In Caverns and Caves with Saul Bellow and Walker Percy

Abstract

Both Eugene Henderson of Saul Bellow’s Henderson, the Rain King, and Will Barrett of Walker Percy’s The Last Gentleman are twentieth century figures overwhelmed with a sense of lost direction. Henderson seeks his way and meaning for his life through the jungles of uncivilized villages and underground caverns in Africa. Will Barrett starts at “ground zero” in Central Park of a civilized country’s most sophisticated city, New York. Ground Zero is the point of a powerful and highly developed nation’s possible extinction. Barrett’s journey takes him through the heartland of the United States to Santa Fe. Both men are on a spiritual quest for whatever will fill an emptiness brought about by something they perceive is lost in their lives. They need a sustenance for the empty places of their lives. Henderson expresses the condition of his soul when he says,