Politics of Humanism in Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King

Abstract

In Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King, the protagonist Henderson learns from the African tribal societies what love, compassion, respect and equality means. In so doing, Bellow's politics is to subvert the western concept of humanism which always functions in accordance with the interest of the European high-culture. He shows that the marginalized lower class people have the spirit of counter humanism or alternative humanism.