Discussion
Henderson can, despite the age of the protagonist, be viewed as a Bildungsroman because he attains maturity and also as a romantic novel because of the primacy accorded to passions, ideas, and experiencing life and because of Henderson's search for pure, untrammeled nature and his quest to satisfy the needs of his spirit. Henderson learns that a man can, with effort, have a spiritual rebirth when he realizes that spirit, body and the outside world are not enemies but can live in harmony.
A week before the novel appeared in book stores, Saul Bellow published an article in the New York Times entitled “The Search for Symbols, a Writer Warns, Misses All the Fun and Fact of the Story.” Here, Bellow warns readers against looking too deeply for symbols in literature. This has led to much discussion among critics as to why Bellow warned his readers against searching for symbolism just before the symbol-packed Rain King hit the shelves.
The ongoing philosophical discussions and ramblings between Henderson and the natives, and inside Henderson's own head, prefigure elements of Bellow's next novel, Herzog (1964), which includes many such inquiries into life and meaning.
As in all Bellow's novels, death figures prominently in Henderson the Rain King. Also, the novel manifests a few common character types that run through Bellow’s literary works. One type is the Bellovian Hero, often described as a schlemiel. Eugene Henderson, in company with most of Bellow’s main characters, can be given this description. Another is what Bellow calls the "Reality-Instructor"; in Henderson the Rain King, King Dahfu fills this role. In Seize the Day, the instructor is played by Dr. Tamkin, while in Humboldt's Gift, Humboldt von Fleisher takes the part.
Read more about this topic: Henderson The Rain King
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