THE CHARACTERISTICS OF PICARESQUE FICTION IN THE NOVEL THE ADVENTURE OF AUGIE MARCH (SAUL BELLOW)

Abstract

Picaresque novel is one of the most pre-existing genres of novels in European literature as a provocation against the typical Chivalric romance. The Adventure of Augie March by Saul Bellow is a good example of the return of this genre in the twentieth century. The novel tells the story of the varied and often aimless pursuits of a young man, Augie, growing up in the decades before and during the Great Depression, the great economic cataclysm of the 1930s. Using poetic and sociological research methods, this article focuses on clarifying the characteristics of the picaresque novel in The Adventure of Augie March. This style writing manifested in the plot of the journey, depicting a chaotic world where the main character Augie March - a typical pícaro character in modern life - become a solitary individual, an anti-hero man always seeking out the reason for his existence. The first-person autobiographical narrative and the satire are also classic principles of picaresque genre that can be found in this novel. It can be sail, The Adventure of Augie March is a rebirth of the picaresque novel genre in Saul Bellow's own way to convey contemporary problems. Thereby the readers realize the modern anti-hero is not similar to the heroic figure of the romance, for his world is chaos and he struggles to merely survive, In a world that ignores the rules of chivalry, the only workable rule is every man for himself.