寻找格林先生 人生态度分析.doc

盐城师范学院毕业论文1The Analysis of Different Life Attitudes during the Great Depression in Looking for Mr. GreenDong HaoyueAbstract: Looking for Mr. Green is one of Saul Bellow’s best short stories with the Great Depression as the setting. The story is mainly about the efforts of George Grebe to deliver relief checks to the poor disabled people who live in the Southern Chicago. This paper focuses on the analysis of different life attitudes in the process of looking for Mr. Green, which includes the attitudes of marginalized intellectual class, the official class, and the poor black people. From the analysis, we can see the sharp contrast among the attitudes of different classes under the superficial turbulence, and meanwhile grasp the profound influence and literature status of Saul Bellow’s works. Keys words: Looking for Mr. Green; life attitude; Great Depression1 IntroductionSaul Bellow (1915-2005), born in Quebec, is a famous American writer of Jewish origin. Attaining prominence in the post-war era, Saul Bellow is “one of the most widely read and intellectually eclectic novelists of the Jewish American School” (Sandy, 2008:57). He was the first novelist to win the National Book Award three times. His career reached its exciting climax in 1976 when he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. Then he has become, in the words of Leslie Fiedler, “the emerging heir to the Hemingway-Faulkner prestige”(常耀信, 2008:430). His works are always about the delusive nature of modern civilization and the ability of human beings to overcome difficulties and achieve greatness or at least awareness. Looking for Mr. Green is a short story collected in Mosby’s Memories and Other Stories. In this short story, Saul Bellow describes different people’s life attitudes during the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a worldwide economic recession starting in 1929 and ending at different times in the 1930s or early 1940s. It was the largest and most serious economic depression in modern history. The Great Depression originated in the United States and began on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. The onset of the war economy of World War II put an end to the depression in America. The depression had devastating 盐城师范学院毕业论文2influences both in the developed and developing world. Personal incomes, tax revenues, prices, and profits were deeply affected. Cities all over the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. People in most countries had to suspend all kinds of construction. People’s living standards were terribly sinking down. Saul Bellow, in Looking for Mr. Green, catches the prevailing gloomy mood in economical recession. The novel is about the efforts of George Grebe, a marginalized intellect, to deliver relief checks in the Southern Chicago. Grebe, thirty-five years old and used to be an instructor of classical languages, has been frustrated by the difficult period of Great Depression to take menial jobs until an old schoolmate recommends him a position at the relief office. Grebe wants to do well at his new job despite of the lack of information, bad weather and color line. However, one of the handicapped residents called Tulliver Green is nowhere to find. From the beginning to the end, Mr. Green never appears, but Grebe believes that he can find him with his efforts. Where there is a will, there is a way. He finally finds a black woman who can represent Mr. Green. This story is actually an epitome of the American society in the period of Great Depression. The previous researches are mainly concerned with the meaning of existence or the seeking of identity, which is always the theme of Saul Bellow’s works. This paper will combine the previous achievements with the story background, which is the Great Depression. Different life attitudes can reflect the social situation and the analysis of which will help us to understand Saul Bellow’s writing intention more clearly.2 Marginalized Intellectual ClassSaul Bellow chooses the marginalized intellectual class as the ones to seek the meaning of existence, because the intellectual class are clearly aware of the disadvantage of modern civilization, that is, most people are driven to be pragmatists and mammonists, and the marginalized intellectual class have enough patience and energy to fulfill the task of seeking identity. Unlike the easy official class who keep an indifferent attitude towards others’ sufferings, the intellectual class have chances to step on the land where poor people live in. Unlike the lower class who are struggling against hunger and poverty, the intellectual class are able to earn the wage to make a living. As a representative of this class, George Grebe plays an 盐城师范学院毕业论文3important role of linkage. In the delivering task, he has contacts with both the official class and the black people, which will definitely lead him to meditation.2.1 Lack in SubsistenceGeorge Grebe, an。