Books like The Victim

The Ecology of OppressionHow many ways are there to be a schmuck? Bellow probably includes most of them in The Victim. Over-reaction, under-reaction, mis-directed reaction, delayed reaction - Asa Leventhal has them all. He can’t be called hapless because he is aware that action is necessary; but he never seems to pick the right alternative. Leventhal is sure of himself when he should be cautious; impetuous when he should be fearful; fearful when he could act boldly in his own interests. Marriage, work, relationships are mysterious traps for Leventhal. So no matter how he acts, he has regrets. His self-doubt is monumental. He seems unable to learn from experience, and so repeats the same errors over and over. To make matters worse, Leventhal is acutely sensitive to his immediate environment. He is sympathetic; he worries about others and how they feel; he takes their part even when it is to his disadvantage. So he is constantly confronted with the need for decision about how to adapt himself to circumstances. This sensitive introversion can verge on saintliness... or mental illness.At times the internal and external dialogue approach the frustrating interchange of characters out of a Samuel Beckett play - senseless mutual incomprehension which the reader must endure along with the characters. Scruples, second thoughts, hesitations, reversals, things unsaid abound.But, unlike Beckett, Bellow interjects wonderful lyricism into almost every scene. His descriptions of what Leventhal perceives can be exquisite: “The paper frills along the shelves of the cupboard crackled in the current of the fan. It ran on the cabinet, sooty, with insectlike swiftness and a thrumming of its soft rubber blades; it suggested a fly hovering below the tarnish and heat of the ceiling and beside the scaling, many-jointed, curved pipes on which Elena hung rags to dry.”The contrast, therefore, between Leventhal’s observational delicacy and his operational effectiveness in life, as it were, is stark. “People met you once or twice and they hated you. What was the reason; what inspired it?” This is Bellovian irony. He knows well what inspires it: anti-Semitism. Leventhal meets the beast of anti-Semitism in the office, with his in-laws, in his remembered past. But he minimizes it; he lets it slide in order to maintain civilized relationships. He feels compelled to be a mensch even in the midst of simmering hostility. One must never be disagreeable if one is to survive.The reason for Leventhal’s timidity is a very specific fear, a fear shared by other Jews in the story, the fear of creating a bad reputation among the goyim. Getting a name for being uncivil, for calling out those whose anti-Semitism is expressed so casually, would be counterproductive. It would simply confirm existing prejudices. It would also jeopardize the possibility of influence, both professional and personal. So it is necessary to tolerate the verbal barbs and nasty asides lest something more dire ensue. Says the wife of one of Leventhal’s acquaintances, “People are bound not to take things too much to heart, for their own protection. You've got to use influence on them.” And you can’t do that if you complain about irrational abuse.So Bellow’s subtle issues throughout are about the morality of victimhood. Is it possible to escape from the overwhelming power of convention and prejudice? Are the oppressed complicit in their own oppression? How open can a person be in confronting the powers that dominate his life? These are issues of culture, and therefore literature, not for the popular press or the law courts. Which is why Bellow writes about them.