User:Henychová

The Dean's December is a novel by Saul Bellow published in 1982.

Themes:

•	Comparison of Budapest and Chicago Budapest – communistic regime with its brutality shocks the narrator Chicago – moral decay, crime, disastrous legal and prison system, taboos in society – public questions that should be talked about, but if you do, you take a risk of being denounced as racist, chauvinist, misogynist etc., problems with communication - “although people talked to themselves all the time, never stopped communing with themselves, nobody had a good connection or knew what racket he was in – his real racket” In both – diminishing of human factor – people live in a strange environment – „the whirling“ or „turbulences“ (as Corde calls it) around them makes them do strange things, they kind of try to escape – need a release. They behave like „outsides without insides“, „the slums“, „inner cities“ we have got inside of us. •	Corde – Bellow and racism Corde - denounced as a racist because of the way he talks about the black – „black underclass, doomed people, lumpen population“. Bellow - Bellow's attitude to the blacks also aroused debate. Defence of both – just describing the state of things, do not mean to offend any race – their words were misinterpreted by the media. Besides – Corde thinks very highly of two blackmen – Rufus Ridhpath (former director of Chicago County Jail) and Toby Winthrop (who runs a detoxification centre). •	Exploring „the Self“ (own inside) – influence by C.Jung Involuntary solitude in his wife’s old room allows Corde think over all the events that happened recently in his life and he is exploring the motives of his behaviour – writing the articles about crazed violence of the black prisoners in the Chicago County Jail and pressing for the arrest of the two black people for murder of a white graduate student and also his perception of other people – his wife, mother in law, his sister, nephew, cousin, etc. •	Environmental issues – ecology dangers of lead – from automobile emissions and paint in particular - the author expresses the idea (through the character of Beech – a chemist) that „crime and social disorganization in inner city can all be traced to the effects of lead. It comes down to the nerves, to brain damage.“ •	Portrait of women – the author stresses their feminity, no matter if they are old or young, beautiful or not very pretty. It does not seem that Corde understands them completely, but he certainly shows his respect for them. Once a „skirt chaser“ now he is a faithful husband who really loves and cares for his wife, mother in law, even his wife’s aunt and his sister. Some of female characters in the book are strong, smart and independent women, others are more dependent on people around them and need support. ˈ