The Victim

Style and Technique

Saul Bellow’s style in «The Victim» is marked by restrained expressiveness, rich with inner tension and subtle psychological insight. The novel’s language is flexible and nuanced, allowing for the conveyance of the characters’ complex emotional movements, their inner monologues, and doubts. Bellow masterfully employs stream of consciousness, enabling the reader to penetrate the most intimate corners of Asa Leventhal’s mind, the protagonist. The dialogues sound natural, at times brusque, highlighting the conflict and disarray in the characters’ world. The author skillfully weaves symbolic details into the narrative, creating an atmosphere of anxiety and alienation. The structure of the novel is linear, yet saturated with retrospections and internal digressions, lending the story depth and layers. Bellow uses irony and subtle satire to expose the contradictions of human nature, while his descriptions of the city and everyday life possess an almost cinematic precision. Overall, «The Victim» stands as an example of psychological prose, where every artistic device serves to reveal themes of loneliness, guilt, and the search for meaning in a world full of uncertainty.