Herzog
...ch writes poems and is more respected for it. When Moses is unsure he writes letters to anyone he deems important i.e. Martin Luther King, Nehru, and Madeline with no intention for the most part of sending them but simply to vent. Gersbach writes poems and cries while reciting them and becomes enjoyable, sympathetic and worthy of pity. Despite their very different emotional states both Herzog and Gersbach share a love for writing and their charming demeanor. Suffering can shape a person through hard times Herzog's discussion with Dr. Edvig on page 54 of the novel is key to understanding suffering in the novel. Here, Herzog is commenting on Madeline's supposed Christian outlook in relation to Nietzsche's work. He says," Nietzsche himself had a Christian view of history, seeing the present moment always as some crisis, some fall from classical greatness, some corruption or evil to be saved from. I call that Christian. And Madeline has it, all right. To some extent many of us do." This last sentence is a great understatement. Seeing the present as some crisis of spirit is a hallmark of the intellectual culture in which Herzog was raised and to which must inevitably respond. The concern with the weakening effects of a resentment-driven standard of morality will always make people feel there is an overwhelming crisis. This agony, this intense desire to be and in that be-ing know a true direction, is Bellow’s depiction of crisis of modern man. The desire is constantly thwarted by all of the alternatives and stimuli, the cacophony of modern life. The strident and self-announcing possibilities of the modern world, of technology, of urban life, of sexuality, are often overwhelming and prevent his characters from finding truth about themselves. (Jacobs 43) Valentine follows Nietzsche’s philosophy by allowing his suffering to transform him. Considering Valentine, Herzog remarks, "Valentine spoke as a man who had risen from terrible defeat, the survivor of suffering few could comprehend, he spoke of death majestically there was no other word for it, his eyes amazingly spirited, large, rich, keen, or, thought Herzog, like the broth of his soul, hot and shining" (61). Valentine is a large, emotional man with a commanding demeanor. He is, as Herzog says, "an emotional king, and the depth of his heart was his kingdom" (61). This control, though, was not only over his own person for "he appropriated all the emotions about him, as if by divine or spiritual right. He could do more with them, and therefore he simply took them over" (61). Herzog relates su...