Bellow’s fiction contains three interwoven contractions. Firstly, Bellow shows a strong opposition to the cultural nihilism of the twentieth century: to Dadaism, to the Waste Lander’s ideology, and to the denigration of human life in modern society. Yet Bellow himself is essentially a depressive novelist and almost all his protagonists are horrified by the emptiness of modern society. Secondly, Bellow firmly denies the tradition of alienation in modern literature, and his works place a special stress on the value of brotherhood and human community; yet his protagonists are all masochists and alienated. Lastly, Bellow endlessly attacks the degradation of individual worth and never wavers in his confidence in the individual’s salvation, yet he contradictorily relinquishes individuality in all his novels.
To be specific, Bellow’s success lies in the sharpness with which he has set forth those themes which seem to be of particular interest to contemporary man, that is, his never-ending attempt to reveal a new interpretation and redefinition for us. “Would he be so charming if he didn’t speak for so many of us” (SBH, 462)? In other words, Bellow’s conspicuous achievements result from his grasp of many central issues, concerns, paradoxes and dilemmas of the contemporary thinking mind, and perhaps more importantly from his refusal to give up the hope of possible individual worth and value. He once declared:
I don’t believe that human capacity to feel or do really have dwindled or that the quality of humanity has degenerated. I’d rather think that people appear smaller because society has become so immense. (SBH, 466) Thus, Bellow can be seen as a writer in pursuit of more comprehensive accounts of what we, human beings, are, who we are and how we can live a meaningful life.
Thereby, Bellow is generally considered as spokesman for Western culture, and a defender of the Western cultural tradition. John, J. Clayton pronounced that Bellow “can defend the darkness but never enter it; he can examine cultural nihilism but never share it” (SBDM, 3-4). Bellow himself once said, “I cannot agree with recent writers, who have told us that we are nothing. We are indeed not what the Golden Age boasted us to be. But are something “(FF, 19). His humanity and compassion radiate from novel to novel. His defense of human dignity and human possibilities for finding meaning in ordinary lives stands central in all his novels. This is due to the cultural confluence of two main streams: the Jewish experience and the American experience.
Being a Jew by birth and having grown up in a Jewish ghetto, Bellow got a good Talmudic education in school and at home. He understands the idea of Judaism, and at least is familiar with Jewish literature. Hasidism stresses a strong sense of community as well as a strict feudal morality particularly toward women; consequently the Jewish literature celebrates strong family ties and moral concern for man. There is no literature of the “hollow man” in Jewish culture. One Jewish writer after another rejects the devaluation of man, and affirms everyday life with a fervent idealism. The Jewish self-consciousness of a Yea-saying is found throughout Jewish literature. The Jew tends to say Yes in the face of the grimmest facts since they believe that “the heartbeat of life is holy joy” (FOF, 343).
To be specific, Bellow’s success lies in the sharpness with which he has set forth those themes which seem to be of particular interest to contemporary man, that is, his never-ending attempt to reveal a new interpretation and redefinition for us. “Would he be so charming if he didn’t speak for so many of us” (SBH, 462)? In other words, Bellow’s conspicuous achievements result from his grasp of many central issues, concerns, paradoxes and dilemmas of the contemporary thinking mind, and perhaps more importantly from his refusal to give up the hope of possible individual worth and value. He once declared:
I don’t believe that human capacity to feel or do really have dwindled or that the quality of humanity has degenerated. I’d rather think that people appear smaller because society has become so immense. (SBH, 466) Thus, Bellow can be seen as a writer in pursuit of more comprehensive accounts of what we, human beings, are, who we are and how we can live a meaningful life.
Thereby, Bellow is generally considered as spokesman for Western culture, and a defender of the Western cultural tradition. John, J. Clayton pronounced that Bellow “can defend the darkness but never enter it; he can examine cultural nihilism but never share it” (SBDM, 3-4). Bellow himself once said, “I cannot agree with recent writers, who have told us that we are nothing. We are indeed not what the Golden Age boasted us to be. But are something “(FF, 19). His humanity and compassion radiate from novel to novel. His defense of human dignity and human possibilities for finding meaning in ordinary lives stands central in all his novels. This is due to the cultural confluence of two main streams: the Jewish experience and the American experience.
Being a Jew by birth and having grown up in a Jewish ghetto, Bellow got a good Talmudic education in school and at home. He understands the idea of Judaism, and at least is familiar with Jewish literature. Hasidism stresses a strong sense of community as well as a strict feudal morality particularly toward women; consequently the Jewish literature celebrates strong family ties and moral concern for man. There is no literature of the “hollow man” in Jewish culture. One Jewish writer after another rejects the devaluation of man, and affirms everyday life with a fervent idealism. The Jewish self-consciousness of a Yea-saying is found throughout Jewish literature. The Jew tends to say Yes in the face of the grimmest facts since they believe that “the heartbeat of life is holy joy” (FOF, 343).
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