Basic HTML Version
10
JEWISH BOOK ANNUAL
ism. Smashing the idea o f individuality, they have ru in ed the
h ea r t o f the city.
In America, in Bellow’s view, economic changes as well as politi
cal strategies have made the skills developed by city people for
negotiating the ir te rra in obsolete. Federal aid offered to u n fo r tu
nate city immigrants, especially its unemp loyed black inner-city
population , does no t change the situation. T h e difficult rights o f
citizenship no longer make a difference in the conduct o f daily
u rban life, now characterized by violence, demagoguery, and
chaos.
N either Dean Corde no r the o the r characters o f
The Dean’s
December
are Jews. Nevertheless, Bellow’s theme has its source in
the historical situation o f the Jew in the m odern cities o f the west.
His work has cha rted the ir relationship, and his most recen t novel
underlines the fact tha t the desperate situation o f the American
city can only lead to despair for the American, and the con tem po
rary Jew. His situation is representative o f the state o f western
cu lture, his life an index both to its achievements and its dilem
mas. What is possible for the west and the Jew, Bellow asks, now
tha t the city has lost its center.
T he power o f Saul Bellow’s vision o f the degeneration o f the
city in
The Dean’s December
in good measure derives from this link.
When there is no th ing to be a citizen of, the Jew is naked before
the onslaught o f mode rn history, having lost the tu r f which is the
con temporary condition o f his existence. T o articulate these
(im)possibilities o f the u rban situation as Bellow has done is to
define the ironies o f the modern , as well as the Jewish, condition.
NOVELISTIC RESPONSE
E.L. Doctorow’s novel
Ragtime,
published in 1976, treats the
same condition with an optimistic lightness — o r at least some
kind o f a happy ending. His novel syncopates the historical
rhy thm s o f urban American Jewish life to allow the ironic sp rung
rhy thm o f ragtime the chance to make its comment. T h e world
tha t defeats the Jewish imm igrant, T a teh , welcomes him as the
Baron Ashkenasy. Marrying a
shiksa,
the Baron makes his way to
Hollywood, fame, and fortune , as the crea to r o f a movie serial,
“T he Little Rascals,” which embodies the values o f city life. T he
life T a teh could no t lead becomes the substance o f the endu r ing
a r t o f the Baron. “One morn ing T a teh looked ou t the window o f