Henderson the Rain King

by Saul Bellow

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Places Discussed

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Wariri village

Wariri village. Domain of King Dahfu of the imaginary East African Wariri people. More lush than neighboring areas, the Wariri land also boasts a few of the modern amenities that Henderson associates with “civilization”: firearms, books, and Western furniture. Bellow often shows the village as a place of confinement; Henderson and his African guide are held captive when they first arrive, as they are again after Dahfu’s death, and Dahfu himself seems a prisoner in his own palace, chained by the obligations of his throne.

An atmosphere of death and danger hangs about the village, emphasized by Bellow’s repeated use of the color red. The Wariri people have a fearsome reputation, yet Henderson finds the inhabitants attractive and their traditional garb stylish. The opulence and pageantry of Wariri culture contrasts with the pervasiveness of death in the village, exemplified by the corpse with which Henderson wrestles his first night there and the fondness of the Wariri for ornaments made of human bone. This weaving together of death and life underscores one of Bellow’s favorite themes: In order to live fully, human beings must come to terms with their own mortality.

Dahfu’s palace

Dahfu’s palace. Home of the Wariri monarch, a place where human and animal, intellectual and sensual converge. Dahfu keeps lions in one part of his palace and a harem in another. He and Henderson discuss philosophy, yet Dahfu must live (and die) by the most elemental facts. Henderson at first envies Dahfu his exotic luxuries, but soon learns that they, like his own wealth, are accompanied by heavy burdens. Both characters, too, are displaced people: just as Dahfu once renounced his medical studies in Syria to assume his place as the Wariri king, so must Henderson renounce his Western arrogance in order to emulate the equipoise he admires in Dahfu.

The palace can be taken both as a literal location—one in which Henderson’s friendship with the king deepens and where, under Dahfu’s guidance, he faces some of his starkest fears—and as an allegory of Henderson’s inner self, with the harem symbolizing his many raging lusts and the lions, in contrast, his dormant potential for nobility and serenity. The subterranean location of the lions’ den is significant: In order to earn the freedom of his soul, Henderson must first descend into an allegorical Hell. Interestingly, Henderson’s and Dahfu’s friendship comes to its climax on a tower, outdoors, in direct antithesis to the palace’s enclosed underground lions’ den.

Bush

Bush. Wild areas surrounding the Arnewi and Wariri villages. Bellow repeatedly uses fire imagery to hint at the evanescence of life in this harsh setting, and at the way the land makes permeable the boundaries between matter and energy. Henderson’s greatest fears are death and chaos, and thus he must learn to accept decay and disorder before he can live with the ease and mastery he desires. Henderson finally confronts death unflinchingly as Dahfu dies trying to catch a lion that his people believe contains the soul of his father. It is fitting that Dahfu’s death and Henderson’s redemptive attempt to save him occur in the bush, beyond the reach of both Western and African culture, at the “changing point between matter and light.”

Earlier in the novel, Dahfu explains that people’s surroundings influence their mentality and physical appearance. While Henderson at first finds this philosophy bizarre and depressing, he later, while in the bush, realizes that Dahfu is correct, connecting the African king’s ideas with Albert Einstein’s equation of matter and energy. Henderson, then, is changed by his time in Africa, especially the time he spends around the...

(This entire section contains 1078 words.)

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unselfish, noble Dahfu and his lions. Near the end of the novel, for example, Henderson begins to display a generosity that is, for once, unmotivated by expectation of reward. His adoption of Dahfu’s lion cub ensures that he will take a part of Africa back to his home in the United States and thereby bring a healing element of the bush and its wildness into his domesticated, suburban American life even as he preserves the memory of his lost friend.

Arnewi village

Arnewi village. First stop on Henderson’s journey in East Africa. In ironic allusion to the Old Testament’s Book of Exodus and the wasteland motif from the Grail mythos, Bellow depicts the village afflicted both by drought and a plague of frogs infesting its water supply. Henderson’s attempt to become a hero by killing the frogs ends in disaster that leaves the parched village worse off than before, mirroring Henderson’s arid, unsatisfied soul.

*Newfoundland

*Newfoundland. Eastern Canadian province in which Henderson’s plane makes a refueling stop on the last leg of his return trip to the United States. The contrast between the African bush and Newfoundland’s “gray Arctic silence” could not be more pronounced and serves to underscore the changes Henderson has undergone. Energized by the cold and by his sense of carrying on Dahfu’s lineage, Henderson runs and leaps like the lions that for the Wariri symbolize the sovereignty of the soul.

*Connecticut

*Connecticut. Henderson’s New England home at the beginning of the novel. There he raises pigs, to the consternation of his neighbors. His house’s disorder and his unkempt appearance indicate his alienation from the world and from himself. Feeling unhappy and confined at home, Henderson indulges in displays of temper; during one of these tantrums an elderly female neighbor dies of a heart attack, and his guilt over her death, as well as his dismay at seeing that her house is as cluttered as his, shocks Henderson out of his inertia and prompts him to travel to Africa. He realizes that he, too, will die one day, and that he must make some kind of peace with the world.

*France

*France. Country in which Henderson lived for a time as a child; it is also the country where he lives with his first wife and begins the affair that will become his second marriage. As he tours France in adulthood, Henderson’s memories of his cultured, accomplished parents fuel his feelings of inadequacy and discontent, and he quarrels with his lover, Lily. At the height of his misery he visits an aquarium and is both mesmerized and horrified by the sight of an octopus, the seeming embodiment of the randomness and death that terrify him.

Literary Techniques

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Similar to many of Bellow's finest novels, Henderson subtly utilizes traditional narrative techniques. However, innovation isn't the author's primary rhetorical strength. This novel, much like The Adventures of Augie March, is a twist on the picaresque novel—a story that follows the adventures of a rogue or rascal, told through related satirical or comedic scenes. Typically, the picaro, or picaresque hero, gains insight into his nature, origins, and life role through his escapades. This is certainly true in Bellow's take on the genre. Henderson presents himself as a larger-than-life, humorous character in America and during his early adventures in Africa. As he reveals early in the novel, "living proof of something of the highest importance has been communicated to me so I am obliged to communicate it." Bellow's use of a picaro who comes to understand his place and purpose in life, along with the comedic vision that permeates much of his fiction, is enhanced by his nuanced variation on the first-person retrospective central narration.

The initial four chapters of Henderson seem to jump erratically between events in Henderson's American life, lacking the typical connections readers might expect. This disjointed narrative effectively serves Bellow's thematic intentions. Readers who continue to the African journey starting in chapter five will encounter a more linear storyline, interspersed with flashbacks. These flashbacks become significant as Henderson merges his present and past experiences, such as recalling his troublesome encounter with a French dentist after his dental bridge breaks in the Wariri village. These flashbacks serve dual purposes: they allow him to assess his current circumstances in light of past events and compel him to reconsider his previous interpretations of those events.

The structure of the novel mirrors its content, capturing the hero's conflicting experiences and forcing him to continually rethink his past. Bellow’s technique involves observing Henderson reinvent himself through the reexamination of his memories. An example of this occurs in the final chapter, which recounts the airplane journey back to America. During this journey, while caring for a Persian child, Henderson reflects on the traumatic summer of his brother Dick's drowning, his father's anger, his own escape to Canada, and his ride on a roller coaster with an old bear named Smolak. By recovering these memories, he reevaluates them and focuses on the bonds of fear and love between a self-loathing boy and a decrepit bear. This awareness allows him to declare a central truth to his transformation and the novel: that all his life's gains were due to love.

The first four chapters, however, appear intentionally disordered in sequence and transitions. This may be attributed to the composition process, as these chapters were initially published as a novella and serialized before the remaining chapters were completed. Nevertheless, Bellow, described by his biographer as an "obsessive reviser," would likely have reworked these chapters if he didn't believe their style served his thematic goals. He occasionally draws the reader’s attention to the "disorderly rush" of events that his narrator tries to sift through. This chaotic narrative style, resembling a stream-of-consciousness approach, aligns well with Bellow's theme. Before his African journey, Henderson’s problem is his lack of control over his life, which stems from his lack of perspective. Thus, the abrupt transitions and unresolved narrative sequences, along with Henderson’s confessions of his inability to establish sequence, are part of Bellow's strategy to immerse the reader in Henderson’s confused state before his journey toward purpose and sanity. As Henderson begins to understand his role in the larger scheme of things, he gains a sense of proportion, leading the narrative to smooth out into a more traditional episodic plot.

As is common in much of Bellow's fiction, the plot elevates certain objects to hold symbolic meanings beyond their literal ones. The recurring octopus, linked with Henderson's constant thoughts of death, has been discussed earlier, and many other animals also serve figurative purposes. Throughout different stages of his life, Henderson interacts with bears, pigs, frogs, a cat, the Arnewi cattle, a lioness, and two lions. Each group of animals reflects some aspect of Henderson's own identity. He tells his wife that the pigs have become "a part of me," and he even hears himself grunting like one while in Africa. Dahfu encourages him to "become the lion" during his therapy with Atti, a directive he follows indirectly by renaming himself "Leo" and insisting on bringing the lion cub "Dahfu" back to America.

Additionally, Bellow infuses the narrative with references to both classical and modern music. Henderson plays pieces by Mozart, Handel, and other composers on the violin in a frustrated attempt to connect with his deceased parents, aiming to reassure himself of human immortality and seek reconciliation. In one of the novel's humorous variations on a serious moment, he sings an oratorio from Handel's Messiah when the Arnewi queen inquires about his identity. He incorporates Mozart into his roaring from the den beneath the palace as he "becomes the lion." On the flight home, he sings from the Messiah to a young stewardess. In each instance, the musical references, like the frequent allusions to poetry, missionaries, and African anthropology (subjects Bellow studied in graduate school), enrich and add layers to the self-conceptions his protagonist is exploring.

Ideas for Group Discussions

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Discussions about Henderson the Rain King often center on the protagonist and Bellow's techniques for guiding readers' perceptions of him. The initial questions delve into this topic, while the subsequent ones explore other facets of the novel. 1. Why do you think Bellow, whose other novels are deeply rooted in Jewish-American culture, chooses Handel's Messiah as Henderson's "subtext"?

2. How would you classify Henderson: as a hero, an antihero, a comic figure, or a character more typical of popular rather than "serious" literature? Explain your reasoning.

3. Does Henderson's apparent neglect or indifference toward his children undermine his role as the hero of this story?

4. What are your thoughts on Henderson's conflicted roles as a son? Consider both his estrangement from his father and his use of the violin to communicate with him.

5. Do you believe the reconciliation with Lily will endure? Why or why not?

6. Would you trust a medical doctor whom you knew as well as you know Henderson?

7. Outline the elements of the political conspiracy within the Wariri tribe. How do these conspiracies connect to the theme of Euro-American colonialism?

8. Is Willatale truly wise, or is she merely stating the obvious? Does Henderson's appreciation of her wisdom stem from the substance of her words or his eagerness to hear what he wants to hear?

9. How does Bellow lead us to interpret Dahfu, undoubtedly another significant character in Henderson the Rain King? Is he a genius, an original thinker, a life force that has become reckless, or a madman? Can a literary character embody multiple of these traits?

Social Concerns

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Although Saul Bellow had already secured his reputation as a significant American novelist with his first four books, Henderson the Rain King broadened his audience and solidified his career as a comic writer. In an interview with George Plimpton for the Paris Review, reprinted in Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews, third series (1968), Bellow describes his first two novels, Dangling Man (1944) and The Victim (1948), as "literature of complaint." In this discussion, he commits to adopting a more humorous approach in his future works. With the comic-epic style and sharp vaudevillian humor in Henderson, Bellow distances himself from the literature of complaint, where characters like Tommy Wilhelm, the troubled protagonist of Seize the Day (1956), sorrowfully confront their marginal status in modern American life, both as Jews and as men grappling with psychological dependence. Only in one earlier novel, The Adventures of Augie March (1953), does the protagonist or the author consistently find humor in the challenge of living creatively in twentieth-century America.

With Henderson, Bellow's first non-Jewish protagonist, the author effectively addresses the pathos of living a disconnected and perhaps existentially meaningless life through humor. This lightheartedness often stems from Henderson's own awareness of the absurdity of his reactions to social situations. For instance, when his wife, a social climber keen on enhancing the prestige of the Henderson family name, hosts some local ladies, he greets them wearing a hunting cap, a stained bathrobe, and using crutches to stay mobile while his broken leg heals. However, this broad, farcical humor also serves as a means for the author to examine his hero's plight and the ridiculous cultural environment that exacerbates his sense of alienation and lack of purpose.

In addition to being a gentile, Henderson stands out among Bellow's early protagonists because his life, by modern civilization's material standards, is enviable—a version of the American dream. He is wealthy, unlike the typical protagonists of Bellow's earlier novels who constantly worry about financial survival. As the heir to a prominent American family of intellectuals, diplomats, and occasional exploiters of indigenous Americans, Henderson manages to make money even when pursuing ventures, such as pig farming, that offer no immediate profit. He possesses wealth, influence, and leisure. He sends his children to pricey private schools, pursues any vocation or hobby that interests him at the moment, and vacations in Europe whenever he wishes.

Despite all his material advantages, the central issue in Henderson's life is his lack of fulfillment. This void, which Bellow sees as a symptom of the inevitable emptiness of materialism, manifests in Henderson through an inner voice that constantly cries out, "I want!" However, this voice never specifies what it desires, leading Henderson to seek temporary relief by diving into various new activities. These pursuits are diverse: from taking a mistress and playing the violin, to showing a late interest in his son Edward's development, raising pigs on his ancestral estate, and even bullying a tenant in the guest cottage (an incident inspired by Saul Bellow's own experience renting a guest cottage outside Barrytown, New York). A key social issue in the novel is the barren core of American materialism in the mid-twentieth century.

During his reflections, Henderson generalizes from his own experience, stating that "displaced persons [are] everywhere." This echoes the title of Flannery O'Connor's remarkable short story from the same decade, which tells the tragic tale of a refugee from Nazi Poland and his harsh reception in the American South. Unlike O'Connor's politically oppressed hero, Henderson's displacement is more philosophical than political, stemming from a sense of lacking a true purpose in life. He introduces his "displaced persons" idea with the observation, "Nobody truly occupies a station in life anymore." Personally, Henderson feels out of place because his older, more serious brother died in a reckless incident reminiscent of his own youthful irresponsibility, a tragedy his family, especially his father, never forgave him for. He also feels displaced because the only time his life felt meaningful was during his career as an Army officer in World War II, when his mission and sense of duty were clear. Significantly, Henderson clings to the illusion of a military hierarchy with his farmer, Hannock, referring to the tenants as "those civilians." When he encounters the Arnewi tribe in Africa, he greets the weeping villagers with a manual-of-arms display and tells Prince Itelo he is hesitant to join the ceremonial wrestling for fear that his commando training will give him an unfair advantage—a fear that turns out to be justified. When ambushed outside the Wariri village, Henderson manages his fear by admiring the military precision of his captors. Bellow's focus in these incidents is clear: only when given a defined purpose, like his time in the military, does Henderson's alienated hero feel a sense of belonging and a life of authenticity and purpose.

As previously mentioned, the dilemma Henderson faces is both unique and universal. Critic Bruce Michaelson notes in Twentieth Century Literature (1981) that Henderson's sense of uselessness, aside from his heroic efforts to save injured comrades during World War II, stems from another American tradition. This tradition is the belief that certain families have a type of noblesse oblige, or an obligation to serve due to their status and social position. Michaelson connects the Henderson family lineage to distinguished WASP families of the 19th century, such as the Sumners, the Lodges, and the Adamses (Bellow references Henry Adams multiple times in the novel). To this list, one could also add more contemporary families like the Rockefellers and the Kennedys.

Unable to find a proper way to serve his fellow humans and live up to the ideal of his family's tradition of statesmen and scholars, Henderson instead dedicates his life to mocking these obligations and traditions. He turns the beautiful family estate into a foul-smelling pig farm. At an exclusive resort on the Gulf coast, he drinks excessively and uses a slingshot he found in his suitcase to shoot at bottles. Bellow makes it clear that an unconscious motivation for Henderson's behavior is this parody of family tradition. Henderson attributes similar prestigious lineages to the other guests: "Do you see that great big fellow with the enormous nose and the mustache? Well, his great-grandfather was Secretary of State, his great-uncles were ambassadors to England and France, and his father was the famous scholar Willard Henderson who wrote that book the Albigensians, a friend of Henry Adams." Unwilling to passively accept the role of a wealthy American family member and unable to find a meaningful way to fulfill his service ideal, Henderson turns his life into a mockery of the tradition he inherits.

One social issue Bellow delves into for the first time in Henderson the Rain King—and which will permeate several of his later works, notably Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970) and The Dean's December (1982)—concerns the role of older individuals in American society. At fifty-five, Henderson fears that his productive years are behind him, a belief reinforced by many around him, including his first wife, Frances. An avid reader of biographies, Henderson is particularly drawn to those of medical missionaries like Sir Wilfred Grenfell and Dr. Albert Schweitzer. These figures epitomize three key aspects that resonate with Henderson's quest for personal growth: healing and serving others, travel, and living adventurously. However, becoming a medical missionary requires attending medical school, and society offers little support for fifty-five-year-old students. In Africa, when Henderson meets the Arnewi queen Willatale, he regrets his lack of medical expertise, especially as he wishes to treat her cataract-induced blindness. Back home, the idea of a man on the brink of retirement entering medical school is unthinkable. His first wife had even laughed at his ambition when he mentioned it years earlier. Consequently, much of Henderson's African journey revolves around developing a strong sense of self that defies America's notion that aging equates to uselessness. He aims to acquire the individual resolve to enroll in medical school as Leo (the lion) Henderson. By pursuing this education, Henderson asserts his right to define his life's purpose, which involves healing and serving others. This act of claiming autonomy challenges cultural beliefs that aging strips away the right to determine the value of one's remaining years, however many they might be.

Another social issue, less frequently discussed in analyses of Henderson the Rain King, is Bellow's exploration of American imperialism. Michaelson perhaps exaggerates in one of the few commentaries on this topic by linking Henderson's attitudes toward Africa with Vietnam War defoliation and other American foreign policies, describing Henderson's stance toward the Arnewi tribe as a "vanguard of the American Presence." While this interpretation may seem overly allegorical (though many critics view Henderson the Rain King as an allegory; Kathleen King even titled her 1988 essay "Henderson the Allegory King"), it is evident that Bellow uses Henderson's African journey to critique imperialism and advocate for transcendence. Bellow's criticism of Euro-American cultural arrogance is most clearly demonstrated in Henderson's interactions with the Arnewi village.

Bellow depicts the Arnewi as a tribe straight out of National Geographic, a publication that Henderson occasionally peruses. These gentle, primitive people are deeply connected to the natural world but are passively enduring a drought they believe signifies their gods' displeasure. The tribe offers little to challenge Henderson's Eurocentric views on "primitive" African cultures. His initial disappointment upon meeting the Arnewi stems from the prince speaking English due to his education abroad, depriving Henderson of the ego boost of being the first explorer to visit the village. When he encounters their androgynous queen, he instinctively feels that she possesses a wisdom that can guide him toward a more meaningful life. Convincing himself that Willatale holds "the source, the germ, the cipher" of intuitive wisdom needed for his transformation, he suggests "one of those mutual-aid deals" (a nod to Cold War American diplomacy). Despite objections from Itelo and his guide Romilayu, Henderson decides to eradicate thousands of frogs contaminating the tribe's water supply, thereby worsening the drought's impact. He offers Western technology, such as poison or a bomb, as a solution to the Arnewi's "irrationality" in adhering to ancestral taboos against drinking polluted water. Predictably, he miscalculates the explosive charge in his flashlight bomb, leading to the destruction of a crucial dam, the tribe's only hope for surviving the drought without relocating. Forced relocations of African tribes have been a common outcome of Western colonialism, similar to the displacement of indigenous peoples following European settlement in the Americas.

As the novel's narrator, even in hindsight, Henderson fails to recognize the contradiction Bellow presents to the reader. The traditions that embody the wisdom of the Arnewi are intrinsically linked to possessing that wisdom. Like many European and American explorers before him (several of whom Bellow mentions in the novel), Henderson uncritically assumes the superiority of Western culture and technology. Yet, he admires and even envies the calm wisdom that might arise from their absence.

When Henderson disregards the warnings of Itelo and Romilayu about interfering, he exemplifies the arrogance of Western civilization, which presumes its values are automatically superior to those of "primitive" cultures. Furthermore, his lack of awareness regarding the connection between tradition and culture highlights a contradiction of cultural condescension: the belief that while primitive peoples might be "wise" in their relationship with nature, they should still adopt the practices of highly developed industrial nations.

This theme of cultural condescension and arrogance is depicted more bluntly in Humboldt's Gift (1975). In this novel, a minor character, a young Chicagoan, infuriates a Nairobi guide by persistently asking him to teach the Swahili word for an obscenity often linked to African-American slang. When the American finally clarifies the concept he wants to translate, the guide is so offended that he beats the young man severely.

Literary Precedents

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An essential aspect of Bellow's humor in Henderson the Rain King lies in his delicate blend of allusion and parody. Many critics have noted that the protagonist's military demeanor, his determination to travel to Africa, his assertion of a soldier's honor, and even his initials seem to evoke Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway, a prominent writer from the generation before Bellow, often wrote about existential encounters where the hero (always male) discovers meaning through courageous actions, maintaining integrity despite overwhelming odds. Writing in MidAmerica (1988), scholar David Anderson highlights several other parallels between Hemingway's final African safari in 1953, which garnered worldwide attention due to an airplane crash where Hemingway was feared lost, and events in Bellow's novel. Another episode in the novel may directly reference Hemingway's work. In his autobiographical The Green Hills of Africa (1935), Hemingway describes the Masai tribe, who obtain protein by mixing cattle blood, carefully drawn from living animals, with milk from the same cattle. It is plausible that Bellow, an avid reader aiming to critique the egocentrism of Hemingway's hero (whose quest for integrity leads to greater alienation, while Bellow emphasizes human solidarity), had the Masai tribe in mind when he created the endearing Arnewi.

Cartoonist Edgar Rice Burroughs contributed to decades of popular culture with his creations, leading to commercially successful films and television series where a European interacts with African peoples, often as a ruler, leader, or savior. Bellow parodies the colonialist assumptions found in the Tarzan comic strips (in one series, Tarzan becomes the king of an African tribe by a feat of strength, similar to how Henderson becomes the rain king by lifting the heaviest Wariri statue). Bellow's bumbling hero makes incorrect assumptions about the cultural and technological sophistication of the Wariri and fails to connect Arnewi cultural practices with the tribal wisdom previously discussed in this essay. Henderson's journey to authenticity is not about learning courage but about accepting his own and others' profound imperfections and interconnectedness.

Since the release of James Atlas's Bellow: A Biography in 2000, significant documentary evidence has verified that Saul Bellow extensively studied African anthropology at Northwestern University. This likely influenced the creation of Henderson the Rain King. One of Bellow's mentors, Melville J. Herskovits, was working on The Myth of the Negro Past during Bellow's time with him. Bellow's undergraduate thesis focused on an Eskimo tribe that chose starvation over eating foods forbidden by their gods, similar to how the Arnewi refuse to drink water containing living animals. In his 1981 work, Eusebio Rodrigues presents a detailed argument that Bellow used information from Sir Richard Burton's A Mission to Gelele the King of Dahomey, John Roscoe's The Souls of Central Africa, and Herskovits's The Cattle Complex in West Africa to shape Henderson's journey, particularly the brief episode with the Arnewi. Joni Adamson Clarke, writing in the Saul Bellow Journal in 1991, suggests an intriguing, though perhaps less convincing, theory that Bellow incorporated the Trickster figure from African folklore into the character of Henderson.

So far, this essay has explored major American literature, popular culture, anthropology, and esoteric philosophy as contexts for Henderson. However, perhaps the most significant parallel is with one of the greatest novels from the end of the Colonial period, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899). It can be argued that Henderson the Rain King serves as a modern, postcolonial response to Conrad's bleak tale of an extraordinary man, Kurtz, who descends into savagery during his time in the Congo, succumbing to megalomania as the natives deify him. In contrast, Henderson is not an extraordinary man; he lacks Kurtz's evident talents in journalism, oratory, trading, and philanthropy. Instead, he is a fortunate man whose success has not provided him with a sense of self-worth. Upon arriving at the Arnewi village, he behaves as if he has assumed the role of an exceptional person, absurdly performing a manual of arms for the grieving villagers and believing there "must be something that only I can do." As discussed, his sense of being exceptional stems from his association with Euro-American culture, drawing another parallel with Kurtz.

Henderson's attempt to rescue the Arnewi ends disastrously, leaving him ostracized rather than honored, as he fails to grasp the connection between their religion and value system. His experience with the Wariri starkly contrasts Kurtz's journey in the Congo. Instead of being celebrated, Henderson is captured, interrogated, and confined in a hut with a corpse. Unlike Kurtz, who was revered due to his European background, Henderson is deceived into a precarious position within Dahfu's cabinet because of his physical strength, demonstrated by lifting the former rain king and the ceremonial goddess Mummah. Consequently, he is ensnared in a role fraught with complexities, revealed only shortly before his friend Dahfu's death. Dahfu had conspired with the Wariri to trick Henderson into a ceremonial role meant to succeed the king. Henderson ultimately realizes, too late to act, that the Bunam and his faction have set him up as a puppet king, intending to strangle him once they confirm he lacks the necessary potency for Wariri royalty.

Despite this, Bellow's aim is not to mock or parody Conrad's colonial narrative but to reject its underlying messages. It is through the Wariri's deceit and manipulation that Henderson discovers his potential for spiritual and personal growth. His journey in Africa teaches him humility and love, contrasting with the arrogance and brutality that emerged from Kurtz's psyche. Consequently, Henderson may indeed return as a transformed individual, with the determination to choose his path and dedicate himself to service. In essence, Henderson the Rain King could be seen as a "Heart of Light," for Bellow's adventurous hero sheds his cultural arrogance when he is made to undress and run the course to bring the rain. Through this process, he learns to value his own culture by appreciating others.

Adaptations

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Henderson the Rain King, influenced by numerous and varied literary and cultural sources, has been transformed into an opera titled Lily. Leon Kirchner composed its score in 1977, which only covers the first third of the novel. This adaptation of Bellow's story places significant emphasis on the woman with whom Henderson joyfully learns to express his love, recognizing how central his affection for her is to his life. Kirchner, influenced by the Vietnam War and contemporary issues surrounding American imperialism in developing nations, highlights Henderson's failure with the Arnewi rather than the novel's focus on his recovery process in the Wariri village.

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