1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述）

saul bellow was a jewish canadian-american writer. for his literary work, bellow was awarded the pulitzer prize, the nobel prize for literature, and the national medal of arts. according to the swedish nobel committee, his writing exhibited "the mixture of rich picaresque novel and subtle analysis of our culture, of entertaining adventure, drastic and tragic episodes in quick succession interspersed with philosophic conversation, all developed by a commentator with a witty tongue and penetrating insight into the outer and inner complications that drive us to act, or prevent us from acting, and that can be called the dilemma of our age." his best-known works include the adventures of augie march, henderson the rain king, herzog, mr. sammler's planet, seize the day, humboldt's gift and ravelstein. widely regarded as one of the 20th century's greatest authors, bellow has exerted great influence not only in american literature but in world literature. his fiction consistently reveals a decidedly philosophical register, particularly as he celebrates depth of personhood in his characters while denigrating superficiality.

in the 1960s, bellow was no doubt the person whose works had been commented most times. and ten years later, kulshrestha said that the whole research about bellow had reached the scale of a growing mini-industry. foreign critics paid much attention to the transcendentalism and religion that revealed in his works. clayton explored the inner world of characters in his works by using psychoanalysis theory, and felt the desperate view of life that occupied the works.

the translation of bellow’s works began in 1981, and then a lager number of translation versions sprung up like mushrooms. in china, for several reasons, the study of bellow started late and was lack of systematic investigation. until 21th century, chinese scholars have devoted to the rapid development of bellow’s study, the quality is increasing and the perspectives are diverse. for instance, at first they tended to analyze his works from jewish literature, trying to figure the common sense among those jewish writers. as time goes by, the research perspectives show a trend of diversity, the themes involve “father and son”, “stray”, “history”, “religion”, “identity” and so on.

however, no matter at home or abroad, there are a few papers analyzing bellow’s short story a father-to-be. in this paper, the author will probe into the deep relationship between reality and spirit through the facts and details. it shows how the outside world imperceptibly influences the inner world of the main character, especially his economic relation with his girlfriend. the author will explain the practical significance of reviewing interpersonal relation in modern society based on this short story.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

it is easy to find that the main character in a father-to-be suffers a lot from the reality. in other words, his spiritual annoyance like anxiety, worry and hesitation are all triggered by the actual world. from that the relationship between the real and spiritual worlds is clear. in this short story, bellow depicts a typical jewish intellectual. from surface, it seems that the jews in bellow's writing come into american mainstream society by achieving high education. but actually characters in his stories are closely related to business life. in this story, the burden of outside world make rogin, the main character, wake up from daydreaming.

in this paper, the author probes into the deep relation between the two worlds- real world and spiritual world. first, his dress up, words and action reflect his great care about himself. his girlfriend who depends on him financially spends money like water, besides his mother also relies on him. to them, he is also a source of income. so he faces with great pressure of economy. mother can not be easily abandoned, while girlfriend can. he wants to break up with his girlfriend, especially when he sees a nasty man in the subway. he can not help himself considering that this man is his girlfriend's father, at that time he begins to imagine the picture of his son. he is afraid of the hopeless and horrible future if nothing changes, which is the true reflection of his strong stress. so he determines to get rid of his girlfriend. by posing different examples and making explanation, the author will illustrate the interrelation of reality and spirit, and the origins of the unconscious illusion.

the aim of this paper is to analyze a short story with a relatively new perspective, thus finding a new way of appreciating this story.

3. 研究计划与安排

Before 15th, January settlement of the title
before 25th, February submission of the outline
before 25th, April submission of the first draft
before 24th, May revision of the draft
before 30th, May, submission of the final paper

4. 参考文献（12篇以上）

[1] chavkin, a. (1983). fathers and sons: 'papa' hemingway and saul bellow. papers on language amp; literature, 19(4), 449.

[2] cronin, g. l., amp; chavkin, a. (2011). saul bellow: the critical reception. critical insights: saul bellow, 89-105.saul bellow, 321-332.

[3] gordon, a., amp; chavkin, a. (2011). shame and saul bellow's "something to remember me by.".

[4] hassan, i. (2016). saul bellow. antioch review, 74(1), 190-198.