Henderson – The Rain King and His Grun-tu-molani

\ Eugene Henderson, a 55 old millionaire and pig farmer from Danburg,

Connecticut lives on an estate which his father wanted to give to his elder brother
but who died young. His anti- semitic impulse that he experienced in his suffering
out of his first wife Frances who got divorced from him, his suffering in the war,
his suffering out of getting married to his second wife Lily and her snobbish
temper and her incongruous taste in getting her portrait painted , his suffering out
of his daughter who tried to rear up an unchin child as if it was born to her, his
suffering got of his own mammoth physical stature, his pet taste for music, his
suffering out of his own teeth problems, his suffering out of the loss of his
brother in the middle of his hay days, his suffering out of finding a solace for
Arnewi tribe resulting in disaster, his suffering in finding a new meaning in the
existence of king Dahfu of Wariri tribe, triggered him to search for purpose and
meaning in his life.
In his attempt to survive meaningfully in a world of chaos and death, mind
ful of higher intuitions he flew under the imperative need that would cure his
inner soul’s noice ‘ I want , I want, I want !’
In this sense his search is not for identity alone but a lambent clarity
that would aid him in understanding his own self as that of the others.
In his “Ode on the Intimations of Immortality” Worldsworth longs for the
childhood having all the impressions of eternity . Henderson too leaves for Africa
from the contemporary American wasteland and in his journey to the pristine
African umiverse he gains not innocence but maturity. This extends his sense of
responsibility beyond his self. Still the child in Hendersons is not wholly dead
since the queen of Arnewis , Willatale addresses him as a child.
At the time when king Dahfu gets killed aut of untamed lion in
Henderson’s presence ironically well trained in the art of taming lion from him he
thus ruminated.
 “ But then what could an animal do for me ? in the last analysis? really?
A beast of prey ? Even supposing that an animal enjoys a natural blessing? We
had our share of his Creature – blessing until infancy ended. But now aren’t we
required to complete some thing else- project to number two- the second
blessing ?”
( Pale 415)
There lines clearly bring out Bellow’s views that innocence untamed by
knowledge of evil is common to both childhood and adulthood. Henderson fully
realizes the potential of his life by remaining human and by promoting “ Kindness
and love”.
He gladly reconciles himself to the loss of the child’s world become his
newly won sensitivity advocates complete involvement with his fellow human
beings. This basic Cardinal note of life he come to grips with note of is nothing
but Wordsworthian that speaks loudly the abundant recompense in a world.
Where kindness and love are possible. The lion- cub and the Persian - orpham,
accompanying Henderson at the end, are probably symbols of his rediscovered
childhood, a state to which he has an access of a kind.
In this novel, Bellow through him believes by saying it’s love that makes
reality reality ( P.415) , Henderson’s capacity for live thanks to his spiritual quest,
in enormous and at the end he shed all his religious and realizes the need to be
united in love with human community, Repeated references to the statement by
Henderson “ the fonfiveness of since is eternal, is a remedy to the diseased self of
the individual and the collective selfs of the society. At the beginning of this novel
his own self unable to realize the significance of forgiveness is hard with in and his
interaction with other upon the society brings out the same hard clement for his
leads of realizing the worth of forgiveness only after his exposure to the wilds of
Arnewis and Wariris he gets an awareness for his alienated self that human
society regardless of time and space, exhibits the same kind of strengths and
weeknesses. In America is evil ridden the primitive warier is no less better or inferior
and likewise both have thrown up people like son Greenfell and Dahfu who have
up held nobility and led. Life of service ( Note- Mahatma Gandhi too war thrown
up in India- supposedly the land of Dharma for he has upheld his nobility and led
a life of service.
Like romantics Bellow is a great believer in the power of imagination. Dahfu
tells Henderson “ Imagination , imagination , imagination? It converts to actual. It
sustains, it alters, it redeems ( P.399).
It is with the help of imagination the self within tries to resurrect and
renew the experience of the protagonist into a process of separation, initiation
and return but of the emergence of such a romantic quest the self becomes
strong enough to recognize great loss and yet be confident of future again . For
this the supreme power of imagination helps him impose order upon the chaotic
world. This belief of Bellow that asserts to resist human despair after reposing faith
in organic universal aspects of justice and purpose is a clear romantic
transcendental value of affirmations .
In the chain events that have taken place in the life of Henderson with all
his outcome of suffering gets ignored out and rounded after his psychological
developments in getting to know the reality, that evolving out of many layers of
appearances.
It is at this context through Henderson Bellow vouch safes that the purpose
of quiets behind his African drip…” My purpose was to see essentials , only
essentials, nothing but essentials, and to guard against hallucinations. Things are not
what they seem, anyway ( PP291- 92)
Like the Transcendentalists Handerson also believes in an invisible world of
spirits which constitutes a higher reality. Bellow through Dahfu Conveys his belief
in the immortality of human spirit “Debris of failure fills the tomb and grave” he
said, “ the dust eats back its own, yet a vital current is still flowing. There is an
evolution. We must think of it ( P. 365)
Henderson’s , belief in the immortality of the soul is both Wordsworthian
and a typical transcendental idea, as is his habit of seeing the corporal and the visible
as projections of the spiritual and invisible order of things.
 Further Bellow’s affiliations with Transcendentalist its figure and register
their echoes on numerous places and occasions. The philosophical perspective of the
“yea-sayer” as reflected in Bellow statement “Hitch your agony into jungles with a
stress on for ‘ simple life’: Whitmansque longing to celebrate and glorify life to live
(Grun-tu-molani) and the Emersonian stance of opening one selves to “ ecstasy or a
divine illumination”.
What Henderson as a singular being of existence realizing the worth of
reality of lite wants to dissimenate and spread among the suffering lot of
humanity is to show and shower love and kindness among even animals orphaned
humans ( Grun-tu-molani) the only remedy for the chaotic order distress and
suffering of humanity.