deja vu

Call me weird but I occasionally think about our mythologies class and remember who I'm sitting next to and the subject of conversation. Not even 2 weeks later does the exact situation I described happens. Definitely deja vu!

clues

clue that is covering up creation-imitation, god-man, master-pupil mythological background around me - daughters are trying to grow up and be like their mothers (young trying to outdo or be better than mother) might think of your mother as god- never being able to compare....

HRTK final paper

     This is the tale of Eugene Henderson and his quest for a sense of adventure and fulfillment. Henderson is a giant of a man who has been in search of a sense of completion all his life. He is a man who struggles to change his ways and find out his true calling. Henderson was born into a rich family, and his sense of emptiness can at times be seen as the boring of the rich. Henderson is a surprisingly complicated character. His deep philosophical debates and questions are offset by occasional acts of violence and anger. His maid dies from listening to him argue with his wife. Constantly egged on by a voice that cries "I want, I want!” Henderson goes to great lengths to suppress it. He thinks that if he plays his dead father's violin he will be able to contact him. He then begins raising pigs. At various times throughout the novel Henderson compares himself to an animal, the fact that he seems to be constantly in their company and more fit for that than to be with other humans. The pestering voice eventually causes him to travel to Africa in search of something he can't exactly find. He promises his guide, Romilayu a Jeep to take him into the deepest parts of the country and they set off. After causing a disaster in one village, nearly destroying it in an attempt to rid their watering hole of frogs, he moves on to another area in Africa. The next tribe helps Henderson the most on his quest. Henderson encounters the Wariri and their king, Dahfu. King Dahfu is college educated and is almost a doctor, and Henderson is almost a little crestfallen to find such signs of civility in the wildest place on earth. He unknowingly participates in a ritual to bring rain to the tribe, the success of which leads to his acclamation as Sungo, or Rain King. This experience with the tribe helps him to realize that his true destiny is as a healer. Because of his ponderous strength, Henderson is appointed Rain King of the Wariri. He becomes closer and closer to Dahfu, and begins to arrive to the sense of completion he has desired for so long. Dahfu is killed in a ritual involving the capture of a lion, and Henderson fears the tribe will not put up with him for long. One of his dilemmas was: Is it a good thing to live in a palace married to dozens of beautiful intelligent half-naked women who are also trained in massage; and if you are too weak at any given time to have sex with them satisfactorily, you were killed. To hell with that, I wanna live. He and his guide escape from the tribe, though Henderson becomes sick and nearly dies. It was perhaps this near-death experience that finally "brings him around", in a sense. Henderson flies back home with his lion cub and an orphan child, and a new sense of self-awareness.

            Henderson’s trip to Africa seemed very similar to my experience. You see, I went there a mere 10 years ago, when I was only 15 years old. I went there on a medical mission’s trip with my family, as my dad is a doctor and volunteering. We ended up staying on the grounds of the hospital he worked at. We all worked at, actually. I worked in what they called the Operating Room, which to us is known as the Emergency Room. Like Henderson there was this voice that kept pestering me to find what I want to do in life and embrace it. Africa offers you peace and understanding. There is not a lot of wealth in Africa, moneywise, but there is wealth in making friends with the villagers or tribes of the area you are in. They have an abundance of knowledge that you would never know without knowing them. The natives that I met in Africa had hunger pains and untreated wounds, but amidst all of their troubles they would still reach out to others to try and make the other person a better one. They made me a better person and taught me to be thankful above all for everything that I have, and that if they can dare to dream and complete their dreams, then damnit, I can do the same.
            Eugene Henderson starts off the book as an unpredictable man, with little conscious to guide him. It seems as though he almost intentionally hurts those closest to him. After telling his wife that he has had enough of everything, and that he was going to "blow his brains out," he explains that this hurt his wife for more than one reason. Perhaps the most apparent reason was that "Her father had committed suicide in the same way, with a pistol (11)." Throwing tantrums like these cause him to be very unlikable in the beginning of the novel. Once he has arrived in Africa, you start to see a different side of him. Then after leaving the first tribe and staying with the second one for a while, his personality really begins to grow on you. He explains that, "At one time, much earlier in this life of mine, suffering had a certain spice (263)." I feel that this shows how he is growing as a person and being able to find out more about who he really is.
Towards the end of the novel, the change that has come over him becomes really apparent. After a conversation with the king, he says, "For his sake I accepted the discipline of being like a lion. Yes, I thought, I believed that I could change; I was willing to overcome my old self; yes, to do that a man had to adopt some new standards; he must even force himself into a part; maybe he must deceive himself for a while, until it begins to take. I would never make a lion, I knew that; but I might pick up a small gain there in the attempt" (250). I feel that quote was a quaint example of how he was able to really grow as a character. When introduced to Eugene Henderson, you meet a man filled with bitterness and greed, however upon following him on his journey you learn what it really means "to understand all is to forgive all", and how sometimes we can all change for the better.