Search for Meaning

At the beginning of the novel, Herzog admits he has been engaged in a desperate search for meaning —for insight into his own troubled existence and human existence in general. As he writes his letters, he conducts that search, entering into dialogues with people who have made an impact on his life and others-philosophers and thinkers who he trusts will give him guidance. Through this process, he hopes to gain knowledge and acceptance of self.

One of the dialogues he engages in concerns religion. As he searches for answers to the questions he raises, he contemplates the Orthodox Jewish religion in which he was instructed as a child. When Madeleine decides to convert to Catholicism, Herzog is again forced to reexamine his beliefs. During this process, he writes letters to philosophers who have written on the subject. In a letter to Nietzsche, for example, he considers...