Saul Bellow's Mr. Sammler's Planet explores the world seen through the lens of the title character, a world of isolation and disinterest. All of the characters in the novel have disengaged from society and humanity to one degree or another, either voluntarily like Mr. Sammler himself, kicking and screaming like the black pickpocket, or gracefully like Elya Gruner as he resigns himself to the inevitable . This powerful sense of detachment from what makes us human is the driving theme of the novel. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay We see each of the characters attempt to overcome this sense of loss through the archaic eye of Artur Sammler, a relic of times gone by who, as Govinda Lal would say, is an example of humanity: “At best, a clumsy thing, with the dawning awareness of the subtlety of the internal organization employed in the grossness”. (186) Mr. Sammler, the most marginalized of the characters, acts more as an observer of the events around him than as a force in the outside world. His unique position as advisor and confidant to the other characters encountered in the novel allows us to understand both their personal problems and the general pattern of social problems that have caused Mr. Sammler to detach himself from the world. Almost the entire plot focuses on the conflicts created by the characters in an attempt to combat the isolation they feel on a conscious or unconscious level. Mr. Sammler's repeated encounters with the black pickpocket, the theft of Govinda Lal's manuscript, Wallace and Feffer's business schemes, Angela's sexual escapades, and Elya's death are all effects or causes of this invisible burden of isolation . The moon, a persistent symbol throughout the novel, also connects to and reflects this feeling of selflessness that permeates Mr. Sammler's thinking and the theme of the novel. Since Mr. Sammler is the filter through which we view the other characters in the novel, it is necessary to examine him and the unique set of experiences through which he has lived before we can understand how his point of view projects onto the people around him . Sammler grew up in Krakow, but from an early age was disinterested in life in Poland: "Sammler as a schoolboy in Krakow before the First World War fell in love with England." (3) Mr. Sammler left his homeland for London and reinvented himself as a British Oxford type, separating himself from his old life. After experiencing the Holocaust, Mr. Sammler arrives in New York, once again freeing himself from his past. “On the moon? But I don't want to go to Europe either,” Sammler tells Wallace. (151) This pattern of abandonment of what Sammler considers past lives is firmly established throughout the novel. Even his profession as a journalist requires him to separate himself from what he observes. Years of reporting have trained Sammler to act as a spectator rather than a participant in life. If the detachment Sammler felt as a child in Poland or as a reporter in London had not already left a profound impact on Sammler, then the Holocaust certainly did. . Mr. Sammler survived several encounters with death, first by digging his own grave with his wife and other Jews, then in the winter forest and finally hiding in a grave from the Poles. He viewed each of these experiences as the end of separate lives, and everything that happened after them was detached from the person experiencing them. Mr. Sammler realizes that these events have changed him, transformed him into something different. He tells Lal, “And now I know that humanity marks certain people for death. A door closes against them. Shula and mewe were in this canceled category. If you still have the chance to live, having been outside leaves you with idiosyncrasies. (190)In fact, Lal is the only character besides Elya with whom Mr. Sammler feels a genuine connection.Sammler realizes this during the conversation in Gruner's kitchen. “A strange thing happened. He felt like he was about to say everything he thought. Out loud!" thinks Sammler. (186) Lal has a similar set of experiences and a similar scholastic perspective on the world, which awakens in Mr. Sammler the old feelings of learned discussion among intellectuals that he once had in London. In this way something of benefit comes from Shula's actions with the Govinda manuscript with the intent of both spurring his father's book and attracting the attention of the Doctor himself, he has instead discovered a man with whom his father can identify. The attempt to resolve his isolation fails, but he inadvertently helps Margotte and Sammler find a connection with the outside world. This is not lost on Sammler, who is happy to have found a new friend, especially with the impending loss of Elya. looms over him. The other and stranger connection Mr. Sammler makes in the novel is with the unnamed black pickpocket. He is fascinated by the man and feels a strange connection with him: "It was a powerful and illicit event. that is, against his own stable principles, he desired it to be repeated." (7) Although Sammler disapproves of the pickpocket's action and even tries to report his account to the police, when he witnesses the crime he feels a certain enlightenment of his senses. He is fascinated by the pickpocket, his powerful figure, his delicate technique, his well-dressed manner. His thoughts return to the man and not even the threat uttered in the lobby of Sammler's building manages to dissuade his fascination for that man. He ruminates much later on the meaning of the act and the significance of his method of execution. In a sense the pickpocket represents the dark side of human nature, the compulsion to steal or otherwise do evil. Sammler himself stated that he took pleasure in killing a soldier in the forest during the war: “Killing the man he had ambushed in the snow had given him pleasure. Was it just pleasure? It was more. It was a joy. (115) This fascination with the pickpocket makes Sammler feel alive and brings him back from his disinterest into the outside world. Mr. Sammler felt a similar closeness to life after shooting the soldier: “When he fired the gun, Sammler, himself almost a corpse, exploded into life.” (115)Even for a man like Mr. Sammler the world seems fresh and young when viewed from the extremes. The pickpocket's observation allows Sammler to glimpse this extreme action he once felt in the forest. Eventually Sammler even begins to sympathize with the pickpocket. When Eisen attacks him with the bag of medallions, Sammler is horrified. He tries to analyze his feelings in his mind and thinks, “The boogeyman? The boogeyman was a megalomaniac. But there was a certain... a certain princeliness... He was probably a mad spirit. But crazy about the idea of ​​nobility.” (243) Mr. Sammler sees the man for what he is, a madman and a criminal, but he also finds respect in the form that the pickpockets' madness takes. Shula and Eisen are also mad, but neither has adopted this majestic way of expressing their madness. This is why Sammler respects the pickpocket. Recounting his experience hiding in the grave at the end of the war Sammler gratefully recalls that one man, Mr. Cieslakiewicz, was the only person who had not written him off. Sammler realizes that without this man he would have died. When Mr. Sammler begins torealizing that Elya Gruner is dying, he reflects that without Gruner he might not be alive either: “Well, Elya was gone. He was deprived of another thing, stripped of another creature. One more reason to live large." (259) Elya Gruner was one of the few remaining people to whom Mr. Sammler still felt connected, and her disappearance leaves Sammler even more disinterested and isolated from the world than before. Even the simple fact that Mr. Sammler is elderly becomes a further reason for his sense of detachment from modern society. If you live long enough, everyone you know dies. Elya Gruner experiences the most permanent type of detachment from humanity in the novel, death. By a stroke of luck Elya's aneurysm doesn't kill him immediately and so Gruner has the chance to come to terms with his imminent exit from the world. “With Elya there was a delay, which gives an opportunity…A chance to resolve some things. And it made your father realistic in dealing with facts that were dark,” Sammler tells Angela. (253) Gruner uses this opportunity to reach out to his children, whom he has supported without really taking an active role. Wallace and Angela feel little connection to him other than his money, and both are enraged not so much because their father is dying but because he is resisting them. Faced with death, Gruner is finally able to see the people his children have become, a "moron with a high IQ" and a girl with "eyes bulging." (146) Gruner realizes that he must do something now to reconnect with them or they will be lost forever. His plausible sense of death brings into focus the circumstances of his life, as in the case of Sammler and the pickpocket. Gruner is able to more fully perceive the isolation that afflicts him and his offspring. Elya Gruner led a disguised existence even in the prime of his life – not only did he cut himself off from the world shortly before his death. On one hand there was the loving Elya who always cared for everyone and on the other there was a man who made his living from abortions and covert mafia operations. The disconnection between the two halves of man isolated him from the world by necessity. How can a man be connected to the world if he never offers it his true face? Ultimately Elya intentionally turns away from those he loves to die alone. Elya's two sons also have problems with isolation from the world, so much so that they are unable to support Elya as he dies. Angela is a victim of what Mr. Sammler describes as the monstrous results of her newly acquired free time and freedom. His brother Wallace puts it more bluntly: “What do you know of tender feelings? Just a boy between her legs: Everyman is her lover. No, any man. (153) She is unable to separate the sexual freedom that the new society offers her from her life with Wharton Horricker. She consequently ruins her relationship with him during a date in Mexico. The inability to disconnect her sexual identity and her identity as a person isolates her from her family and friends. Angela is unable to connect with Elya in her final days due to the conflict between her and Wharton. When Mr. Sammler tries to show her this, she also distances herself from him too. Sammler realizes this: “Well, it didn't work. What he hurled at him was what the young man from Columbia had also shouted. He was out of his mind. A tall, dry, not very nice, censorious old man who puts on airs. (255) By cutting off his only confidant, he further eliminates the possibility of recovering from his problems. Wallace has problems too. He is a man of remarkable intelligence who has utterly failed to contribute anything useful to society. He's like Feffer, some kind of rich con man. Equalize the money of.