IJASOS- International E-journal of Advances in Social Sciences

Abstract

“‘It’s terribly serious, of course, but I think
more people die of heartbreak than of radiation’” (p. 87) says Benn Crader, the
protagonist of Saul Bellow’s 1987 novel More
Die of Heartbreak. The title can be seen as stressing the power of personal
as well as external traumas to shape one’s outlook on life. Relationships are
sought as a panacea to anxiety but ironically may create the very complications
they were intended to mask. This paper will consider More Die of Heartbreak in relation to other novels of Bellow’s
later period, namely The Dean’s December
and Ravelstein, to examine
similarities and differences of theme. Two of these novels employ a narrator
with a close relationship with the protagonist; all three consider a variety of
existential questions through the private reflections or conversation of
characters seeking a revelation in typical introspective manner, though not
without the humour which marks Bellow’s work. Likewise, the novels all involve
a search for a strategy to cope with the vagaries of life and the approach of
death, with the emphasis moving towards the latter as the protagonists grow
older in tandem with their author. More
Die of Heartbreak, however, chiefly examines, through Crader and the
narrator, his nephew Kenneth Trachtenberg, whether love can provide the meaning
often lacking in society and life itself. Crader, a botanist, is an expert on
Arctic lichens, his subject providing a symbolic escape route via the minutiae
of scientific research. Away from his plants, he embarks on and fails in a
number of relationships - notably an incongruous marriage to an heiress whose
family turns out to have ulterior motives for the union - and questions are
raised about the potential confusion of love with lust. The novel also features
discussions on topics from the role of the academic to urban violence and decay
and to the facing of imminent death, as in The
Dean’s December and Ravelstein.
However, whereas the latter two novels, despite the darknesses contemplated in
each, respond to the conundrums of life and death with a hint of optimism,
Crader’s redemption at the end of More
Die of Heartbreak lies in his rejection, temporary at least, of women and
of human contact in general and his anticipation of the fulfilment he will find
in joining a scientific venture to the North Pole. However, this in itself may
be seen as a form of positive thinking and decision-making rather than a
passive acceptance of defeat.