摘要

索尔•贝娄是继海明威和福克纳之后，二战后美国文坛上最重要的小说家。他以“对当代文化富于人性的理解和分析”著称，作品也大都以知识分子的迷茫和自我寻找为主题，并受到国内外学者的广泛关注。然而，先前研究都注重对其代表作《挂起来的人》，《争分夺秒》，《赫索格》等的多角度分析，却少有发现在他的短篇小说集《莫斯比回忆》里也充满了强烈的存在主义的观点，与他的前期作品相比，他的小说集以简短精炼的文字更加突出的反映了这一主题。
本篇论文则以短篇小说集里《寻找格林先生》为案例，采用主题分析的方法解读作品中表现出来的存在主义主题,透过寻找格林的过程中遇见的不同人物所表现出来的人生价值观的对比以揭示生命的意义。那就是，人生是个不断寻找的过程，人们可以通过自身的努力和挣扎来获得超自然的力量以保持自己的个性，尽管现代文明以每数十年的周期遭到破坏并重建。本论文分为四个部分，首先是《寻找格林先生》故事梗概，接着简要陈述存在主义的相关观点，然后着重分析寻找过程中出现的主要人物的性格特点，最后得出结论，重申生命存在的意义并指出其现实意义。

关键词：存在主义， 物质文明， 人物性格分析， 生命的真谛

ABSTRACT

Saul Bellow is one of the most important novelists in the United States after World War, comparable with Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner in terms of literary achievements. “The human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work” has affected a large body of researches on Bellow’s work. However, most of the critical studies are about his representative novels, such as Dangling Man, Seize the Day, Herzog. By contrast, much fewer studies focus on his short stories, for example, Mosby’s Memoirs and Other Stories, which shows the same concern for the meaning of existence with his novels.
The present paper concentrates on the analysis of “Looking for Mr. Green,” one of one of Bellow’s most well-know short stories. By means of  thematic analysis, the paper contends that this short story carries an existentialist view of life, that is, life is an endless looking-for and pursuing process, and people could maintain their own personalities and regain the supernatural power through their struggle, even though the modern civilization will be destroyed in the cycle of dozens years. The paper divides into 4 parts. After a brief review of the precedent studies on Bellow’s works and a general introduction to “Looking for Mr. Green,” the paper proceeds to analyze the value of the major characters whom Grebe have encountered in his looking-for process, recurring to some conception of existentialism. And then it comes to the conclusion part restating the abiding significance of existentialism theme in Bellow’s works and its practical impact on modern society.

Key Words: Existentialism，material civilization，character analysis，meaning of life