Jewish Vision in “More Die of Heartbreak”

JEWISH VISION
IN “MORE DIE OF HEARTBREAK”

SAUL BELLOW’S More Die of Heartbreak ¹(1987) articulates a powerful dia­lectic against the nihilistic despair of most con­temporary Western literature. It tells the story of Benn, an eminent botanist, whose misalli­ance with Matilda Laymon, a rich beauty, takes him to the abyss of existential despair. Kenneth Trachtenberg, narrator and nephew of Benn, provides moral commentary on Benn’s actions. Eventually, the protagonist Benn leaves for the North Pole to observe lichens surviving against odds there. Symbolic in purport, this means that for all the “cosmic coldness of life” it is still possible that human values are not wholly dead.

Affirmative in tone, More Die of Heart­break exhibits a distinct Jewish sensibility at work. The Jewishness of this novel, however, is not demonstrably manifested in the protagonist’s rhetoric but often forms the substratum of his consciousness. It is this Jewish conscious­ness which redeems the protagonist from the clutches of nihilistic despair and illumines his quest for the enduring.

As in other novels of Bellow, the kind of Jewish milieu depicted here is assimilated in character. Such inevitable dissolution into the broth of the WASP culture is much bemoaned by Kenneth, a la Bellow: “As to Jews, for centuries they combined antiquity with modernity. You could almost see the archaic man in a con­temporary Jew. But America has broken all that down”. (317) Essentially, the process of assimilation has divested a Jew of all his “chosen” glory and left him a victim of the histori­cal forces. However, it is still possible that remnants of his elevated past might operate un­consciously in a Jew trapped in the contemporary American wasteland.

It is Benn Crader and his nephew Ken­neth in whom the dynamics of their ancestral Jewish faith emerges attesting to certain unas­similable traits in their capacity as Jews. Excepting Benn and Kenneth all other Jewish characters are almost wholly assimilated into the WASP world. Thus, Benn and Kenneth pre­serve at the core of their hearts certain values – not always clear about it themselves ­which are recognisably Jewish. To disburden the consciousness of its clutter gathered among the Gentiles becomes a compulsive need for them. Triggered by it, they dive into the myste­rious zones of the self and discover there the reserves of Jewish moral stamina. This aware­ness of the “deeper sources” of life ushers in them a larger clarity in vision.

Bellow unmistakably operates a dialec­tic of values in More Die of Heartbreak as in his other novels. It is clear that in showing the paltriness of the WASP values, Bellow implicitly argues for certain values embodied in his protagonist which arc Jewish. While death and despair haunt the WASP consciousness, the surfacing Jewish consciousness in Benn moves towards those impulses celebrated in the Judaic religion. The differences between these two value-systems are developed at various levels. An investigation of the essential Jewish sensi­bility of his protagonist would throw light on the distinctions between these rival traditions.

The most Jewish trait observed in Bel­low’s protagonist is his intense family feeling. In More Die of Heartbreak, this particular quality is shown in relief against the disjointed fragmentary nature of the family structure in the WASP and the assimilated Jewish milieu. To cite an instance, relationship among the Trachtenbergs is devoid of deep filial feelings. Similarly, in the Layamon family the relation­ship is sophisticated enough not to betray any feelings. The wealthy Vilitzers maintain busi­ness-like relations with one another and there is also evidence of permanent estrangement as between Vilitzer and his son Fishl. In such a loveless world, it is Benn who carries the chal­ice of love with devotion. Cherishing fond memories of childhood at Jefferson street, he is still a child at heart trying to perpetuate love and togetherness. Knowing full well that his uncle, Vilitzer, had defrauded him a lot of his money, he is yet large-hearted enough to for­give him.

The death of Vilitzer brings him re­morse because he had brought pressure to bear on him, having been instigated by the Layamons to recover his share of wealth. Benn’s family feeling is distinguished by its sentimentality and a deep need to reflect on the remote origins of his race. Through Kenneth, it is learnt that Benn “was a man of feeling, espe­cially family feeling, and pious about his par­ents” (18). Narrating his inner feeling at the death of Vilitzer, Benn says: “ But when the rabbi began to chant the El Malai Rachamim at the conclusion, I lost control and started to sob, thinking whether the God of Mercy would ever receive the likes of Harold’s soul” (328). What Matilda says in disgust at his supposed hang-ups about the Jewish past truly signifies Benn’s love of his roots: “But you have this steerage mentality – you’ve got the whole Russian-Hebrew Arabic routine, and this in­cludes Egypt and the Babylonian captivity. Let’s try to be a little more real. (125) For Benn who believes that it is “love that makes reality reality.” It is the past which is real and the pres­ent would become so only when he succeeds in investing it with love.

A major feature of the redeeming Jew­ish vision in More Die of Heartbreak consists in the use of the schlemiel figure. Like Moses Herzog, Benn is an academic schlemie – high­minded but confused precisely for the same reason. He represents innocence of a king which is necessary for the perpetuation of life. Benn is pitted against a world which has made up its mind on all the important questions of life. However, he fails to be disparaged by the rebuffs of the world and persists in his quest for the eternal. While his innocence fails him in matters of the world and makes him a laughing-stock, it also ensures his kinship with the “Citizen(s) of Eternity” (69). Benn’s chronicle of illtreatment at the hands of the tough waste­landers Vilitzer and the Layamons is owing to this particular quality of innocence. His failure with women also arises out of it.

Ellen Pifer perceptively highlights this aspect in arguing: “The novel focuses on the familiar Bellow situation of the intelligent man totally inept and victimized in his relationships with women; as usual, this situation is part of the larger one of the simple hearted man among the Machiavellians.² Paradoxically, Benn’s re­covery from the grisly perils of the wasteland is also attributable to it. Keneth’s father considers Benn’s a “schiump.” Somebody who is “incom­petent” and becomes a “fun figure” for the same reason (39). Admirer of Benn though, Kenneth himself sees him as a “schnook” (119) when Benn becomes ecstatic about Matilda. However, the deception that Benn undergoes is a necessary phase before he attains to a firm grip on his life.

To conclude, More Die of Heartbreak assigns the Jewish experience a vital role in evolving a positive world view that counters the excesses of the wasteland outlook. Benn Crader, the protagonist, signifies the moral approach of the Judaic way of life and this moral consciousness guides him through chaos into clarity. An integral part of his affirming world view, Bellow’s Jewish sensibility develops a masculine if qualified affirmation of life. There is no escape into the pastorals or into meek worlds of religious abstractions: there is an acceptance of the earthly life as it is and a com­mitment to work for betterment, since “heaven is always earth redeemed” to the realistic Jew­ish mind.

NOTES
¹ Saul Bellow. More Die of Heartbreak (London: Alison Press, Seeker & Werburg, 1987: rpt. New York: Penguin Books, 1988). Subsequent page numbers for quotations from the novel will be given in parentheses in the text.

² Ellen Pifer, Saul Bellow: Against the Grain (Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1990), 70.