Henderson the Rain King

by Saul Bellow

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Characters Discussed

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Eugene Henderson

Eugene Henderson, a fifty-five-year-old millionaire from Danbury, Connecticut. He has been married twice and has five children. At a time when most people would be thinking of retirement and the end of life, Henderson is seized by wanderlust. Although he never precisely explains why he wants to go to Africa, in the course of his adventures it becomes clear that he is the kind of person who is curious about everything and who must find out what is over the next hill, like Odysseus, a classical character with whom he is compared. Before he leaves on his African journey, his restlessness is shown in his attempts to become a pig farmer and then a violinist. When Henderson arrives in Africa, he begins a journey into the continent’s interior that also turns out to be a journey to the interior of his life and soul. At the first village he visits, that of the Arnewi, he finds that the cattle are starving because the water cistern is full of frogs. He fashions a bomb, throws it into the cistern, and kills all the frogs, but he also blows a hole in the side of the cistern and loses the village’s water. In disgrace, he heads further inland to the country of the Wariki, where he unwittingly passes a series of tests that identify him as the tribal Sungo, or rain king. Henderson appears to be effective as the rain king, because it rains following ceremonies with which he is involved. He becomes friends with Dahfu, the king of the Wariki, and participates with him in rituals that also include a lioness, Atti, who lives in an underground enclosure. The king is killed trying to trap a lion, and Henderson is named king in his place. Henderson deduces that the king’s death was a trap and that a similar fate awaits him, so he escapes from the village. In the last scene in the novel, he leaves his flight home at a stop in Newfoundland and, with a young Persian boy he met on the plane, runs around and around the runway. This suggests that his adventures, and his education, are still not over. It also is a reminder that although Henderson has been triumphant in a number of encounters, he has twice fled trouble, and he is running at the novel’s close.

Willatale

Willatale (wihl-lah-TAH-lay), the queen of the gentle Arnewi tribe. She realizes that Henderson has a problem with the concepts of life and death.

Mtalba

Mtalba (ihm-TAHL-bah), Willatale’s sister. She wishes to marry Henderson. He runs away, however, after accidentally destroying the Arnewi’s water cistern.

Dahfu

Dahfu (DAH-few), the king of the Wariki. He has had a Western education and is therefore able to talk to Henderson about philosophical questions. He reaches the conclusion that meaning and truth come from suffering and that one must face difficulties rather than flee from them. True to his own code, he dies in an attempt to capture Gmilo, a lion said to be his animal father.

The Bunam

The Bunam (bew-NAHM), a priest of the Wariki, the villain of the novel. He is jealous of Dahfu’s power and rigs the king’s hunting equipment so that Dahfu will fall victim to the lion he is trying to trap. The Bunam represents the dark forces seeking to undermine those of high spirits and dignity.

Romilayu

Romilayu (roh-mee-LAY -ew), the guide whom Henderson hires when he arrives in Africa. He is also Henderson’s confidant and friend. Without Romilayu, Henderson would not have been able...

(This entire section contains 688 words.)

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to reach the places he visited and could not have escaped the Wariki village when faced with treachery and death.

The Persian boy

The Persian boy, a passenger on the plane taking Henderson back to America. He represents both newness (through his youth) and mystery (through his country). When Henderson picks up the boy and runs with him around the frozen Canadian airstrip, that act suggests that the future of the human race is bright as long as people have the ability to challenge whatever fate presents to them.

Characters

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As mentioned in the preceding sections, Henderson the Rain King is a picaresque, or journey, novel that features a diverse array of characters. Because Bellow chooses a retrospective narration style, readers perceive the characters primarily through Henderson's perspective, with his subjective view serving as the lens through which Bellow's intentions for each character are interpreted. For example, while many critics regard Dahfu as a more positive philosophical influence than this discussion has suggested, John Clayton, an early critic of Bellow's work, notes in In Defense of Man (1968) that Dahfu's name echoes "Daffy," hinting at someone not entirely sane. Though this might be a subtle comic element Bellow includes, it reminds us that the journey into the African interior draws from both serious fiction and comic book models.

At this point, a related issue becomes the essay's central focus: the tendency toward caricature in both popular culture and serious literary models. Both picaresque novels and comic strips often depict minor characters as one-dimensional. In the picaresque tradition, a minor character frequently represents a compulsion or obsession that the protagonist must confront. Bellow skillfully employs this inclination toward caricature in Henderson the Rain King.

Any discussion of character must begin with the protagonist himself. Henderson informs Itelo that he is "kind of on a quest," and the casual nature of his words highlights the blend of humor and seriousness that defines him. He may be the funniest quest figure in contemporary American literature, rivaled only by Stanley Elkin's Dick Gibson (The Dick Gibson Show, 1972) and Thomas Pynchon's Tyrone Slothrop (Gravity's Rainbow, 1975). Henderson brings absurd gifts, like raincoats and cigarette lighters, to a tribe suffering from drought. He attempts to kill a cat left by boarders in his guest house, mocks Lily's social aspirations, and cuts a comical figure in his "rain-king" outfit: transparent green pants over stained jockey shorts, a pith helmet, and a bristling multi-colored beard. All the while, he bellows lines from Handel's Messiah in a foul-smelling lion's den. Despite the comedic elements, his quest is profoundly serious—a demand that life reveals its secret meaning to him. If Thoreau was correct in saying, "Most men live lives of quiet desperation," then Henderson's despair is anything but quiet; it is loud, conscious, serious, outrageous, and heroic. He recognizes that his affluent American life offers no meaningful answers, prompting him to take significant risks. He ventures into danger, facing lions, angry Wariri, and a ten-day desert trek, during which he and Romilayu may have eaten a vulture eyeing their remains. What distinguishes Henderson as a modern quest hero is Bellow's ability to balance deeply serious themes with both high and low comedy.

Among the supporting characters are several individuals Henderson remembers while in Africa, reassessing his life. These characters often appear as caricatures. For instance, Charlie, the affluent playboy who accompanies Henderson to Africa, and Clara Spohr, an aging beauty with whom Henderson recalls a slightly compromising, drunken evening. However, Lily, the inspiration of his life and the relationship he most needs to understand, is far from a caricature.

When the reader first encounters Lily, she appears to be a stereotypical gold digger, targeting the wealthy Henderson at a party his wife has left and making it clear she intends to start a relationship with him. She tries to trap Henderson in a subsequent encounter by calling her mother, ensuring the older woman will find them in a compromising position. She lies about her mother's death to force Henderson to commit, follows him to France, and marries a man who (she claims) abuses her to make Henderson jealous. She once told a friend over the phone, after they were married, that Henderson was "unkillable." They constantly argue about her extravagant spending, messy housekeeping, and her moralizing on various issues.

Despite all this, Lily comes to life through Henderson's affectionate descriptions, as a woman brimming with health, rich in her zest for life, and ravenous in her eating habits (an image Bellow uses to suggest her appetite for life itself). Wherever he goes in Africa, Henderson sees Lily as the center of his universe, a person capable of unconditional love and acceptance, not just as he is, but as the best man he can become. When he joyfully runs around the airplane in Newfoundland, he is on his way to reunite with Lily and renegotiate their evolving relationship.

In Africa, the two tribes create a balance between caricature and character. The Arnewi, at whose village Henderson's stay is brief, are caricatures reminiscent of European colonial depictions of Africa. They are docile, loving, and above all, submissive to the Euro-American who has come to their village. Itelo, a handsome and robust youth, forgives Henderson and accepts defeat in a ceremonial wrestling match, then defers to him as Henderson foolishly experiments with explosives to kill frogs in the reservoir. Mtalba, a beauty by tribal standards, is so enamored with the foreigner that she courts him by bringing the dowry needed to buy a bride of her stature. Willatale, a benevolent Buddha-like figure, possesses serene wisdom and abundant goodwill, but she presides over a dying culture—one that will ultimately be destroyed by European colonialism.

Among the Wariri, Henderson meets vividly depicted characters who, much like the tribe itself, defy his attempts at classification. Dahfu, as previously mentioned, represents a complex blend of genius, madman, charismatic leader, sexual athlete, brave warrior, and caring friend. No single label can fully capture his essence. Similarly, his uncle Horko, while a political schemer and Machiavellian figure, also exudes the charm of a roue, dressing up to reminisce with Henderson about his escapades in Malindi during Prince Dahfu's European education. The wives, predictably, remain caricatures, as do the Amazons who guard Dahfu and those who attend to the new rain king. Though not given much dialogue, the elderly general Tatu stands out as a distinctive character, leading and managing a complex royal household under immense political pressure, supporting the king's exploration of his connection with the lioness while simultaneously trying to avert a palace coup.

A character often overlooked by critics and casual readers alike, despite his crucial role in Henderson's transformation, is his guide Romilayu. He embodies the individualism of the Wariri while also reflecting the characteristics of the Arnewi. With his scars, distinctive hair, and adopted Christianity, Romilayu evokes the noble savages from James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales or their descendants in comic books and western movies. As the novel progresses, however, Romilayu evolves from a caricature into a loving and reliable friend. True to the archetype, he is mistreated by the affluent white explorer in the Arnewi village, and his attempts to advise Henderson on moderation regarding the frogs are ignored. He shows an almost comedic fear when sharing a hut with a corpse in the Wariri village but adapts resourcefully to Henderson's new role as the rain king. Despite his concerns for Henderson's safety and sanity during Henderson's lion exposure and emulation, Romilayu remains loyal and supportive. After being captured by the Wariri while trying to deliver Henderson's letter, Romilayu ultimately rescues Henderson both literally and spiritually due to his exceptional survival skills in the desert.

Romilayu's most crucial role is to persuade Henderson to act sensibly instead of seeking revenge on his and Dahfu's adversaries, particularly the Bunam, whom Henderson blames for Dahfu's demise. For the first time in the novel, Henderson heeds the wise counsel that "Revenge is a luxury." After tricking the Amazons into opening their cell door, Henderson incapacitates them but stops short of killing them. When he approaches the Bunam's man guarding Dahfu's body, he initially intends to "strangle him," but he restrains himself when Romilayu appeals to their friendship. Comically, Henderson negotiates that he will only beat the Bunam's man but ultimately decides to follow Romilayu's advice. As the airplane departs from Baventai, Henderson exclaims, "that black fellow saved my life," speaking both literally and figuratively. Without his friend's ingenuity, love, and wisdom, he would have certainly perished in the desert. Even as Henderson leaves, Romilayu prays earnestly for his new friend's safety. It can also be argued that Romilayu saved Henderson's moral life by advocating for restraint, caution, and Christian virtues.

In one of the novel's delightful moments, Henderson declares to Romilayu, "I wouldn't agree to the death of my soul," explaining his need to embark on his quest. Romilayu simply responds, "Me Methodus [Methodist], sah." Bellow suggests that humans have an almost universal need to assert themselves in the face of death. Romilayu has chosen the path of (Eurocentric) organized religion, while Henderson is compelled to take the more challenging, secular route. Much of the novel's significance lies in the mutual respect these friends develop for each other's approach to confronting mortality. Early in the book, there might be a hint of condescension in Henderson's request to be included in Romilayu's prayers, a gesture resembling Pascal's wager. However, as the Wariri adventure concludes, Henderson has adopted a more pluralistic perspective. His friend may have a different response to mortality, but that does not mean there is only one correct way.

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