Anti-Semitic Feeling and Paranoiac Pathology in Bellow's The Victim

Abstract

The analysis of Saul Bellow's The Victim explores the results of anti-Jewish oppressive activities and Jewish characters' search of identity in the troublesome atmosphere. Psychological problem encountered by Jewish characters is nothing more than the contemporary situation as depicted in the novel. Leventhal, in the novel, is the representative, who suffers from paronoia. As a Jew in post-war America he is in a minority and he constantly feels that people dislike him or are even persecuting him because of his Jewishness. The situation is exacerbated by the arrival of Kirby Allbee, a figure from Leventhal's past who blames him for the loss of his job three years earlier.