Winds of Change: Family Dynamics in Saul Bellow’s Herzog

Abstract:
Jean-Jacques Rousseau‘s famous line “Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains” (The
Social Contract 14), can be taken as a statement against human bondage not only in society but
also in the family in which he or she is born. The postmodernists challenge the concepts of
home ‘and family’ and regard them as a place where the freedom and the individual’s peace of
mind are destroyed. The present paper is an attempt to capture how Saul Bellow, a
contemporary Jewish-American novelist, has responded to the winds of change in family
relationships