Mr. Sammler's Spiritual World

Bellow is a highly gifted writer. His works convey his profound understanding of human nature and portray human existence vividly. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1976. His works are abundant, and the prizes or awards which he obtained are also countless throughout his life. Among them, three novels---The Adventure of Augie March, Herzog, Mr. Sammler's Planet---won American National Book Award. Comparatively, the attention which Mr. Sammler's Planet receives from critics by far is less than that of the other two. The foreign criticisms of this novel are satisfying while the domestic ones remain dull. Generally speaking, the opinions on it are controversial.This thesis consists of four chapters. The first chapter is the introduction. This chapter tells the precis of the novel and presents both the foreign and domestic criticism of the novel. This part also lists the reasons why the Chinese critics keep silent on this book. The second chapter has been devoted to the discussion of the major thematic concerns in this novel, in order to say that it is a novel of ideas. Then the third chapter makes a response to the accusation that Mr. Sammler's Planet fails to integrate ideas with actions, which is argued by some critics. Based on Robert Humphrey's understanding of stream of consciousness and Geoffrey N. Leech and Michael H. Short's theory of thought presentation, Chapter III analyzes the techniques of the novel by focusing on stream of consciousness. Bellow has used several techniques of stream of consciousness in this novel to present the spiritual world of the protagonist---Mr. Artur Sammler. It is with the method of stream of...