(Non)Assistants in Saul Bellow's Novels: A Study on Unfinished Characters

Abstract

Saul Bellow’s characters, aware of their inadequacies, often struggle amid troubles rooted in what is lost or forgotten, seeking personal, cultural, and universal renewal. In this pursuit, Bellow introduces assistant-characters in the Kafkaesque tradition, defined by Benjamin and Agamben as would-be helpers whose half-knowledge and half-skill hinder more than aid. These unfinished, in-between figures—neither fully members nor strangers—embody traces of the forgotten. This study examines such assistants in Bellow’s novels: Augie March, the picaro resisting fixed identities; Dr. Tamkin, Cantabile, and Gersbach, who catalyze insight through flawed guidance; and Humboldt and Ravelstein, whose gifts recall oblivion and mortality. Figures like Corde, Herzog, and Henderson emerge as “viziers” bearing messianic truths unheeded in materialist times. By reimagining the assistant-character as both obstacle and catalyst, Bellow reveals the ethical and existential tensions of modern life, where redemption arises through flawed companionship and the persistent, if paradoxical, presence of what is forgotten.