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The Analysis of Metaphor and Symbol in Humboldt’s Gift

Author: ShaoXiuRong
Tutor: MaoLingZuo
School: Chongqing University
Course: English Language and Literature
Keywords: Saul Bellow Humboldt’s Gift Metaphor Symbol
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Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2009
Downloads: 522
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Abstract

Saul Bellow (1915-2005) is one of the most brilliant American writers in the 20th century. His status in American literature can parallel to that of Ernest Hemingway (1898-1961) or William Faulkner (1897-1962). He received many awards in his life. Especially in 1976 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Humboldt’s Gift is one of his masterpieces, which is also a representative of“Bellow Style”. In this novel, Saul Bellow presents the first of his heroes actually to be a literary artist. He shows his concern about the status of literary artists in the modern technocratic-business world.This thesis puts emphasis on Humboldt’s Gift. It adopts the approaches of New Criticism, especially text analysis and value judgment, to analyze the novel in detail from the perspective of metaphor and symbol. It provides a new angle of view, which is obviously helpful to understanding the themes more clearly and thoroughly. Therefore it is a supplement to the research on Humboldt’s Gift.The thesis first makes a brief introduction to Saul Bellow and his works, especially Humboldt’s Gift, and the literature review on them. Then it scrutinizes the metaphorical phenomena by interpreting metaphorical effect of the title, the relationship between the two protagonists, and the Negro spiritual“Goin’Home”etc. in the novel. Metaphors used in the novel form a complete plot, which begins with characters’appearance, develops the stories around“gift”and ends up with“going home”. These metaphors show the conflicts between the existence of the literati and the material world. They profoundly embody the main line of the theme“existence - destiny - death”. The three metaphorical plays in the novel, Von Trenck, Caldofreddo and Corcoran, emphasize the themes again. Next, the thesis goes deeper to elaborate the roles of symbols in the novel, pointing out differences between symbol and metaphor.“Humboldt’s Gift”integrates multiple symbolic meanings, runs through the whole text, and condenses the complicated contents, to make readers clear about the whole novel from the title. The protagonists’life experiences of“reality - struggle - compromise”deepen the destiny theme of literati and literature. The novel ends up with Humboldt’s reburial in spring to tell readers: in this technocratic-business society, the fittest survive and old tradition will eventually be replaced by new things. Finally it comes to a conclusion. Humboldt’s Gift abounds with metaphors and symbols. They repeat in the novel with the centre-interlocking phenomena to form a vivid story, and make the novel livelier with far-reaching meanings, and meantime expose the dark side of social phenomena to reveal the themes of the text more thoroughly. Thus the novel shows profound social significance: in this technocratic-business world, where on earth the literati should head for.

The Analysis of Metaphor and Symbol in Humboldt’s Gift

Abstract

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