The Story Archive

The Adventures of Augie March

Saul Bellow · 1953 CE · Novel · Modern / American · Contemporary

A poor boy in Depression Chicago runs errands for a crippled real-estate operator, steals textbooks to order, organises for the union and ends up in Mexico training an eagle to hunt lizards. Every patron who takes him up wants to make him into something, and he takes what he can from each without ever staying. The vernacular rush of its first page broke American fiction open in the 1950s and won the National Book Award.

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Attributes

Genre
Coming-of-AgeComedy
Theme
The American DreamIdentity & SelfJourney & QuestClass & InequalityFreedom vs Fate
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
EverymanTricksterWanderer
Plot structure
PicaresqueEpisodicBildungsroman
Symbol / motif
The CityThe JourneyWings / Flight
Conflict
vs Societyvs Self
Mode / tone
ComicRealistIronic
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

Closest analogues