University of the Pacific Scholarly Commons University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 1966 The Subangelic Vision Of Saul Bellow: A Study Of His First Six Novels, 1944-1964 Robert Roy Dutton University of the Pacific Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds Recommended Citation Dutton, Robert Roy. (1966). The Subangelic Vision Of Saul Bellow: A Study Of His First Six Novels, 1944-1964. University of the Pacific, Dissertation. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2816 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE SUBANGELIC VISION OP SAUL BELLOWI A STUDY OP HIS FIRST SIX NOVELS, 194^ - 196^ / A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School The University of the Paclflo In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Robert Roy Dutton February 1966 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This dissertation, written and submitted by / W , ; f Hy-turzu is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council, University of the Pacific, Department Chairman or Dean: ('■ ftU„,________________ Dissertation Committee: r"7 ( > a 0. C XT ■ _3^'' ~ Dated Jlj, < /. K, X H - , i 9 c & Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OP CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION ......................................... 1 I. "FEEBLE-MINDED CHILDREN OF ANGELS" (Dangling Man) ............ 11 II. "WHO RUNS THINGS?" (The Victim) ................. 37 III. "A BETTER FATE" (The Adventures of Augle March). 7^ IV. "SUNK THOUGH HE BE" (Seize the Day) ............ 129 V. "OH, MY CONDITION" (Henderson the Rain King) . 156 VI. "A FAUSTIAN SPIRIT OF DISCONTENT" (Herzog) . 193 AFTERWORD .................. 232 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................... 235 APPENDICES......................................... c 238 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION While there is an understandable reticence on the part of critics of contemporary American literature to make definitive Judgments, there does seem to be a general con­ sensus that the novels of Saul Bellow represent the contemporary American novel at its best. Moreover, this consensus comes not only from critical Journals with an exclusive and limited circulation, it also is to be seen in publications of wider appeal, the weekly news magazines and the book reviews of dally newspapers. What is even more astonishing is that the reading public seems to agree with the critics and book reviewers; at this writing, Bellow's Herzog is a "best-seller." To account for this broad popularity, one can only suggest that Bellow has managed to touch the minds and hearts of his contemporaries in vital areas that would seem to call for new exploration and re-definitlon. More specif­ ically, one must conclude that Bellow's success is to be found in the skill and in the imagination with which he has set forth those themes which seem to be of dominant interest to contemporary literature, themes attempting to reveal a new Interpretation of man that is consistent with a world that has apparently lost what has been called an agreed- upon picture of the universe, These themes are hardly original, for they include Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the old, established counterclaims of the Individual versus society and the Individual In self-oonfHot. The origin­ ality, of course, lies in the novelist’s art. And above all, It is an honest art. In all of his writing, Bellow faces squarely the timely issue of personal effacement and consequent degradation that every social trend seems to manifest. He never draws away from the frightening implica­ tions of an Impersonal mechanical society. The distinctive achievement of Bellow, however, lies in his depiction of the individual in such a society, for it Is the plight of the individual, not society, that is empha­ sized throughout hiB work. In Bellow’s world, society is rendered in an almost naturalistic manner, almost as an unchanging, indifferent, yet powerful background against which his protagonists in all of their sensitive awareness, their vitality, their frustrating absurdities, are seen. It is this juxtaposition of a static society and the organic individual that Informs all of Bellow’s novels. That is, how does the individual in all of his individuality, with his dreams, aspirations, and idealism, along with his ever­ present awareness of society as a naturalistic reality, find a place for himself, establish a personal and a unique Identity, and still maintain an honest integrity of self? Maxwell Gelsmar states the dilemma in an implicit correla­ tion between Bellow and his protagonists* ”... part of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 our sympathy and concern with his career lies with his own struggle to break through a predominantly Intellectual and moral view of life.”1 Here Is precisely the struggle of Bellow's protagonists— to break through to life, to live up to their possibilities, up to their human potentiality, and most Importantly, up to their Individual potentiality, without, however, the loss of a moral and Intellectual humanism basic to their views of themselves. Bellow's heroes, then, find the complexities of their dilemma not only on the basis of an alienation from society. These heroes are further confronted by a kind of treason within themselves, which creates an even more Insoluble problem. In what Is perhaps an oversimplification, but a workable one, Marcus Klein states their paradoxical situa­ tions* "... they face problems which are reducible to a single problem* to meet with a strong sense of self the »2 sacrifice of self demanded by a social circumstance. It Is this "strong sense of self" that seems to be Bellow's greatest concern, for his heroes are forever troubled by the nature of this self. Society, for the most ^Maxwell Gelsmar, "Saul Bellow* Novelist of the Intellectuals," American Modems * From Rebellion to Conform­ ity (New York* Hill and Wang, 1958)* p. 210. 2Marous Klein, "A Discipline of Nobility* Saul Bellow's Fiction," After Alienation* Amerloan Novels In Mid-Century (New York* World Publishing Company,' 196^77 p. 3 ^ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. part, is or becomes a known to them. Perhaps society is uncomfortable for them, indifferent to them, at odds with their behavior and with their ideals, antipathetic to their imaginations, but its mysteries are not beyond their appre­ hension. They can and do learn of its nature. On the con­ trary, it is this "self" that eludes them. What is its nature? That it is capable of a god-like reason, that its faculty of imagination is boundless, each of Bellow’s pro­ tagonists makes evident again and again. But that this same self is also capable of unbelievable stupidities, inane actions, and romantic nonsense is made equally clear. Bellow himself marks the duality in his essay "Distractions of a Fiction Writer," an essay, incidentally, which is per­ haps a critical key to an understanding of his fictive inten­ tions. He observes: "There is man's own greatness, and then there is the greatness of his Imbecility . both are eternal. Philosophically, the heroes of Bellow seem to be in the Sartrean position of the en-sol versus the pour-sol, the belng-in-itself versus the being-for-itself. Unlike the stone whose being can never transcend itself, and which is therefore complete and whole in itself, a being-ln-itself, ^Saul Bellow, "Distractions of a Flotion Writer," The Living Noveli A Symposium, ed. Granville Hicks (New Yorkt tfhe Macmillan Company, 1957)» P» Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. man, blessed or cursed with an Imaginative consciousness, Is forever In a state of self-transcendence, or In a state of belng-for-ltself, as well as being-ln-ltself. Through his Imagination, man would be something other than what he Is or what he seems to be because what he Is or seems to be Is an Irritatingly unsatisfying and discomfiting mystery, a myster to which depth and breadth.are given with every stretch of his Imagination. So Bellow's protagonists find themselves. And so his work Is Informed. Bellow's novels are narrative dramatizations of the fact of this dilemma of existence, a working out not to a resolution, perhaps, but to a revelation of a human condition. Bellow the orltlc has spoken on this Issue. In "Distractions of a Fiction Writer" he maintains that novel­ ists in the past have often failed to catch the positive factor In this human equation of the en-sol versus the pour-sol. He feels that they have too often depicted the consequent seeming absurdity of man. Taking a position against those who would depict man as completely impotent, abjectly absurd owing to his nature, he statesi If man wretched by nature is represented, what we have here Is only accurate reporting. But if it Is man In the image of God, man a little lower than the angels who is Impotent, the case is not the same. And it Is the second assumption, the subangellc one, that writers generally make. For they are prone . to exaggerate the value of human personality. I don't know whether exaggeration is quite the word, but what It suggests we oan oertainly agree with. Why should wretched man need Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. power or wish to Inflate himself with Imaginary glory? If this Is what power signifies It can only be vanity to suffer from Impotence.