DANGLING MAN -SAUL BELLOW

 

DANGLING MAN

                                                                                      -SAUL BELLOW

Introduction:

            Saul bellow was born in Lachine, Quehee, a suburb of Montreal and was brought up in Chicago. He got his Bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University in 1937 with honours in Sociology and Anthropology. His notable works are

                          Seize the Day

                          Henderson the Rain King

                          Herzog

                          Mosby’s Memors

                          Mr.Sammler’s Planet

           “Humboldt’s Gift” was awarded the Pulitzer prize and National book award for Fiction. In 1965, Bellow was awarded the International prize for Herzog. “Dangling Man”, the first novel of Saul Bellow is in a dairy style.

“If you have someone equal in ability to me I will beat him every time because I will try harder”.

Theme:

           The theme of the novel is the search for the values of individual freedom, the meaning of moral responsibility and the demands of social contact, the themes that the novelist continues to explore. The novel is significant also of its narrative pattern.

“A fool can throw a stone in a pond that 100 wise men cannot get out.”

Dangling Man:

          Joseph, the protagonist is a 27 year old man. He lives with his wife Iva, in Chicago rooming house. He is writing to be called up for service in World War II. He is basically a Canadian citizen who has been living in America for the past eighteen years. Having received and induction notice from the United States Army, he quits his job with Inter-American Travel Bureau, passes his Physical and is accepted for military service. At this point, his status as friendly Alien results in a bureaucratic tangle that delays his official induction leaves him dangling. He could be neither he a functioning civilian nor an official soldier. He oscillates between the world of daily life and the world of the spirit, between the world of daily life and the world of the spirit, between the materialistic world and the spiritual world, between the world of thought and the world action. He dangles between these worlds.

“I don’t know exactly how it’s done; I let it alone a good deal.”

Starting a Journal :

          Joseph while away months either lying in bed, reading newspaper and magazines or wandering in the streets without any particular purpose. After seven months of indolence, he decides to put an end to his dangling and to start acting and see for him what his destiny is. So he begins to writes a journal and maintains a dairy in which he makes entries regularly from December 15, 1942 to April 9, 1943. After he loses his job at the Inter –American ,he becomes a dependents on his wife, Iva though she is his bread winner, he does not want to be dominated by her. He is guided by his patriarchal attitude. He likes to be served by his wife but he would not like to feel low before her. There is little intimation of any love between the couple. Joseph has some fascination for Kitty Daumler and develops some weakness for her. But soon he checks himself test he should destroy his wife’s trust in him. He does not allow that weakness to spoil his marital relationship with his wife, Iva .

Man of Principles:

        Joseph is certainly more human. He likes to join the army in order to flight in the war and not to carve out a heroic career for himself. His decision to participate in the war is a matter of principle not of profit, or career making to him participating in the war for any kind of profit is a degrading act. Joseph supports war and principle. He is ready to join the war alien is he may be killed there. He prefers to die than to live a life of uncertain principles or conviction. He is neither money minded nor a careerist. He would rather be a victim of war than a beneficiary Saul Bellow makes Joseph, his mouthpiece to preach the doctrine of humanism, expounding how one might attain the wholeness than man should possess.

“I am a man of principle; I will stick by my principles I will tell the truth no matter where the chips fall,”

Conclusion :

      Joseph is not able to answer with clarity such questions as what Man is and what is the purpose of existence the question that had arisen in his mind earlier, The freedom they had been looking for is ultimately not achieved because he gives himself up into the hands of the army.

             “Great pressure is brought to bear to make us undervalue ourselves.”