Henderson the Rain King

Henderson the Rain King features 55-year-old narrator Eugene Henderson, a protagonist who is full of self-doubt and a sense of spiritual isolation. Eugene Henderson is a self-important, wealthy, violent-tempered, individual who lives in constant struggle with his wives, his daughter, his neighbors, and himself, and is as lost in his own life as he is in the world. With a voice in his heart saying "I want, I want, I want!" Henderson eventually takes a trip to Africa, where a series of surreal adventures with two tribes see him become temporarily a rain king, even as he grows spiritually and develops a better sense and perspective of his place in the world.

Eugene's search for meaning begins after he subconsciously realizes that he's really just sleepwalking through life. After months of intense studying and practicing the violin, he finds that he cannot supress the voice in his head that repeats "I want. I want", he then decides to spontaneously take a spiritual journey to Africa. He feels he needs a break from his family and his dreary normal existence. Eugene's journey to Africa helps to further develop the story's main theme of the journey into the interior, the journey to face oneself. Eugene's search to find himself and quench his thirst to find the answer to the internal leads him to tribal Africa. When in Africa, Henderson has his guide show him remote, unusual places and different people. He meets two tribes, both of which he attempts to befriend and help. He nearly destroys the first tribe, when he breaks a main water supply in an attempt to "purify" it for them. This is the first part of the book where we see Henderson as a considerate person, genuinly trying to help out a tribe that he sees in trouble. When he fails disastrously, he leaves the village in shame. . Back at home, Henderson thrusted off his family and relationships without care and alienated himself. Africa allowed Henderson to become open and spiritually free. Eugene found acceptance in the second tribe, and became good friends with the king, Dahfu. He reaches acclamation as a Sungo, or Rain King, when he is successful in "bringing rain" through a religious ritual he unknowingly took part in.

Africa was a place for Henderson to be able to test himself. It gave him an environment to be honest in, because he had could totally break free from society and judgement of the modern world. This clean slate was crucial since he could not deal with the restraints of civilized, sophisticated New York. The book ends in a resolve of the conflict between the character versus himself. He draws necessary emotional stability from his experiences in Africa with African tribes. He finds that what he really wants to do is help and that his true destiny is as a healer, and now Henderson can return home, with plans to go to medical school. Dealing with an intense and dark journey into the interior of a person's