Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Saul Bellow was a Canadian-born author who settled in America. His parents were Jewish migrants from Russia. He was born on June 10, 1915, and died on April 5, 2005.
The Adventures of Augie March was the third novel by Saul Bellow that was published in 1953. It is a picaresque novel with numerous episodes surrounding a likable rogue character of low birth (the picaro). The novel is often termed a twentieth-century rendition of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The novel is also a fine example of the Bildungsroman style as it is structured around the development of the protagonist Augie March into maturity in an autobiographical manner. Saul Bellow won the 1954 National Book Award for Fiction and was also awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize for Literature, partly for The Adventures of Augie March.
The novel tells the story of Augie who grows up during the Great Depression and then sees the days of the Second World War.
Characters of The Adventures of Augie March:
Augie March is a Jewish American boy from Chicago whose family is suffering poverty during the Great Depression. Augie continues to grow up and travels through Mexico and Europe, doing various jobs and businesses, joining the War, and finally marrying and settling in Paris. Augie’s mother Rebecca (or Mama) is a simple-minded poor woman who grows her three sons. Simon is Augie’s elder brother who is the topper of his high school class. Simon’s girlfriend Cissy Flexner rejects him for a wealthier man and then Simon woos a rich girl Charlotte Magnus and marries him. After marriage, he manages the coal mining business of his father-in-law and becomes hugely successful. Georgie is Augie’s younger brother who is autistic or ‘idiot’ by birth. Grandma Lausch is an old lady who assists Mama in the upbringing of the boys. She teaches the boys what she learned from her experience as the wife of a successful businessman. She is Machiavellian in nature and believes that the ends justify the means. Einhorn is a crippled old man and an entrepreneur who guides Augie and employs him. Einhorn’s son Arthur wishes to be a poet. Einhorn suffers great losses during the Great Crash. Mr. Renling is a wealthy sporting goods businessman in Evanston who employs Augie. His wife, Mrs. Renling specially likes Augie and takes him with her to holiday parties. Augie meets a beautiful girl Esther Frenschel during such a party and falls in love with her. However, Esther rejects him because she feels Augie is Mrs. Reneling’s gigolo. Her sister Thea becomes infatuated with Augie and develops an affair. Joe Gorman is a well-known criminal who meets Augie in Chicago and appoints him as a partner to rob a leather goods store. Later on, he offers Augie a job to assist him in the illegal importation of immigrants over the Canadian border. Five Properties is a real estate magnate, a rich businessman whom Cissy Flexner marries after rejecting Simon. Mimi-Villar is an attractive waitress who works at a student hash house near the University of Chicago. Augie lives in the same student house where Mimi works and lives. He befriends her while she dates his friend Frazer. Lucy is Charlotte Magnus’s younger sister who falls in love with Augie. Stella is a beautiful woman dating Oliver. When Oliver gets arrested, she asks for the help of Augie to escape to Mexico City. She and Augie fall in love and later on, they marry and settle in Paris where Stella works as an actor for an international film company. Renee is Simon’s assistant at work. She traps Simon and becomes his mistress. She accuses Simon of impregnating her and files a lawsuit but Charlotte intervenes and saves Simon. Robey is an eccentric millionaire of Chicago who appoints Augie to assist him in writing a book on human happiness. Jimmy Klien is a childhood friend of Augie and worked with him at departmental stores. Later on, he becomes a police officer. Clem Tambow is Jimmy’s cousin and a student of psychology at the University of Chicago. He loves Mimi and hence befriends Augie. He advises Augie to join the Army and go to the war. Mintouchain is a successful, older Armenian divorce lawyer in New York. He asks Augie to manage his black market dealings in Europe. Basteshaw is also a native of Chicago whom Augie meets during the war. They survive a shipwreck. Jacqueline is Augie and Stella’s housemaid in Paris.
Summary of The Adventures of Augie March:
The novel begins in Chicago during the Great Depression period. Mama (Rebecca) is raising her three little kids in a poverty-stricken situation. She is a Jew, a simple, kind-hearted woman. It is not known if her husband is dead or if he abandoned her. Simon is her eldest son who is a bright student. Augie is the younger son who is not so bright in education and Georgie is the youngest whom everyone calls an ‘idiot,’ as he appears to be mentally challenged. Rebecca’s eyesight is weak. They are living on rent in a house owned by an old lady whom the kids call Grandma Lausch. She is lonely as her real sons have gone to work and nobody knows much about them.
Grandma Lausch is a scheming woman with an eccentric view of the world. She is cynical and Machiavellian and believes that the ends justify the means. She is dominating and in the absence of their father, she tries to control the boys as their mother is working and half-blind. She forces Simon and Augie to seek a job at the age of twelve so that they may help in raising the family and paying the rent.
As Simon grows old, he begins rebelling against Grandma Lausch and this creates a power struggle within the house. Mama loves her kids but she is completely submissive to Grandma Lausch and doesn’t oppose her much. Grandma Lausch forces the family to send Georgie in an asylum as she thinks he is mentally challenged. This further creates tension in the family. Simon, being older decides to take a corrective course and begins finding out about the sons of Grandma Lausch. With their help, Simon succeeds in sending Grandma Lausch to a nursing home, citing her growing dementia as the reason for her institutionalization.
When Augie enters High School, he loses attention in his studies and begins working for Einorn who is a cripple but an excellent entrepreneur and real-estate tycoon. Augie gets too impressed by him and considers him a father figure. Einhorn appoints Augie as his assistant. Augie becomes closer to Einhorn than his own son Arthur who is negligent towards Einhorn’s business and wishes to become a poet. Though Einhorn is partially paralyzed, he is very hard-working and intelligent. However, he made most of his fortune through shady businesses. As the stock market crashes, Einhorn loses most of his money. Yet, he takes the loss with optimism and decides to work hard again. Meanwhile, Augie and Simon clear their High School exams. Simon tops the class and becomes the high school valedictorian. Augie too passes the exam and to celebrate the occasion, Einhorn takes him to a brothel and offers him drinks.
Einhorn learns that Augie has made acquaintance with Joe Gormon, a known criminal who appoints Augie in a robbery of a leather goods shop as his assistant. Einhorn admonishes Augie and encourages him to opt for higher studies. Augie then chooses to go to Evanston to get admission to a college at the University of Chicago. He also manages to get a sporting goods sales job. The business is owned by a wealthy old man Mr. Renling who offers Augie a place to live. Mrs. Renling finds Augie very polite and begins considering him as her own son as Renlings are childless. She arranges for his riding lessons and other courses at Northwestern. During the summer holidays, Mrs. Renling takes Augie to a picnic where he meets Esther Frenchel, a beautiful girl in her twenties, and falls in love with her. However, Esther rejects Augie but her younger sister Thea is impressed by him and leaves him a letter that she loves him and that in the future, she will meet him.
After returning to Evanston, Mr. Renling shows his desire to officially adopt Augie as their son and heir of their property and business. Augie declines the offer and infuriates Mrs. Renling and then he is forced to go back to Chicago. Augie meets Joe Gorman again who asks him to be his partner in transporting illegal immigrants into the country. Augie declines the job but agrees to help Joe drive the car out East. On their way, the police track them and Joe Gorman gets arrested. Augie escapes and returns to Chicago through hitchhiking in freight trains.
When he reaches home, he sees that his mother is living alone and she is almost blind now. He learns that Grandma Lausch died away and Simon is absconding as he took too much loan to the betting pool. Simon also sold most of the furniture in the home. He wished to become rich instantly to marry his girlfriend Cissy Flexner who ditched Simon to marry Five Properties, a cousin of Simon and Augie, who is a rich real estate tycoon. Simon was too disappointed and angry at this. He committed some violence and spent a night in jail and then he absconded.
Augie begins seeking jobs and helping his mother. He begins selling books and settles in a small room near the Chicago University where he meets Mimi Villars. She is an attractive waitress who is dating Oliver. Oliver impregnates him and Mimi seeks Augie’s help in aborting the child. After some days, he learns that Simon has married into a wealthy family, taking coal heiress Charlotte Magnus as his wife. Simon wants Augie to marry Charlotte's cousin, Lucy, to gain access to even more of the Magnus family's money. Augie, however, becomes involved in a scandal when he gets caught helping his friend Mimi Villars obtain an illegal abortion. Both the Magnus family and Simon renounce Augie.
One night, Augie hears a knock on his door and as he opens, he finds Thea Frenschel outside. She came looking for him. Augie falls in love with her and they begin living together. Soon Augie learns that Thea is an eccentric girl. She is very honest but violent and fierce. She loves hunting. Thea persuades Augie to travel to Mexico where they settle with a family, living on rent. Thea begins training a hunting hawk. The hawk fails their expectations and Augie meets an accident while training the hawk. Thea then sends the hawk to a zoo and begins collecting venomous snakes. Augie finds Thea’s passion for hunting somewhat crazy and begins seeking some way to get out of the relationship. Meanwhile, he meets Stella who is trying to escape from Mexico City. She asks for his help but Thea is not interested. Augie insists that he should help Stalla out and persuades Thea to let him take Stella halfway. During the travel, Augie sleeps with Stella and when he returns, Thea surmises what might have happened and leaves Augie.
Augie returns to Chicago and learns that Simon has now become a hugely successful businessman. Simon forgives Augie and helps him find a job as an assistant of a rich millionaire tycoon Robey who is attempting to write a book on the history of human happiness. Augie also begins to teach at a local school. Augie learns that Simon has been trapped by his assistant Renee. Augie meets his childhood friend Clem Tambow who notices that Augie has changed. Augie tells him that his dream is to start a school, live with his mother and Georgie, marry a good woman, and raise a family of his own. Clem on the other hand encourages him to join the war.
Augie finally enlists in the army and goes to New York for training. In New York, he meets Stella again and they decide to marry. Stella introduces Augie to a man named Mintouchain who is a successful divorce lawyer. He is having an affair with a friend of Stella. Mintouchain lectures Augie on the tricks of adultery and a happy married life.
Just two days after their marriage, Augie is ordered to join a warship. During their travel, Augie’s ship is attacked by a torpedo and it sinks. Augie somehow survives along with a fellow man named Basteshaw from Chicago who worked as the ship’s carpenter. Soon Augie learns that Basteshaw is a man person with some crazy ideas. Basteshaw plans to take the lifeboat to the Canary Islands, where he can continue his mad experiments in peace, and he ties Augie up when he attempts to signal a passing ship for help. At night, Augie frees himself and takes the help of a British tanker to get away from Basteshaw.
After returning to New York, Augie convinces Stella to go to Europe and they settle in Paris where Stella begins working as an actor at an international film company. Augie begins managing Mintouchain’s dealings in Europe. Gradually, they begin leading a comfortable life. Simon and Charlotte visit them in Paris. Augie asks Simon about Renee and learns that she tried to trap and blackmail him by falsely accusing him of impregnating her. When Simon didn’t succumb to her threats, she sued him. Charlotte came to know all about it and she rescued Simon from Renee’s tricks. Augie realizes that though Simon loves Charlotte, he is disappointed because Charlotte cannot become a mother. Augie himself is not satisfied with Stella and his inability to secure a real profession.
One day, Augie’s housemaid Jacqueline tells him that she wishes to go to Mexico to which Augie laughs and says that he took a whole life to get out of that ditch. He says that he is like Christopher Columbus, who has truly discovered America. The novel ends on this note.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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