are roughly two types of protagonists in Bellow's novels: one is "going into war" because he is eager to solve the "block" suppressed in his chest or the chaos in his life, which not only makes his life more chaotic, but also alarms his family and relatives and neighbors around him, such as Joseph in The Wanderer. The other was forced to get involved in the war, or more accurately, survived by escaping death. As a result, they became nervous or confused because of the trauma of the war, and became survivors tortured by the war, such as Samuel in Mr. Samuel's Planet and Mr. and Mrs. feinstein in Bellarosa's apostasy.

Obviously, Bellow's perspective of observing war and his methods of dealing with war are different from those of American writers represented by Hemingway. He did not write those grand themes and thrilling scenes, nor did he write the details of the war, but focused on describing the attitudes and feelings of individuals-they are often Jews-facing the war and the mental ills induced by the war. For example, almost all his characters are neurotic, timid, stupid and clumsy, and they are easily deceived. On the surface, they are harsh and even mean to their family and friends, but they are very soft and kind at heart, which not only subverts Hemingway's tenacious and elegant character, but also is quite different from Faulkner's carefully portrayed characters living in consciousness.

Bellow's characters seem to be more in line with their identities, their times and their living environment, especially his characters always focus on Jewish identities, which makes his creation more important. Specifically, Bellow's characters have many shortcomings. They always talk and do things aimlessly, and fate is always hard on them. They either annoy their families, relatives and neighbors, or offend their bosses or colleagues and lose their jobs. They are not only scapegoats for anti-Semitism or their surroundings, but also victims of their own infatuation, stubbornness and stupidity. However, they are hidden in the depths of their hearts, and the human power that emanates from the depths of their hearts deeply infects readers and makes people move.

In a word, Bellow added a new type of characters to American literature with his creation. These brand-new characters not only subvert the characters written by Hemingway and Faulkner, which readers are used to for a long time, but also add characters with times and national characteristics to the development history of American literature. From this perspective, Bellow's creation is of great significance in the history of literature.

Soul Writing: Bellow's Humanitarian Thought

Bellow's novels have strong humanitarian thoughts. Intellectuals engaged in science and business are far from love and beauty, and don't think much about the soul. Writers, on the other hand, are people who deal with souls, and they shoulder higher pursuits outside the secular world. As Bellow said, novelists, composers and singers are all the same. They all have souls to express their demands.

Bellow doesn't agree with the so-called rationality held by intellectuals, or simply, he doesn't value the creation of writers who advocate rationality, that is, rationality is supreme, represented by Hemingway. In Bellow's view, writers should pay more attention to "soul" than rationality, and should "reset the soul in American literature". Writing related to the soul is writing with higher meaning. There is no doubt that Bellow's humanitarian thought is combined with criticizing modern reason, so the soul problem opposite to modern reason naturally becomes the core content of his humanitarian thought. This is also the case. Looking at Bellow's creation, whether it is his short stories, his novellas and novels, whether it is writing about the personal growth of Jews or the relationship between Jews and their surroundings, his creation has always been closely around the axis of "soul". In this sense, Bellow reversed the creative tendency of American modernist writers, such as Hemingway, who paid little attention to "soul" and opened up a new value dimension for American literary creation.

Of course, Bellow himself did not directly equate "soul writing" with humanitarian spirit. However, judging from his emphasis on the writer's social moral function and his creative practice, Bellow's "soul writing" that he wants to "reset", that is, replacing hate with love and nothingness with self-improvement, points to his humanitarian spirit. In fact, his creative practice fully illustrates this point. For example, his characters, like people in real life, have different weaknesses, such as blindness, stupidity, jealousy, stubbornness and panic. But through these appearances, the characters in his works are instinctively generous and kind to people and things, regardless of past grievances or personal gains and losses, and sometimes unexpectedly delicate and considerate. This is particularly evident in his early works. In his second novel The Victim, he described a character full of beautiful humanistic feelings. In order to better explain the humanitarian spirit in Bellow's novels, this paper takes Levinthal, the main character in the novel, as an example to make some discussions.

Livingsall has a "persecution" complex. He always "behaves appropriately" and even dresses up carefully to avoid being criticized. "They laughed at his nose, so he began to learn boxing; They laughed at him for wearing poetic silk clothes, so he changed into black clothes; They laughed at the books he read, so he showed them. He is doing all this with great anxiety. " But at the same time, he also realized that it seems that no matter what he does, he feels something is wrong. He has no choice but to adjust himself nervously at all times so as not to be bored to the greatest extent. In the final analysis, his "persecution" complex is not so much a manifestation of ignorance as a kind instinct. Because everything Levinthal did was not for himself, but for others. For example, Levinthal's friend Albee is an anti-Semitic. At a banquet, he spread anti-Semitic remarks and insulted Livingsall's good friend. Livingsall inadvertently offended Albee's boss Rudiger, and later Albee was fired by Rudiger. It had nothing to do with Livingsall, but Albee insisted that Livingsall caused his unemployment, so he stayed at Livingsall's house to eat and drink. Over time, Livingsall himself began to think that Albie's unemployment was related to him, which made him importune. It was not until Albie took a prostitute home to fool around and turned on the gas and threatened to commit suicide that Livingsall couldn't bear to kick him out.

However, at the end of the novel, when Levinthal and Albi meet again, Bellow makes Levinsol forgive Albi, and Albi becomes decent and polite. It is meaningful for Bellow to let the novel end in this way. It not only expresses a kind and generous humanistic feeling, but also shows that Albee's generous and kind rescue force is influenced by Levinthal.

In order to better express Levental's humanistic feelings, Bellow also interspersed another story in the novel: Levental's nephew was ill, and his brother Marcos was working outside, leaving only his wife Irina and two children at home. After learning the news, Livingsall immediately went to take care of his sister-in-law and nephew. Although he tried his best to run before and after, his nephew eventually died because of ineffective treatment. Sister-in-law is very angry She complained that Livingsall was slow to respond, didn't try her best, and made a scene to humiliate Livingsall's kindness and personality. However, the aggrieved Levental did not defend himself, but treated his brother and sister-in-law as always. This kind of plot setting is particularly depressing to read, and people can't help crying out for Livingsall's injustice, but Bellow deliberately sets it like this: he makes two forces in the soul compete with each other, and in the contest, good finally contains and affects evil. For a writer, all the plot arrangements are meaningful. Bellow expresses his yearning for good and sympathy for evil through the character Levinthal.

Bellow is not a writer who tolerates ugliness and preaches that kind of cheap warmth. On the contrary, he discusses the evil in human nature from many aspects in his novels. But he worships goodness from beginning to end and believes that goodness has the power of redemption and will eventually overcome evil, which is the essence of his humanitarian thought. In his later novels, such as Humboldt's Gift and Dean's December, Bellow further deepened his views on good and evil. In addition to completing the story about the duality of human nature, he also wrote the complexity of the duality of human nature-the two-way transformation process from evil to good and from good to evil. At this point, his humanitarian thought is deeper and more complicated.

Types of Jewish Characters: Bellow's Jewishness

Judging from the 1 1 novels published by Bellow in his life, its Judaism is very obvious, mainly reflected in the following aspects:

First of all, the image of the Jews:

In Bellow's 1 1 novels, only Henderson, the rain king, has no clear racial identity, while the main characters in other 10 novels are Jews.

Second, the story of the Jews:

Bellow's 10 novels are all about Jews, telling stories about their hard and tortuous lives or joys and sorrows.

Third, the Jewish scene:

The characters in Bellow's novels basically live in the Jewish environment, and the Jewish family life, living customs and the relationship between Jews have been expressed to varying degrees.

Fourthly, Jewish theme thought, Jewish way of thinking and value appeal:

Bellow's novels, whether written about Jews or not, are not very different, because the theme of his works, the way of thinking and the value demands of the characters in his works are basically related to the Jews' thoughts of kindness and redemption, expressing their pursuit of ethics and morality.

Fifth, the narrative strategy of the novel:

Like other American Jewish writers, the narrative strategies adopted by Bellow in his novels are basically Jewish, and their typical characteristics are images, humorous language style and ironic structure. The main types of Jewish characters in Bellow's novels can be roughly divided into three categories: "dangling people", "victims" and "survivors of World War II". The appearance of these three characters in Bellow's novels is not accidental, but a true and typical portrayal of Jewish national history.

The Jewish nation was burnt down from the First Temple in 586 BC, and became a captive of Babylon. It remained in exile until the founding of Israel in 1948, which lasted for more than two thousand years. As Hakkas, they live in a foreign country, and their real life and spiritual life are in a state of "suspension". Bellow's first novel, The Wanderer, is about Joseph, a Jew, who quit his job and waited for enlistment at home in order to fight in Europe after the start of World War II. Unexpectedly, the American conscription authorities repeatedly asked him to take a blood test and fill out a form. As a result, he gained "freedom" because of his resignation, but he was lost in this "freedom" and had to "swing" in the anxious waiting. Bellow's writing about Joseph, a Jew, is actually a metaphor for the embarrassing living conditions of modern Jews in all countries of the world.

The type of "victim" in Bellow's novels is a high summary of the hard life of the Jewish people for more than two thousand years. The prevalence of anti-Semitism in the West has made Jews suffer a lot, and the history of the Jewish nation is actually a record of the persecution of Jews. From this perspective, Bellow's description of the "victim" image is inevitable. However, while directly describing the persecution of Jews by anti-Semitists such as The Victim and Mr. semler's Planet, Bellow also wrote the self-persecution of Jews such as Humboldt's Gift, More People Died of Sorrow and Bellarosa's Back. This kind of "self-persecution" is mainly manifested in the fact that the protagonist in the novel always wants to do something, but it often backfires, either screwing it up or failing to do it, and finally falling into the whirlpool of self-review or blame. Bellow created characters who persecuted himself in his novels. The reason for this "self-persecution" is the psychological tendency of the characters formed by external pressure or persecution. In fact, looking back at the spiritual track of Jews in history, this is almost always the case. Therefore, the "self-persecution" that bellow's characters "suffer" can also be said to be a compulsive psychological tendency or collective unconsciousness gradually formed by Jews who have been persecuted for a long time.

Bellow's image of the survivors of World War II first appeared in semler's Planet published in 1970. However, as early as Herzog published by 1964, Bellow actually raised the issue of "survivors". He wrote in his novel: "In this era, we are all survivors. You will be shocked to realize that you are a survivor; Realizing that this is your destiny, you will burst into tears. " Bellow said here that "we are all survivors" has two meanings: first, it refers to Jews who survived Nazi concentration camps in World War II; The second refers to everyone. The implication is that Jews became the "scapegoats" of mankind in World War II, and it is impossible to say that bad luck will befall everyone in the future. This is about "survivors" in the former sense.

Generally speaking, Bellow mainly writes Jewish "survivors" from two different angles: one is that "survivors" are discriminated and humiliated by non-Jews in the United States (such as semler in Mr. semler's Planet); The other is to write that "survivors" are ignored or ignored by their compatriots (for example, feinstein in Bellarosa's The Back). These two perspectives are actually used by American Jewish writers in dealing with the theme of "survivors", such as philip roth's Crazy Eli, Isaac Bashevis Singh's Enemy: A Love Story and Shadow of the Hudson River.

The difference is that the "survivors" in Bellow's novels are persecuted by the German Nazis, hostile by American anti-Semitism or ignored by their compatriots, but they are indomitable and still believe and look forward to the bright future of mankind. This can be clearly seen from a plot in Mr. semler's Planet: semler looks at the boundless starry sky, recalling the depravity of cities in today's society and the suffering of human souls, but also looking forward to it. This seemingly absurd plot expresses Bellow's memory and expectation of humanistic feelings.

When Bellow wrote about "survivors" again in his later novel "Bellarosa's apostasy", he felt more sadness and resentment at the indifference of Jewish compatriots to the current situation of "survivors". In his novels, he sets the story like this: with the help of his compatriots, the Jewish "survivor" von Stein went through hardships to escape from Nazi imprisonment; After arriving in the United States, he tried many times to thank his Jewish compatriot and American entertainment tycoon Billy Ross, but he was rejected every time until he died in a car accident. As a relative of Feinstein, the narrator "I" claims to be an American Jew who lives by "memory" in the novel. However, when he treated Feinstein, a relative who survived World War II, he left himself in a state of "forgetting his memory". It was not until the Feinstein couple died in a car accident that he realized in his reflection that it was such a highly commercialized society far from the threat of war that cut off the emotional connection between people. In a society like the United States, Jewish immigrants who have experienced poverty and suffering have been "assimilated but not converted, and there is no need to choose between Jehovah and Jesus." This kind of reflection seems to be the reflection of the characters in the novel, but it is actually the reflection of the author Bellow. Compared with his previous works, this kind of reflection is less romantic and exciting, but it increases the weight of criticism, making his novels in this period more heavy and profound.