Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March

¶ … Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow. Specifically it will discuss some of the characters in the novel, including the author's preoccupation with the physically and mentally disabled characters populating Augie's life. Bellow's vivid characterizations pepper this novel with unique and memorable personalities, from Augie himself to many of the characters he meets during the course of the tale. Interestingly, many of these diverse characters suffer from some kind of physical or mental malady. Bellow's use of disability and distress helps define his major theme of overcoming obstacles and an individual's struggle with society. By using characters with disabilities, he enhances this theme by illustrating the unique struggle of individuals who are outside the norm of standard society.

Bellow opens his exceptional novel with a first-person statement from Augie himself. He writes, "I am an American, Chicago born - Chicago, that somber city - and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent."

This sets the stage for this mammoth novel, set in the volatile 1920s through 1940s, mostly in Chicago. Populated with a huge array of characters, the novel symbolizes a youthful America - brash, bold, troubled, and hopeful all at the same time. More than that, the novel celebrates the diversity of the American fabric, through immigrants, their families, and the richness of the American culture. Bellow chooses an unusual way to celebrate this diversity, by including many characters with their own forms of disability into the novel. It is not apparent at first, but as the story continues, it becomes clear many of the characters are flawed physically or mentally - even the eagle Caligula is afraid of the hunt - a fatal flaw for a bird of prey. Thus, while Bellow celebrates diversity, he also indicates that the flawed are often the most desperate members of American society. Unlike "Grandma" Lausch and many others in the novel who want Augie to fit in above all else, these flawed characters indicate that some of the most interesting and diverse characters on the American scene are the ones who are different somehow - physically, mentally, or like Augie, different by choice and fate.

First to make a disabled presence in the novel are Georgie, the retarded brother that Grandma Lausch sends to an institution, and Mama herself, a blind, simple-minded woman who allows Grandma to rule over the household, even though she is not even a blood relation to the family. These two early characters give a hint of what is to come in the novel, and how flawed characters will form the backbone of Augie's relationships. They all teach Augie something, however. Georgie's love is pure and non-judgmental, the most perfect kind of love.

William Einhorn was the "first superior man" Augie ever knew, and he begins to work for Einhorn while he is still in high school. Augie becomes his "metaphorical right hand but virtually arms and legs" as well, because Einhorn is a cripple who does not even have the strength to wheel his own wheelchair. Augie helps care for him and learns about life in the wealthiest Chicago neighborhoods in the process. He also learns about power, and sees Einhorn as a would-be father figure, who even takes him to a brothel on his high school graduation night. He leaves the Einhorn family behind, but always remembers how Einhorn was the first to give him fatherly advice and believe he could amount to something. He gave these values to Augie, even if he did not always recognize them or abide by them.

It is the same with each remaining flawed character in the novel. Augie always leaves them eventually, but they teach him something before they part ways. Thea Fenchel teaches him about determination and dreams. She is not as flawed as some of the other characters in this novel, but her actions are, to say the least, odd. She does not see Augie for years, and then hires a detective to find him, shows up on his doorstep, and takes up their relationship as though nothing has happened and no time has passed. He says of her, "I loved her to the degree that anything she chanced to do was welcome to me. I was very happy."

Then of course, she has a wildly odd idea about using an eagle to catch iguanas in the Mexican desert. Yet, she flees too, after mistakenly believing Augie loves another women he is only helping get away from a brutal man. If she loves him so much, how can she leave, and what does that say about her commitment to love? She left her husband for him, but in the end does not trust him enough to stay with him. He sees the real Thea when she rails against the eagle who she calls a "chicken," and he realizes even though he thought she was perfect, she too is flawed. He says, "About a week passed and I was his sole custodian. Thea interested herself in other things."

He sees the handwriting on the wall, and realizes she will probably do the same with him when she tires of him. However, she does teach him about love, and he takes those lessons with him as he moves on in life.

In an amusing note, Bellow even creates a flawed eagle in the story. Then, the novel is comic in many aspects, as another critic notes, "But "The Adventures of Augie March" is a comic novel, to which laughter is the only appropriate response."

Thea and Augie adopt an eagle that they name Caligula, in honor of the highly flawed Roman emperor, and Caligula lives up to his name. The eagle, bitten by a lizard, becomes afraid to hunt, and Augie is left to care for him after Thea totally gives up on him and her scheme to hunt lizards. Caligula never does manage to hunt effectively, and is sent off to the zoo. After that, Thea seems to lose respect for Augie as well, and the relationship collapses. Even the flawed eagle teaches Augie something, however. He begins to see the real Thea during their trials with the bird, and realizes she has fallen off the pedestal where he placed her. She opens him up to experiences with other women - they do not have to be beautiful outside, but the must have hope inside, like Jacqueline, who his is with at the end of the novel, and has dreams of going to Mexico. Some things never change.

Of course, the use of so many flawed characters creates a distinct and eminently sympathetic novel, and many of the characters are not physically flawed, but fully realized by the author in other ways. One literary critic notes, "The mother, the grandmother, the feeble-minded brother, the brother drunk on success, the whole Einhorn family, Thea, the Greek girl -- they are fully realized, they compel our faithful attention and, in the end, our sympathy."

They gain our sympathy at least in part because of their flaws, but because Augie manages to avoid their well-meaning advice and live life in his own unique way, right or wrong.

Finally, Augie himself is Jewish, not a physical flaw, but at the time of the novel's setting, many saw his background as a flaw. Jews were persecuted in the U.S. And Europe throughout the 20th century, and Augie's background makes him a target for ethnic and religious persecution - another often fatal flaw, if you take into consideration Hitler's mass genocide of the Jews during the Holocaust. Thus, while Augie seems to triumph over adversity and never loses hope, he himself is flawed, which leads the reader to believe he may never achieve the hopes and dreams he aspires to. Critic Bach continues, "But rather than envisioning paradise as the fulfillment of the American dream Augie envisions paradise as an escape from modern American dilemmas."

This makes sense, since all of the flawed characters somehow "escape" from Augie's life as well, from Georgie, to Einhorn, Caligula, and even Thea. They may escape due to Augie's own choices, but they leave nonetheless.

While the flawed characters all flee, Bellow always leaves Augie's final fate up in the air. In an interview about the book he said, "Somewhere in my Jewish and immigrant blood there were conspicuous traces of a doubt as to whether I had the right to practice the writer's trade."