'IT'S LOVE THAT MAKES REALITY REALITY': WOMEN THROUGH THE EYES OF SAUL BELLOW'S PROTAGONISTS

Critics who do not differentiate Saul Bellow from his protagonists accuse Bellow of being unable to draw living, breathing women. His portrayals of female characters do go beyond stereotypes, however, and even the stereotypes have a purpose. What Bellow provides, with the female characters, is a screen on which the protagonists project and expose their own incapacity to feel love or demonstrate their feelings.; Bellow's protagonists are lonely men, suspicious of their friends, unsure of their parents' love, unable to form lasting relationships with men or women. Paralyzed by anxiety and suffering from guilt and paranoia, they are unable to function in their life's work. They cannot, therefore, be trusted as reliable narrators or reflectors of what is occurring in their lives. Although they are trying desperately to understand themselves, although they profess to care deeply about philosophical and ethical issues, they have difficulty seeing themselves and their situations accurately. Because their ability to love is impaired, they are not able to recognize reality. They stop looking for answers. Rather than accepting responsibility for their impairment, they blame others.; In particular they blame women, the archetypal Other. Women have traditionally been held responsible by men for what men cannot or will not explain or do. Much of the protagonists' anger and frustration is directed at women because of their problematical relationships with their mothers. They yearn for nurturing mothers and run from women in whom they see their own evil impulses.; The way Bellow's protagonists see women, then, is a manifestation of their inability to see beyond their own distorted vision of their worlds. Bellow shows how the world looks to men who try to be more or less than human. Some of his protagonists strive to be exactly human; some come closer than others. If there is hope for humanity, says Bellow, it is in the striving.