솔 벨로우의 단편소설 연구: 「아빠가 되기」와 「은식기」를 중심으로

A Study on Saul Bellow's Short Stories: Featuring "A Father-to-Be" and "A Silver Dish"

Saul Bellow is the author of eleven novels and numerous novellas and stories. Although he began his career with the small-scale works, he is best known for substantial novels like The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog and Humboldt's Gift. But we should not forget that he contributed excellent short stories to many periodicals and they were reprinted in three collections, Mosby's Memoirs and Other Stories(l968J, Him with His Foot in His Mouth and Other Stories(1004), and Collected Stories(200l). His short stories have received relatively little critical attention when compared with that given to the novels. In many of Bellow's works, it is evident that his novels have a close relationship with the short stories. In "A Father-to-Be," Rogin disliked the man he met in the subway. The man resembled his fiancee, Joan, and her father in appearances. And the man looked like a snob and had a nasty face, too. Rogin considered him as his future son. When Woody and the man got off at the same station, the man, without even looking at Rogin, went away in a different direction. In this story, the father-son relationship is not good at all like the other novels. Woody disliked the (future) son who met in the subway. This kind of relationship can be seen in The Victim and Seize the Day. "A Silver Dish" dramatizes the struggle between the world of distraction and the inner world, the struggle between father and son, the struggle with the problem of death. In this story, the father-son relationship is broken down but the son(Woody) still loves the father(Morris} as a man who loved him so much. This kind of relationship is very typical in Bellow's novels. And in other aspect, we can see Woody as Morris's substitute-father. When Morris was dying, Morris and Woody recovered their relationship. This kind of father-son relationship can be seen in Henderson the Rain King, Herzog, Humboldt's Gift and More Die q Heartbreak. In "A Silver Dish, n Morris deserted his wife and children when Woody was 14. But Woody did his best to support all his family. Woody left his wife but never gave up his responsibility as a caretaker for his family. Rogin in "A Father-to-Be" did his best to support his family. So Woody and Rogin can be more good-hearted men than their selfish fathers.