HUMANISM IN SAUL BELLOWS THE DEANS DECEMBER Dr S.S.

Gill
The clash of cultures, science versus humanism, the search for self-knowledge in a foreign land and coming to terms with death are the issues on which Bellow has focused his creative imagination in the novel The Deans December. For this reason Gilbert Porter calls Bellow a new transcendentalist1 as his principal area of enquiry is the phenomenology of selfhood 2 . In this novel, Bellow embarks upon the territory of social description and prescription so largely abandoned by novelist during this century
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.Bellow has always been

showing this profound concern for human values. At the same time, Bellow depicts the problem of human differences in this novel, because this issue is closely connected with human relations and responsibility since meaningful relationships can only be possible if one is willing to accept the differences between human beings. His heroes all suffer from humanities yet they do not merely suffer, they act or rather they speak. Through Herzog, Bellow communicates that the novelist can show, the strength of a mans virtue or spiritual
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capacity measured by his ordinary life.4 This paper deals with this measures that exhorts Bellow to reject Wasteland pessimism and set his heroes on this journey where they need to know what it is to be human. The Deans December provides conclusive insights into the American dilemma, first and foremost it concentrates on the mental, sensual and spiritual processes instrumental in procuring such insights . The novel deals with philosophical ideas, haphazard violence, corruption of language, deceptive appearance and even death. Susan Roland comments: The novel ranges to and from of philosophical apparently of the

speculations random

probings

violence

depictions

intimacy of family life. Cordes quest for reality and transactions traverses through contemporary appearances, corruption death. His of language, consciousness

delicately poised, Corde is seen as the novels connection between warring boundaries .5 Bellow demonstrates the role of the individual self in a mass politicized society. When Dean Corde argues that the Hegelian spirit of the time is in us by nature, he
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makes an important point that Corde belongs like others to the collective life of the country. However, some persons simply accept the prevailing chaotic conditions, refusing to view them with detected objectivity. Corde endeavors to bring some kind of a perspective on the problem from which he will be able to learn a lesson about the essential human condition. Therefore, the individuality with him means being responsible and sensitive to the course history and he is not sympathetic to those who demand absolute extinction of individuality. Corde observes To belong fully to the life of the country gave one strength, but why should these others, in contempt 6. Albert Corde the protagonist in The Deans December, a former journalist is now the Dean of student at a Chicago College. His effort is to improve the quality of life by restoring love and human concern. He tries to establish order, discipline and stability in a nihilistic society. He is disillusioned by the city culture of Chicago where crime is increasing, emotional quotient deteriorating, love and concern for one another vanishing in this materialistic society. Eventually in this self-absorbed internal world, the their strength, demand that ones own sense of existence.. be dismissed with

external world that he inhabits begins to lose its distinction6 . Corde observes that the political and social problems are too complex for a qualitative approach. He emphasizes the need for a more sophisticated approach for tackling these problems. Bellow points out that even intellectuals like social scientists, journalists, and psychologists are evading, details of the underlying reality through false descriptions. Bellow believes that: ...there is correspondence between outer and inner, between the brutalized city and psyche of its citizens. Given their human resources, I dont see how people today can experience life at all. Politicians, public figures, professors, address Modern Problems solely in terms of employment. They assume that unemployment causes incoherence, sexual disorders, the abandonment of children, robbery, rape and murder. Plainly, they have no imagination of these evils. And in The Deans December what I did, way to say, look! The first step is to display the facts. But the facts. Perhaps I shouldnt say perceives I

should say passionately takes hold. As an artist does. Mr. Corde, The Dean, passionately hold of Chicago and writes his article like an artist rather than a journalist 7. It is the external factor that obstructs the

expression of inner desire to communicate with others through love. The yearning of the self is to absorb city culture and to promote surely what one feels. Cordes desire is to be honest to the truth, an essential quality of love, but social expectations and conformity render him helpless. Though he is in possession of the essentials of love, i.e. responsibility ,knowledge, care, respect, welfare yet feels helpless in showing all these essentials in a materialism in contemporary society. We meet Albert Corde; he is in Romania. He has accompanied his wife, Minna a world renowned astronomer- to visit her dying mother, a doctor who has fallen out of grace with the communist party. Corde situation in Romania is claustrophobic. He had come with his wife to lend support to her mother , Valeria. He rarely speaks with the local inhabitants because, Language was a problem. People spoke little French, less English (DD7). Staying at house of his mother-in-law, Corde experiences isolation. Life seems
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to him irregular in all spheres. In Bucharest, the American Corde finds himself physically, socially, professionally and linguistically cut off from his regular life in Chicago8. His predicament can be seen in Josephs, the protagonist of Bellows first novel Dangling Man. However, Josephs alienation is selfimposed. Albert Cordes situation is not his own choosing, but he is largely isolated from those who visit Valerias apartment by his inability to speak the language and aware of his importance in a society in which he is literally alien. He consequently spends much of his time as Joseph did, brooding alone in a dingy room looking out on to a depressing city scape. The Dean too is dangling man suspended between two worlds as seeks a meaning for human history, and putting a misplaced faith in the certainly of his own understanding 9. Albert Cordes mother-in-law has suffered a heart attack and she is in the intensive care unit. Visitors are forbidden to go there. All are intimated by the secret police. As a defector to the West shielded by an American passport and husband Minna is hardly in favour with the authorities. Most troublesome of all is a colonel in the secret police. Thus, a cruel and
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unforgiving bureaucracy, represented by a colonel, is using its power to prevent Minna from visiting her mother in the hospital. The energies of Corde and Minna are mainly expended on a struggle with this bureaucracy as they try first to arrange to see Valeria in the hospital and then, after her death, to give her a dignified funeral. During this time Corde lives in Valerias decaying apartment. He is visited by relatives and well-wishes. He observes the bleak existence of the inmates of what he calls a penitentiary society grubbing for even the most basic material necessities and silenced by fear of wire tapers and informers. His distaste for this grim place is aggravated by his anxieties about Minna, who he fears still be subject to Romanian law, In The Deans December, Bellow more directly attacks negative social forces that challenge human dignity On his
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. to the crematorium, Corde

visit

accompanied Minna to make arrangement for her mothers funeral; he was astonished by confronting the material fact of death that it undermines rather than reinforces rational orthodoxy. Standing there, he acknowledges that the earth and its creatures contain within them the material fact of connection. Finding that his perceptions are becoming much more clear

and singular as he contemplates the fact of his motherin-laws death, Corde reflects: Valeia was certainly dead. She had died and she was dead, and last arrangements were being made. But he couldnt say that she was dead to him. It wouldnt have been an accurate statement, one might call a comforting illusion, but in fact there was nothing at all comforting about it, he could take no comfort in it. Nor was it anything resembling an illusion. She was more like an internal fact of which he became conscious. He hadnt been looking for it. And he was not prompted to find a rational cause for this. Rationality of this sort left him cold. He owned it nothing. It was particularity that interested him (DD 175-76). Corde is convinced that this internal fact is his transcendent articulating knows connection the to Valeria, fact despite of her physical obliteration. The only possible language for internal Valerias inextinguishable life is the range of attachment. Corde that he loves Valeria even though he cannot empirically locate the seat of loves power. Corde understands that his love for Valeria is really a mystery
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emanating from an invisible source that something to which we assign names but we cannot objectively locate. Brooding over the burning of Valerias body, Corde sees his old friend Dewey Spangler with awakened eyes. It is a direct manifestation of Cordes developing power of attachment. Then for some reason, with no feeling of abruptness, he became curiously absorbed in Dewey He say now that Spangler was down slanted in spirit. Seeing him so actual, vanities were dissipated, you were in no position to judge, and there was no need for judging May be on this death day Corde was receiving secret guidance in seeing life. Perhaps at this very moment in seeing life. Perhaps at this very moment flames were finishing Valeria, and therefore it was especially important to think what a human being really was (DD 242). Corde attached discovers observation. the In power such and a freedom form of of

vivid

attachment, he comes to know that this soul has a life freehold. He understands that there is no freedom, no

reality without connection. What you didnt pass though your soul didnt even existReality didnt exist out there. It began to be real only when the soul found its underlying truth. In generalities there was no coherence none(DD 262). The highest responsibility for man then is to realize the world by connecting with its particular. Corde affirms, more directly than any previous Bellow protagonist, the souls connection to creation11. After Valerias funeral Corde challenges, in

conversation with Vlada Voynich, Professor Beechs assumption that Liberal humanist culture is weak because it lacks scientific knowledge(DD 220). He tells Vlada that a misplaced faith in scientific knowledge may constitute the real source of current social and cultural distress. Although Corde is convinced that Professor Beech is a man of feeling and even a visionary yet Corde finds the scientists language highly dangerous. Corde says, where Beech sees poison lead, I see poison thought or poison theory. The view we held of the martial world may put a case as heavy as lead (DD 225). As Corde shifts between immediate events in Romania and troubling developments at home, Bellow juxtaposes the worlds of Bucharest and Chicago, past and present, East and West. Like the Chicago Winter it

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constantly recalls, December in Bucharest more than the end of a year. More than the old social order is dying. At both ends of the world, Bellow suggests the values by which humankind has aligned itself with creation are being obliterated. Moral principles, the distinction of reality between only good and evil, have To been erode, abandoned. Mechanization concepts and data are the approved signposts. contemporary society is a monstrous superstructure precariously erected. In The Deans December, Bellow presents his most horrified version of a modern world on the edge of apocalypse. Both Bucharest and Chicago are examined through the shifts of consciousness of the protagonist to reveal significant resemblances. America as represented here by Chicago is an urban hell and male dominated. In Bucharest, the oppressors are men but at all that is positive and healing comes from women. In this world of women. Cordes own testing takes place. He has to prove his worth to Valeria for getting married to her daughter, Minna. Corde has a reputation as a swinger. But he insists on having decency, maturity, intelligence, responsibility and marital stands. Albert Corde is a protestant. Bellows protagonists are burdened with problems and many of them are
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related to their Jewishness. Corde too has several problems. However, they are not monumental problems interfering with life but rather the disturbances of everyday living. These problems call for an inner strength that comes with security of place, selfacceptance and social acceptance. Corde does not wrestle with angels or alter egos. He is eventually a strong individual with a moral mission to right the wrongs of the worlds or at least to disseminate information concerning troubled mankind12. Whenever, Corde gets an opportunity he discourses upon, Western humanism, civilized morality, nihilism East and West (DD 68). Albert Corde shows the strength of character during all phases of his life. The novel The Deans December ends with a clear picture of connection with society. This vision is not the product of mere sentiments. Saul Bellow firmly suggests that the soul and the world are together so subjectively related. This internal fact constitutes. Cordes ultimate revelation of this bond with all people. You were drawn to feel to penetrate further as if you were being informed that what was spread over had to do with your existence, down to the very blood and the crystal forms inside your bones. Rocks, trees, animals, men
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and women, these also drew you to penetrate further, under the distortions (comparable to the atmospheric ones, shadows with shadows), to find their real being with your own (DD 306). From this deep experience of attachment Albert Cordes consciousness is transcended. Works Cited: 1. Gilbert Porker. Whence the Power? The Artistry and humanity of . Saul Bellow. (Missouri: univ. Of Missouri Press,1974) 195. 2. Nathan A. Scott. Three American Moralist:

Mailer,Bellow, Trilling ( Nortre Dame,Ind. :UNiv. Of NortreDame Press,1973)105. 3 .Daniel Fuchs. Saul Bellow: Visin and Revision.(New Delhi:Affiliated EastWest PressPvt.Ltd.1992)84. 4. Robert Alter. After the Tradition: Essays On Modern Jewish Writing ( New York: Dutton,1969)18.

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5. Susan Roland, The Need for alchemy Saul Ballow Journal 13:2(Fall 1995) 29 6. Saul Bellow. The Deans December ( will New be

York,1982)117.

Subsequent

references

incorporated in the text with an abbreviation DD. 7 Jonathan Wilson.On Saul bellows Plant, Reading from the Dark Side ( New jersey: fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press,1985)31. 8. Ellen Pifer. Saul Bellow:Against the

Grain( Philadelphia: Univ. Of Pennysylvnia Press,1990)165. 9 Peter Hyland. Saul Bellow ( New York : St. Martins Press,1992)92. 10 Roger Matuz.ed. Saul Bellow Contemporary

Literary Criticism ( Detroit:Gale research Inc. 1991)26 11. Ellen Pifer, 176 12 L.H. Goldman. Saul Bellows Moral Vision:A Critical Study of the Jewish Expeience ( New York: Irvington publishers Inc.1983)239.

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