A STUDY OF SAUL BELLOW'S
DANGLING MAN
by
Cheng Ho-Chou
索爾﹒貝且這小說擺盪的人研究
Danglìng Man
,
Saul Bellow's first novel,
is a story about Joseph,
an alienated hero ，工n quest of a rebirth. The setting is in the city of Chicago. 工 n the novel,
he is engaged in a quest for freedorn frorn a state of ernptiness of the rnind.During the tirne when he is waiting for a rnilitary draft
,
Joseph confronts a state of ernptiness of the rnind. Turing introspective,
he becornes .a self-centered rnan,
very critical of his friends and his farnily. Finally,
he becornes very rnuch detacheq frorn the outside world. His problerns,
however,
is a sort of rnental inequilibriurn.The book suggests that what rnight save hirn is the knowledge of cornrnon hurn.anity and 七hat a change of life does not lie so much in a change of the outside world as in a change of the heart and rnind.
A STUDY OF SAUL BELLOW'S
DANGLING MAN
by
Cheng Ho-Chou
1 _ _ __ 2
1n Dangling Man- Sau1 Be11ow- creates an a1ienated hero in quest of a rebirth. The setting is in the city of Chicago. 1n the nove1
,
Joseph is engaged in a quest for freedom from a state of emptiness and a1ienation. His conf1ict,
actua11y,
is internal; that is,
i t comes not so much from the outside wor1d but rather much fromhis own inner mind. 1n answering t。七he mi1itary ca11 he is waiting for,
his a1ienation,
final1y,
comes to an end. The book suggests that what might save him is the know1edge of common humanity and that sing1eness of purpose is the way to happi-ness as we11 as to the pure freedom of the mind.At the beginning of the n6ve1
,
Joseph is caught in a situation in which he is growing "more and more dispirited."(10)3 His emptiness of the mind
~vident1y
comes fromthe fact that he is often compe11ed to choose between two undesirab1e a1ternatives,
a situation in which he does not know which 。ne to choose.. Joseph,
the novel tel1s us,
is a dangling man,
suspended between two stages of 1ife,
not knowing what to do. Whi1e he is waiting for a ca1l to military se~ice ，1Dangling Man
,
pub1ished in 1944,
.is Sau1 Be11ow'sfirst novel.
2S au 1 Be110w is a contempoary American-Jewish nove1-ist. He won the Nobe1 P主 ize for Literature in 1976.
3 工n the text the number in parantheses refers to the page number in Dangliflg Man. (New York: penguin Books
,
Ltd.,
1944.師大學報第卅二期
Joseph confronts the raw emptiness of his future. Turning introspective and se1f-conscious
,
he becomes very critica1 of his friends and his fami1y. What's more,
he rejects his wife. And,
fina11y,
he fa11s into a statefu11 of rage and despair and is even angry at everything and with everybody. At his wit's end,
he uses the act of writing journa1 for the purpose of relieving his menta1 worries. Gradua11y,
he becomes ex-be1iever of a11 sorts of ideo1ogies,
breaking with his friends that have become öpportunistir. and fa1se1y opti-mistic. He quarre1s with a1most everybody,
;rèjects.his elder brother Amos' he1p,
and finds his wife 工 va increasing1y with-out faith in him. More serious is the case ~hat he exp10des at any slightest provocations. Whi1e Joseph be1ieves that he is extricating from deceptive and. treacherous bonds,
hè i8 actua11y giving in to a fast growing se1f-centerness. Often,
the demands he makes on peop1e's understanding him outweigh the understand 土nghe is wi11ingto give them. 工n addition,
he often shies away from opportunities to be of he1p. Thus,
he is 1eft to discover his present state a stateof 1one1iness and alienation.Apparent1y
,
Joseph's mind is fettered .Lin a wor1d of meaning1ess chaos. His 1ife is fa11ing and fa11ing into astate of decay
,
and he knows it.It is perfectly c1ear that 1 am deteriorating
,
storing bitterness and spite which eat 1ike aoids at my endowment of generbsity and good wiJ1. (10)Significantly
,
he has 10st his common humanity--"genero8ity and good owi11." He 1boks at the world with inimica1 eyes
and is unab1e to compromise withOit. He is transformed int。 a man.with abnormal. psyche.
Take the two queer characters
,
Mr. Vanaker and Mrs. Kiefer,
for instance. Joseph's yiew on the old man and the 。 1d woman is nothing but a reflection of his own .disorder1ymind
,
the result of his enjoying too much liberty while he is waiting for a.m 工 l 工 tary call,
being jobless. This is how Mr. Vanaker is described in his journal,
who is a1ways there to attract his attention and becomes his dai1y obsession: "Mr. Vanaker coughs. Not on1y that,
but when he goes to the toi1et he 1eaves the door ajar. He tramps down the ha11,
and a moment 1ater you hear him sp1ashing." (13) 工 n the entry January 2,
Mr. Vanaker is again mentioned. "Mr. Vanaker ob-served the birth of the new year with 1arge quantities of whisky,
with coughing,
pe1ting the yard with bott1es,
with frequent,
noisy trips to 1avatory,
and ended his reve1s with a fire." (65) Fina11y,
when he finds himself interrupted by the old Mr. Vanaker's protesting coughs whi1e he is quarre1-ing with his wife,
Joseph unreasonab1y and outrageous1y re-proaches him for stea1ing. The resu1t iS.that both parties are requested to move away. In fact,
these are not the on1y occasions on which Mr. Vanaker is mentioned. The old man again and again appears in his journa1. Obvious1y,
the re-peated mentioning of the old man's misdemeanors revea1s much。 f Joseph's own grotesqueness.
Another example that best exp1ains Joseph's abnormal psyche is manifest in his obsession withMrs. Kiefer
,
the 1and1ady,
who is often confined to her bed becausebf i11-ness. This is what Joseph says about the old woman in his journa1: "The old wαnan is n9t expected to 1ive long~ She is b1ind and very near1y ba1d; she must be c10se to ninety." (13)工 n a way
,
she has become,
for Joseph,
a1most an apparitiòn. "工 see her at times,
between thecurtains,
as 工 göupstairs. " (13) What's more,
the apartment in which she 1ives is iden-tified with the hospita1 of a re1igious order. The windows are kept darkened; the ha11s and stairways sme11 of disin-fectant." (117) And when he is asked to he1p Mrs. Bart1ett,
the nurse,
to carry up from a storeroom downstairs a sma1l師大學報第卅二期
bed in which she can s1eep with the o1d woman
,
Joseph dis-covers that "Mrs. Kiefer' s cheeks were co11apsed and 1海r face was moist. 工 t remirided me of a 1oaf,
before the baker puts i t in the oven,
smeared with white of egg." (142";43) Now Mrs. Kiefer,
for Joseph,
has turned from an. apparition into almost a corpse. The way Joseph regards the o1d 1and1ady is again a demonstration of a man dispossessed of norma1 humancom-pass~on.
The repeated mentioning of Mr. Vanaker and Mrs. Kiefer in an abnorma1 way serves sig~ificant1y as a pointer which shows precisely that Joseph is in some way out of his right mind. Significantly
,
the situation of the old man and the old woman is the situation from which Joseph isstriving to escape. And,
interestingly,
often we see that what ~。自ph is questing'for is opposite to what he is trying to escape.Wìth the moving away of Mr. Vanaker and the passing away of Mrs. Kiefer,
Joseph is now about to go into the army.During the time when Joseph is about to go into the army
,
Joseph undergoes a transformation that takes p1ace within his own mind. The oQjects he sees are exactly a projection of his own mind. He says:The icicles and frost patters on the window turned bri11iant; the trees
,
1ike instruments,
。pened al1 their sounds into the wind,
and the bold,
icy co1orsof sky and snow and clouds burned strong1y. Aday for a world without de-formity' or threat of damage ，扭過 my p1ea訊rre he1d its ownbeauty and was engaged with nothing by itse1f. The 1ight gave an air of innocence to 80me of the conunon objects in the room,
1iber-ating them from ugliness. I lost the aversion 工 had hitherto felt for the red oblong of rug at the foot ofthe bed,
the scr.ap of tapestry 。nthe radiator seat,
the'bubb1es of paint on the white linte1,
the six knobs on the dresser 工 had formerly compared to the ugly noses of as many dwarf brothers. In 七 he midd1e of the floor,
1ike an accidenta1 device of serenity,
lay a piece of red string. (118)Through this transformation
,
Joseph,
fina11y,
rea1izes that what might save him is .the know1edge of a common humani ty :"Goodness is achieved not in a vacuum
,
but in the company 。 f other men,
attended by 10ve." "Humanity,"
110ve,"
and "grace" here for the first time are estab1ished as his con-cept of 1ife. The be1ief in i t strengthens Joseph to make~n attemptat an acceptance of 1ife
,
an acceptance 吋1ich m叫æshim prefer embarrassment and pain to indifference and apathy. 4 Joseph
,
through the experience of a dang1ing 1ife,
be-comes undaunted in the be1ief inthe possibi1ity of the rïght choice,
even if he fai1s 七o make it. He sa~s:A1l the striving is for one end. 工 do not en-tire1y understand this impu1se. But i t ,seems to me that its fina1 end is the desire for ~e freedom. We are a11 drawn toward the same craters of the sp 工 rit--to know our purpose
,
t。seek grace. (154)
The quotation above c1ear1y suggests that sing1eness of pur-pose is-the only way to happiness as wel 工 as to the pure freedom of the mind.
After his quarre1 with his wife 工va and Mr. Vanaker
,
Joseph fee1s so frustrated that he makes up his mind tojoin 七he army immediate1y. He then goes to the draft board and asks them to en1ist him as soon as possib1e. In the end of the nove1
,
when the asking for immediate induction comes Joseph gives out a triumphant shout with joy.
工 am no 10nger to be he1d accountable for my 自 se1fi 工 am gratefu1 for that. 工 am in other hands
,
relieved of se1f-determination,
freedom canceled.Hurray for regu1ar hours!
And for the supervision of the spirit! Long Live regimentation. 工 59)
Ifthis be cal1ed the end of l->.is freedom
,
i t might be better4世igitte Sch自r-Scbazler ，
Saul Bellow (New York: Fredtick Ungar Pub1ishing Co.,
1972),
p. 15.師大學報第卅二期
to say that this is the end of his dangling life.
Joseph's prob1em
,
actua11y is not one somuch pertain~i阿 to the nature of freedom.It is the raw emptimssff his mind that matters. 工 t is this raw emptiness of .the mind that makes Joseph a se1f-centered man. Joseph
,
however,
is justified in his critica1 attitude toward his former 1ife and his present surroundings. His acute sensibi1ity is even heightened by his growing detachment from the outside wor1d. Themost important is that he rejects the current "code of the ath1ete,
of the tough boy" (7) that demands his suppres-sion of an inner 1ife and fee1ings. In addition,
Joseph is justified in his fear of an age in which the individua1 is becoming 1ess and 1ess important. He is subjective in his over-interpreting the sign of this degrading of man "in a bust1ingcity,
5 the kaleidoscopic mu1tico1ored cosmopblitan city of Chicago. 80,
with the coming of regenerative April and ferti1izing 8pring,
Joseph ends his a1ien.ation and de-cides tb return to humanity. 工 f Joseph's quest is a qtiest for order and rebirth,
he is like1y to accomp1ish i t in the regular hours and the regimentation ofthe army. Hence,
his en1istment is a se1f-surrender,
a passing into anotherwor1d,
out of which he may expect to be rejuvenated. "To .1bse one's faith in se1f-determinism is to 10se orie's faith in 1ife,,,6 Keith Opdah1 points out. Though, now, Joseph is happy, he is sti11 far from a man of integrity. By the endof the nove1,
Joseph is no 10nger the old Joseph but one who has undergone his initiation and survived his spiritua1 ðeath,
1iving a 1ife with unbearab1e emptiness of the.mind. 工 n other words,
Joseph is now a new-born persop who,
by determinatïon to answer t;he draft ca11,
is well-:-prepared to m句in a new 1ife.;BZ仙te 8chee內ch叫er ，
op. cit.,
p. 12.The novels of Saul Bellow. (Uni混 rsity Park: 、 Pennsyl
Se1ective Bib10graphy
1. primary Source:
Be11ow, Sau1. Dangling Man. New York: penguin BooJ屯， Ltd. ,
1944.
2. Secondary Source:
Booth
,
Wayne C. The Rhetoric' of Fiction. Chicago: Univer-sity Press,
1961.C1ayton
,
John J. Saul Bellow: In Defense ofMan.B1ooming-ton: 工 ndiana University Press ，工 968.
Cohen
,
Sarah B. Saul Bßllow's Enigmatic Laughter. urbana: University of 工 11inois Press ，工 974.Fied1er
,
Les1ie. Love and Death in the American Novel.New York: World Pub1ishing Co.,
1960.Ma1in ，工 rving ， ed. Saul Bellow and the Critic. New York: New York' University Press
,
1967.Opdah1
,
Keith M. The Novels of Saul Bellow.
Univèrsity park: Pennsy1vania State University Press,
1967. Rovit,
Ear1. Saul Bellow. Minneapo1is: University ofMinnesota Press
,
1967.Scheer-Schaz1er
,
Brigitte. Saul Bel1ow.New York: Fredrick Ungar Pub1ishing Co.,
1972.索爾﹒貝隘小說擺邀的人研究
