Herzog is the initial work of intellectual themes by Saul Bellow, a famous American Jewish writer. The novel, with its forceful language, leads readers to discover the survival dilemma and the mental state of the intellectuals. The paper aims to reveal the social features of the contemporary intellectuals from the perspectives of the bewilderment and confusion of the rootless intellectuals, the marginality of the intellectuals, intellectuals as the social critical conscience and the embodiment of the idealism.