Adventure – Satire and Parody - Picaresque
The Adventures of Augie March is usually classified as a picaresque novel—a style of prose marked by satire, humor, and what we might call an over-the-top realism. The genre typically features a low class drifter, often a rogue, whose episodic adventures shine a light on the corrupt society in which he lives.
Augie fits the "picaro" character mold pretty well. He's not overly concerned with right and wrong. He can't keep a job. His adventures take him into the worlds of both the rich and the poor. We wouldn't entirely call him an amoral rogue, however. For all his faults and failings, Augie has a moral compass and a set of principles. He loves and honors his family. He refuses to lose his hope. He'll sacrifice his reputation and his future to help a friend in need. He's the kind of guy we could see ourselves kicking back with over a nice tall glass of clamato juice.
Bellow uses the picaresque genre style, but with more nuance and depth than the rules of the genre call for. Augie is in many ways a good man, even if he can be a rascal at times. He doesn't avoid punishment and trouble, but accepts them as part of life and as sometimes deserved. When Thea breaks up with him, he admits to a friend that he didn't love her as he should have.
Augie moves from adventure to adventure not usually because of crimes, as is often the case with the picaresque hero, but because he's not satisfied and wants something greater. The satire of the novel is therefore not as biting or cynical as it would otherwise be. Augie's adventures point out the contradictions inherent to the American Dream, but Augie himself is a believer in that dream, and he wants us to believe in it as well.