The Study Of Saul Bellow’s Henderson The Rain King From The Perspective Of Trauma Theory

Henderson the Rain King is an important work created by Saul Bellow in the 1950 s,Henderson,the protagonist,is an American modern man who falls into a spiritual crisis.He gets his soul redeemed by leaving the city and leaving Africa.This work reveals the spiritual dilemma faced by all mankind in the context of consumerism,which has profound practical significance.By composing Henderson this image,Henderson the Rain King not only shows us the psychological trauma that the character suffered after experiencing the maiming of war and the cold violence from family.More importantly,through Henderson’s comparative writing of modern society and primitive tribes,this work puts personal trauma in the context of the age and constructs the cultural trauma of American society in the twentieth century.This thesis takes the trauma theory as a critical method and Henderson the Rain King as the research object,trying to demonstrate that Saul Bellow hopes to reflect the consumer society full of holes and material desires with the traumatic Henderson,and desires to give people in modern society a cure for trauma.At the same time,it shows bellow’s sense of social responsibility and strong humanistic concern in reflecting on the human condition through his works.The thesis is divided into three parts: prolegomena,main body,and conclusion.The prolegomena part mainly introduces the background and significance of the topic and combs the currently domestic and international research literature,research methods and innovation of the thesis.The main body contains three parts: The first part mainly discusses the personal psychological trauma of Henderson and analyzes the traumatic events and symptoms of the character,including the fear of death,closed ego and madness,tearing the mask of a modern man living in the real world but whose spirit is in the barren wilderness.The second part focuses on the cultural trauma in the consumer society.Through the track of Henderson’s behavior,it reproduces the social and cultural crisis caused by the humanitarian disaster,and reveals the spiritual situation faced by people in modern civilized society and the development dilemma of all mankind.The third part aims to explore Saul Bellow as a writer with humanitarian concern,through the trauma patient Henderson in the two primitive tribes saw and did,to find a way to heal personal psychological trauma,and try to recover the cultural trauma of consumer society,appeal to readers for cultural reflection.On the basis of the above research,the conclusion discusses the persistent existence of trauma,and how to resolve the crisis and get rid of trauma is still a difficult problem that we all continue to explore.