The Gift of Humboldt describes Citrine's process from worshiping and following Humboldt to deviating and opposing, and then re-recognizing Humboldt's value and restoring his respect. Among them, Citrine ("son") and Humboldt ("father"), a former idolatrous writer, are two opposing parties. The two men not only have ups and downs in their personal career, social and economic status and fate, but also are ideologically incompatible. At the beginning of the novel, it is mentioned that "he (Humboldt) often quotes King Lear's poems to me: there is rebellion in the city, rebellion in the country, coup in the court, and the bond between father and son has been torn off." He particularly emphasized the meaning of "father and son". "Destructive riots followed us one after another until we walked into the grave." The profundity of the story lies in the harmonious development of "father and son", from the opposition at the beginning to the mutual twin of contradictory unity at the end. When Citrine was only a young man who loved literature, Humboldt was already a famous and successful poet. He especially admired the concept of humanitarianism, fantasizing about conquering ordinary things with some capitalized nouns such as poetry, love and politics, and transforming "utilitarian America" with Platonic beauty. His poems are "vivid, interesting, pure and full of humanity". Citrine followed Humboldt and often listened to Humboldt's teachings with longing.
However, although Humboldt has the whole world in his heart, his relationship with the real world is the opposite. As early as when he became famous, he realized that he had made millions of enemies. In the 1940s when materialism prevailed, his thoughts and consciousness became obsolete, and he and his works were left out in the cold. Contrary to this irony, Citrine was thrown to the peak of success overnight by the director's unrecognizable script. After becoming famous, he got money, status and women, and tasted success. Humboldt never recovered, and finally had a mental breakdown under successive blows. The relationship between them has gone from harmony to deviation and opposition. However, whether following or deviating, Citrine always had spiritual communication with Humboldt and regarded him as his "father of spirit". While enjoying all the success, Citrine has also experienced enough evil consequences of modern madness. Citrine finally realized that in such a society where material and material interests dominate everything, "a poet can't have a hysterectomy, nor can he send a spaceship out of the solar system". Therefore, poets and art are useless. Therefore, he deeply understood Humboldt's misfortune and the reason why Humboldt was killed crazily, and began to feel deeply guilty for leaving Humboldt. A detail is mentioned many times in the novel. When Citrine, as a "new winner", went to the Central Park restaurant for a political lunch, Humboldt, as a "grumpy loser", was eating pretzels in the street.
Citrine deliberately avoided Humboldt. Although Citrine has deviated from Humboldt at this time, he still has a feeling of farewell. Especially after Humboldt's death, Citrine mentioned this matter many times, feeling deeply guilty about it, and repented: "I should go and talk to him. I should have been closer to him instead of hiding behind the car. " Citrine "followed Humboldt for nearly 40 years", and he saw his fate in Humboldt-the fate of an artist in a utilitarian society like the United States. If you abandon utilitarianism and the legitimate pursuit of life, you will be locked up in Bellevue (mental hospital) like this poor guy. He said: "As time went on,' I' found myself as ridiculous as von humboldt Fleischer. As time goes on, it becomes more and more obvious that he used to be my agent. I am a calm person myself. I once asked Humboldt to express himself crazily on behalf of' I' to satisfy some of my wishes. "
The relationship between Sterling and Humboldt has thus formed a contradictory unity of mutual body. In the diachronic mode of "father and son", the contradictory characteristics of human ontology and the rebellious-integrated attribute of life itself are revealed by the time view of mutual duality. Moreover, the formation of body duality actually includes the theoretical perspective of "I-He", which implies the simultaneous concern for "self" and "existence". Bellow takes the unity of opposites in the mode of "father and son" as a general element to understand human life, and uses the narrative of stories to generate thoughts on the world. Bellow reveals the bad luck faced by American society and even western society through the stories of two generations of writers in different ages.
Humboldt entered the literary world during the American economic recovery in the 1930s. At that time, his works could still be praised, but in the materialistic 1940s, he was forgotten or even completely abandoned by the society. Citrine's main activities were in the 1950s and early 1970s. During this period, the relationship between man and society, man and man, man and nature, and man and self was distorted by the rapid development of American economy and science and technology after the war. Topaz can't dominate its own destiny in the face of reality, but it can only feel pessimistic and disappointed. In this way, Bellow put forward a philosophical view through these two images with historical continuity: due to the destruction of spiritual civilization by contemporary material civilization, people will lose their nature and faith, and the bond between father and son will be torn off. Then, life will lose its meaning and society will sink. Narrative characteristics
First-person narrator: An important factor in the success of Humboldt's Gift is that the author chose the first-person narrator. The greatest feature of this narrator with the same story is that the first person gives him great narrative freedom, making the structure free and open, and describing Zhang Chi moderately. The whole story is told by the first-person narrator "I" in one go, without chapters, and one story is separated from another by four asterisks, which is a bold innovation in narrative structure.
The narrator "I" constantly shuttles between "past" and "past past" through free association; But the narrative freedom of "I" is limited, and the narrator successfully controls the narrative speed. Although the main event of "Recent Past" is only a few days, it accounts for nine tenths of the space because it is the main plot. The story of a long time ago spanned 40 years, accounting for less than one tenth of the space. The narrative rhythm is fast and slow, all controlled by the narrator "I".
In order to pursue the natural flow of the consciousness of "I", Humboldt's Gift carries out a single first-person narrator "I" almost from beginning to end, and the text content gushes out from the perspective of "I", showing the observation and feeling of "I" and being restricted by "I". Any fragment in the narrative can produce countless branches and leaves, but these branches and leaves are not endless. The narrator will jump out in time and use the authority of "I" to help the narrative receiver return to the "present" state.
In the text, the narrator "I" always uses an invisible hand, that is, the state of "past", to pull the narrator back from "past" to reality. This invisible hand is the magic sofa. "To think deeply," I "lay on the goose feather sofa." "In this way,' I' sat on the green sofa and meditated." "At this moment, in the cold and melancholy morning of 65438+ February,' I' am still lying on my embroidered plush sofa, lost in thought." "When I leaned on the pillow of the green sofa, everything came to my mind. Ah, what is life? What is the meaning of life? " ""I am still lying on my back, clutching the soft sofa and remembering those colorful days. "In this way," sofa "has become a prop in the narrator's hand, a real prop." With the help of its power, the narrator strolls leisurely in just visiting, and skillfully blends the "past" with the "past past". These past events are seamlessly spliced, just like a natural rainbow.
With the first-person narration, the narrator faces a narrator-Citrine, who is the hero of the story, so the distance between him and the story is greatly shortened. The integration of the narrator and the characters makes the readers talk like Kan Kan, who is the client. The content is all about the narrator's personal experience, knowledge and feelings, so it is vivid and touching, and the reader's thoughts and feelings can easily resonate with the fate of the characters, thus realizing the "falsehood" of the novel text.
However, when the narrator faces Citrine, the hero of the novel, his task is not only to listen, but also to understand that he is no longer in the position of acceptance. His position of forced intervention will eventually be conveyed to the readers through the intermediary of the narrator, forcing the readers to make their own judgments about the people who confide in themselves in the text: the readers' degree of forced intervention in acceptance and judgment will increase, and eventually they will participate in the text from Citrine's confession.
In this way, from the perspective of narratology, the creative principle and aesthetic ideal of "literary works are completed by authors and readers" strongly advocated by reception aesthetics have been realized, and the artistic appeal of narration has been enhanced.
The novel Humboldt's Gift is gradually developed in the way that Citrine, the protagonist and narrator, recalls the past. The past is divided into two parts: one is the recent past, and the other is "the past recalled by the past". In this paper, I mainly describe a short experience in the protagonist's life, that is, a recent past. The time span is only more than four months, and the main event is actually only a few days. Four or five days' life in Chicago accounts for more than half of the book, followed by two or three days in new york, two days in Texas, and two months in Madrid, but the space is very short, and finally it ends on one day in April in new york.
However, memories of the past lasted for half a century, from Citrine's childhood in1920s to Humboldt's reburial in1970s. The alternation of two kinds of time and the transformation of various scenes make people feel dazzling and chaotic, just like the lights on the streets of Chicago on Christmas Eve. The fast pace seems to bring people to the streets of new york, so the complicated narrative techniques and the various events described really complement each other. Important events are repeated again and again. For example, Citrine saw Humboldt from a distance in the streets of new york, and the news of Humboldt's death just reflected a person's mental state of being obsessed with it and feeling deeply guilty. Free association is linked by a link. The longer it drags on, the farther it goes, but it is by no means a random accumulation. Its organization is like a leafy tree, the recent past is the trunk, and the memories and associations of the past are branches and leaves, so it can be opened and closed. For example, when Citrine saw his car smashed, he decided that it was Canterbury, and he and Canterbury met while playing cards at Swebel's house. This involves Swebel's personality, experience and the relationship between them.
Because the relationship between Citrine and Weissberg was strained by his wife Dennis, it led to Dennis's character and life experience. It can be seen that the fragmented and chaotic appearance is carefully arranged by the author. Throughout the book, the first three sections constitute a unit, which can be regarded as the prelude of the novel. In these three sections, Citrine briefly reviewed Humboldt's life and paved the way for Humboldt's gift to Citrine: "After all, he left me something in his will, and I inherited his legacy." From the fourth section, "Let's talk about the current situation, a completely different life-a full contemporary life", the story enters the recent past, which is the main body of the novel. The last section can be regarded as the end of the novel. So we can still sort things out. Because under the hazy and chaotic surface structure, there lurks a solid, rigorous, perfect, harmonious and intriguing deep structure. Complex structure is to express complex content, and strange shoes are to adapt to strange feet.
Citrine recalled his dead friend like this: "orpheus, the son of a new immigrant, rose up in Greenwich Village with his ballads. He loves literature and witty conversation, and he loves the history of ideas. He is a burly and charming boy, who combines symbolism with slang and common sayings, and draws nutrition from Ye Zhi, Apolline, Lenin, Freud, Maurice R Cohen, gertrude stein, baseball tactics and Hollywood rumors. He brought Coney Island into the Aegean Sea and United Buffalo Bill and rapper Ting. He wanted to unite art classics with industrialized America and become an equal force. " This all-encompassing, well-read writing style is exactly what the author of Humboldt's Gift is striving for. The outstanding feature of Bellow's works is the integration of profound cultural knowledge and practical street wisdom.
In the process of narration, traditional novelists can't help but make many comments. Although incisive, but inexplicably interrupted the story, giving people a sense of separation of oil and water. In this respect, Bellow's success lies in finding a suitable narrator, a famous writer with profound knowledge and rich imagination. In addition to the actions, observations and thoughts of the protagonist and narrator, the novel is ingeniously and naturally interspersed with some stories, letters and article abstracts, which does not look like a branch. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to weave such complicated clues into a natural rainbow brocade. Without Bellow's cultural literacy and writing ability, it is impossible. As a famous writer, the protagonist's comments on people and things really hit the nail on the head, making the theme and character of the work clear at a glance, making the critic's analysis in this respect almost redundant. For example, when talking about the root cause of Humboldt's failure, Citrine said: "orpheus touched wood and stones, but the poet could not have a hysterectomy or send a spaceship out of the solar system. Miracles and strength no longer belong to poets. "
Citrine, the protagonist and storyteller, is a typical comic figure with modern consciousness who lives in an absurd society. For example, in order to succeed in Broadway, Citrine allowed the director to change his script beyond recognition. When he thought of this, he felt "full of guilt and shame". Even so, he still enjoys the material benefits it brings. When he was in power, he once saw Humboldt eating pretzels in the street with a dusty face and a pale face. Afraid of losing his dignity, he quickly hid behind a car to avoid the benefactor who had helped him. The news of Humboldt's death greatly stimulated Citrine, who began to reflect on his past. He changed the habit of dealing with upper-class people in the past, divorced his wife who represented orthodox forces and devoted himself to "advanced psychological work." At the same time, he participated in sports and played squash with people like commodity brokers, gentlemen and hooligans, "trying to increase his consciousness" and looking for "psychological representatives" from vulgar hooligans, thus satisfying his lively psychology. On the one hand, I plunged into the arms of my sexy money-collecting mother and lived a dissolute life; On the one hand, he devoted himself to anthroposophy and communicated with the dead all day.
In the face of absurd and dangerous reality, everything Citrine did seemed ridiculous and helpless. In this society, great poets die of poverty and misery, serious and noble poems are forgotten, but casual games can stir the world; This world-famous writer turned out to be the loser of the undertaker in love; Gangsters can marry doctoral students; As long as you have money, technology can close and repair people's hearts like a motor. Therefore, Citrine always regards the external world as an accidental, uncertain, meaningless, absurd, hostile and alienated individual, and regards everything except human beings, society, the external world and science and technology as a force to suppress himself and adopts a distrust or hostile attitude. So he tried to abandon the real world and study the immortal soul. Since this is his outlook on life, he takes a self-deprecating attitude towards himself, not to mention that self-deprecating is also a tradition of Jewish literature. In his mind, almost everyone in the world is a clown, even himself, his brother and the poet Humboldt are no exception, all playthings in the hands of money. Therefore, he treats everything with a cynical attitude, and he can survive it, and of course he can endure it.
On the contrary, the poet Humboldt is too serious and persistent. In a materialistic country, he is bent on becoming a poet. As a result, even he himself felt "like a child, like a clown, like a fool." These comic effects are always achieved through a strong contrast between what should be and what is actually. For example, Humboldt, a poet, broke into the office to find authority without making an appointment in order to get the position of a university poetry professor. Get carried away when things are done, call names, chase girls and have sex to celebrate his success. Burying Humboldt requires a solemn atmosphere, but an old man sang an opera like a rooster crowing. Jurica, who wanted a cardiovascular transplant, even sang a capitalist fugue when his life and death were uncertain.
Citrine's beloved baby car was smashed, which is a very sad thing. He shouted revenge, but actually started a yoga class and used handstands to relieve the pain. Citrine rushed to the Ritz Hotel in Madrid in the middle of the night to meet his lover, but it was the lover's mother and the lover's son who waited anxiously.
Literary works are the art of language, and the comedy effect can not be separated from the comedy language with outstanding personality and deep impression. For example, when Citrine reflected on his past, he admitted that "I experienced the high pressure of propaganda, as if I had picked up a dangerous wire to kill ordinary people, and I was like a rattlesnake played by villagers at a religious carnival." In addition, there is an extremely exaggerated metaphor that history is "Humboldt's nightmare of wanting a good sleep"; Chicago: "a city without culture but full of' ideas'"; Money: "the dollar as a soul husband", this dramatic language can be seen everywhere, too numerous to mention. In order to produce comic effect, comic language must be adopted. Similarly, the author uses a lot of short sentences in pursuit of changeable scenes and fast pace.
Humboldt's gift shows the genre paintings of contemporary American society. No matter streets, buildings, cars, clothes or hairstyles, no name or brand is fictional, and even the characters in novels based on real people live in real people's environments. Humboldt's gift is a magnificent panorama of American society. From hooligans to presidential congressmen, from the White House to chicken hair shops, from the "superb realm" that mystics yearn for to the stolen goods shops controlled by the Mafia, poets and scholars, cultural swindlers, rich gamblers, judges and lawyers, psychiatrists, mothers who collect money, and so on. Humboldt's gift is a classic combination of realism and modernism. In Humboldt's Gift, Bellow not only adheres to the tradition of realism, shows the expertise of traditional custom novelists, vividly describes the external reality, but also absorbs some creative methods of modernism, such as free association, time sequence inversion, clue crossing and scene jumping. , and play its unique wisdom, skillfully interspersed with some plots and events in the psychological description of the characters, and conducted a multi-level cultural discussion on the inner spiritual world.