『비의 왕, 헨더슨』: 이상향으로써의 아메리카

Abstract

According to the argument of Jean Baudrillard, a French post-modernist, in the distinctions between object and its representation, thing and idea have no longer any validity. In the form of thing and idea, Baudrillard points out a new world of simulacra which has no referent or ground in any reality except their own. A simulation is just an ‘unreal’ myriad of images. Baudrillard calls these images ‘hyperreality’, a world of self-referential signs. A novelist describes a thing or an idea in view of the present situation and repeatedly reflects its images on his or her writings. In Henderson the Rain King(1959), Bellow reflects his images of America in terms of hyperreality though Henderson, the American not a Jew, experiences a lot of real accidents in Connecticut and Africa(even though some critics say these spaces in Africa are not real but symbolic). For Bellow, America is not just the land of living a life but the new world as a Utopia which could help Jews having suffered diaspora fulfill the dream to rebuild their own nation. Bellow believed that the American culture characterized by modern technology and science of the 20th century would be different from the old European ones and also would cure the problems with which we are faced. Therefore Bellow tries to create a hero, Augie March, in The Adventures of Augie March(1953) on the basis of Huckleberry Finn in order to find out the innocence in America. The ‘axial line’ in Augie March symbolizes the universal truth we ought to pursue in our lives. In Henderson, Bellow juxtaposes chaotic America with primitive tribal nature in Africa and lets Henderson stand alone in the midst of confusing surroundings, the simulacre. Africa is not the world Henderson expected. However, there is no other difference between the order of nature in primitive Africa and that in America. Henderson, having a painful experience as a ‘rain king’ in Wariri tribe, realized that his mission to give the tribe in Africa rain is another role for a man to live in this world. Therefore, he ought to return to America to live as an American and try to fulfill not just his but also Jews’ dream to build a new world as an image of hyperreality. Henderson who is standing with an orphan and a lion cub breathes new air at the airport in Newfoundland, Canada before his final stop in America. Now he is ready to take care of anybody and anything in his new world. America provides endlessly its images as a Utopia and writers ceaselessly try to reflect them on their simulation.