Abstract

The Jewish- American novelist Saul Bellow has written most of his novels full of Jewish
ethnicity, views, and characters. However, he always had an opposing attitude to what he
calls the parochial pigeonholing tendency. Even though he has dealt with specific Jewish
ethnicity, he tries to picture it as emblematic of human beings in general. Bellow has made
a name for himself as a humanistic and ethical writer. Critics have a dispute in their
opinion that "Humboldt's Gift," Saul Bellow wrote the novel in 1975, which received the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1976, is a work of Scholenhauerian pessimism that favors
asceticism. There might be ideological controversy among the critics, but the characters of
Humboldt's Gift show the typical way of Jewish life. The metaphysical problem between
life and death, portrayed in the novel, is closely connected to Jewish Philosophy. The
protagonists of Saul Bellow are the epitome of humanitarianism who abide by the qualities
like humanity, dignity, and responsibility. These qualities consist of the optimistic ethical
thoughts which are evolved in Jewish ethnicity. Bellow’s characters try to find out the way
to establish the supreme of humanism. This research paper inspects how far this
humanism is interrelated with his Jewish themes and how far his vignette sketches upon
the Jewish heritage.