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FRANKL IN FICTION: LOGOTHERAPY IN SELECTED WORKS OF SAUL BELLOW A Thesis Presented To the Faculty of California State University Dominguez Hills In Pa1tial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Humanities by Aaron Lowers Fall 2016 Copyright by AARON LOWERS 2016 All Rights Reserved In loving memory of my mother, Diana, without whom this work would not have been possible . 111 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to acknowledge my mentor and thesis committee chair, Patricia Cherin, for her constant encouragement and insightful advice . I want to thank Reality Thornewood whose research assistance made this work possible. I want to aclmowledge Cory Dauer and Sharon Dias for adjusting my work schedule to allow me to pursue my studies. I also want to thank Emiliano Lopez , M. Medonis and B. Cruz for their technical assistance. Finally, I want to thank my family for their understanding and patience throughout this process. l V TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE COPYRIGHT·PAGE ............................................................. .................................. ............ ii DEDICATION ................... .......................... ................................................................. ..... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................. ........ .......................... ................ iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................ ..................................................... v ABSTRACT ...................... .................................. ........................ .:................................. ..... vi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................ ............ .................... :.,......... 1 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................ ............:...........6 Saul Bellow ............... ........................ ...................... ....................................................... 6 The Adventures of Augie March ..................... ....................................... .............:...........8 f:, Herzog ............................... ................. .............. ................. ..................................:·........10 Mr. Sammler 's Planet ...................................... ................................ ........................ ....11 Logotherapy .................................................................................... ............................. 13 3. METHODOLOGY :................ .................... .......................... ............ .............................22 4. THE STUDY ................................ ....................................................................... ..........26 Augie ....................... .......................................... ......................................... ........... :......26 Herzog ................. ............................. ............................... ........................... ..................33 Sammler .................. ............................... ................................................................... ...41 5. CONCLUSION ................ .................................... ..................... .....................................49 WORKS CITED ...................... ..................................................... ................................ .....56 V ABSTRACT This thesis examines how the title characters of Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, and Mr. Sammler 's Planet -make meaning of their life experiences . The study employs Viktor Frankl's logotherapy, a theoretical fusion of certain aspects of existential philosophy and psychotherapy that foregrounds meaning as a primary motivation in human beings. Frankl proposes three criteria for deriving meaning from human existence: " 1) by creating a work or doing a deed; 2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and 3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering" (Man's Search 115). In essence, Frankl maintains that meaning can be found by being of service to others, in love, and in tr~scending the inherent suffering associat ed with human existence without succumbing to despair. This study examines the degree to which Augie March, Moses Herzog, and Artur Sammler accomplish these tasks , and seeks to glean humanistic lessons from the trio's experiences . CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In the preface to the third edition of Viktor Frankl' s Man's Search for Meaning, Frankl observes that "if hundreds of thousands of people reach out for a book whose very title promises to deal with the question of a meaning to life, it must be a question that burns under their finger nails" (11). Albert Camus went still further, asserting that there is "but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living" (Neiman 294). If, as Camus suggests, abstaining from suicide is a vote for existence, then the question becomes, what is it that makes life wo1th living? Frankl believes that human beings are primarily motivated by the "will to meaning," an overarching imperative to find meaning in life regardless of situation or circumstance (Man's Search105). This thesis goes far to explain why the majority of human beings endure the inevitable disappointments associated with human existence without succumbing to despair or suicide. How they do so is the question this study will address, and it will turn to the literature of Saul Bellow for answers . How we make meaning in our lives informs nearly every decision we make. Long before Socrates proclaimed that the "unexamined life is not worth living," human beings have sought to answer this question (Burr 24). Today, as then , there are no universally satisfying answers except perhaps to say that one of the primary concerns of human beings is to find answers of one's own. Some look to religion for answers, others to science, and still others turn to the atts for aid in answering. There are no pat formulae for 2 making meaning in life; however, the literary canon provides a particularly deep well from which to fathom human existence. The case for deriving meaning from literature is well established. Richard Hughes has written that "literature is the most satisfying revelation of the human experience" (viii). Saul Bellow appears to agree, saying of writers that the "intelligent public is wonderfully patient with them, continues to read them , and endures disappointment after disappointment, waiting to hear from art what it does not hear from theology , philosophy, social theory, and what it cannot hear from pure science" (Atlas 462). This study will expand the scholarly findings on human meaning making by examining how three of Saul Bellow's characters make meaning of their experiences; more specifically, how they manage to endure life's trials by employing the logotherapeutic practices described by Viktor Frankl. Bellow is one of the most influential American writers to emerge in the second half of the twentieth century. He is also one of the most decorated writers in American history, having been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, three National Book Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for the Novel to name but a few (Leader 3). Harold Bloom states that by "general critical agreement, Saul Bellow is the strongest American novelist of his generation," and he goes on to observe that his "achievement does not appear to reside in any single book" (1). Indeed, one can only achieve a full appreciation of Bellow's genius if one traverses a number of his books. It is not so much Bellow's wide acclaim that suits his work to this 3 study, though the welter of secondary writings his works have inspired is ce1iainly an asset, but rather it is the subject matter of his writing that lends it to this analysis. Bellow was interested in making meaning of his own life, in particular his suffering, and this is reflected in his writing. Jonathan Wilson observes that "in his novels Saul Bellow has performed the remarkable feat of making an extraordinarily complicated mind accessible to a wide range of readers without compromising his thoughts through oversimplification" (Ideas 3). It is this aspect of Bellow's writing that suits it to this study. Making meaning is an incredibly individualized and dynamic process. Bellow's gift lies in his ability to capture the nuances of this process through characterization . Bellow possessed the uncanny ability to lay bare his characters' psyches , thus informing their moti vations. While much has been written about specific psychological , cultural, and linguistic aspects of Bellow's work, more can be done to draw these disparate strands together into a distinctly humanistic meaning. This study will examine three of Bellow's best known characters: Augie March, Moses Herzog , and Artur Sammler, (Augie, Herzog, and Sammler hereafter). These three characters encompass a large portion of the human life span, ranging from the childhood and early adulthood of Augie, the mid-life crises of Herzog , and the late-life conflicts of Sammler. Together these three represent a fairly broad cross section of human experience , one made even richer by its relation to Bellow's own experiences. Even the most accessible well requires a tool to help draw water. This study will employ Viktor Frankl's logo-theory, or what Franld describes as "logotherapy's theory of meaning" (Unheard Cry 37).

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