Search for Identity in A House For Mr. Biswas

Vidyadhar Suraj Prasad Naipaul, an expatriate from Trinidad, is a product of post-imperialist society whose primary business as a novelist is to project carefully the complex fate of individuals in a cross-cultural society. In his magnum opus, A House for Mr. Biswas, Naipaul deals with the problems of fragmentation, frustration, alienation, and exile, more definitely the identity crisis of an individual. The novel tells the story of its protagonist, Mr. Biswas from birth to death in different phases, and his problems of identity crisis.

Born with six fingers, a symbol of bad luck for his father and family, Mohun feels an alien and an outsider even in his own family and in his own Indian world. Thus, Naipaul portrays the complexity of the relationship between a man and his origins and his inability to escape from it.  Yet Mohun searches for his own identity

“I am just somebody. Nobody at all” (279).

Unlike his father and brothers’ identity of labourers, Mr. Biswas’s identity begins as a shop keeper and later as sign-painter which leads his marriage with Shama, a daughter of the Tulsis (an affluent family of the island). But the metaphoric Hanuman House of the Tulshis, portrayed as “an alien white fortress”, wants total dilution of his identity in return of giving shelter:

“when the narrow doors of the Tulsi Store on the ground floor were closed theHouse became bulky, impregnable and blank.” (80-81)

Mr. Biswas  always tries to assert his freedom in Hanuman House. He doesn’t wish to give up sign-painting, a part of his identity:

“Give up sign-painting? And my independence? No, boy. My motto is: paddle your own canoe?” (107).

Even he willingly grows their anger by joining the Aryans, a group of ‘protestant’ Hindu missionaries from India starting liberal activities.  Moreover, he gives various nicknames to the Tulsis such as “the old queen,” “the old hen,” “the old cow” for Mrs.Tulsi. To protest against his daughter’s naming by Tulsis, Mr. Biswas writes on the birth certificate:

“Real calling name: Lakshmi. Signed by Mohun Biswas, father.

Below that was the date” (163).

In the section entitled ‘The Chase’, Mr. Biswas gets relieved from Hanuman House and begins his independent life with Shama. However,  

“Chase was a pause, a preparation”(147) and “real life was to begin for them soon and elsewhere”(147)

Here, Naipaul, identifies the desire of Mr. Biswas to have a house of his own while also acknowledging the problem of alienation among displaced people. Yet, he feels alienated for his social identity. For this reason, Mr. Biswas’ visits to Hanuman House more frequent.

Life at Green Vale is a more distressing experience. In spite of his sense of freedom and importance, here he feels excessive insecurity both physically and mentally. Here, he wants only to be recognized as the true father of his children, in his own house, specially by his son Anand. For Mr. Biswas,

“Anand belonged completely to Tulsis” (216).

Somehow, he manages to build his house in Green Vale, but the intensity of alienation and displacement continues and here, too, he fails to gain acceptance as an individual.

          The second part of the novel focuses on Port of Spain which provides him with opportunities to be a professional reporter for the Trinidad Sentinel which gives him some identity, and earns respect from the Tulsis, too. He is no longer  “troublesome and disloyal” (102) to them as was treated earlier. His happiness, however, is short-lived.

The takeover of the Trinidad Sentinel by new authorities [?] causes Mr. Biswas’s suspension which results in his staying with Tulsis in Shorthills after Seth’s break-up with Tulsis. Later, though he builds a house there with much effort, there remains a problem of transportation. For Mr. Biswas “could not simply leave the house in Shorthills. He had to be released from it” (432).

Mr. Biswas again comes back to Port of Spain sharing the house of Tulsi family with Govind and Tuttle. Owad also returns. But again they need to vacate the house very soon after Owad has slaped Anand

“[they] must move. [Anand] cannot bear to live here another day” (551).

The reader may find a change in Mr. Biswas’ attitude towards having a house. Earlier it was a proclamation of his identity. This time it is needed to protect his family. Even his wife, Shama, an advocate of  Tulsi family, expresses their little want,

“I do not want anything bigger. This is just right for me. Something small and nice” (580).

  

After a long struggle for an identity, Mr. Biswas, before his death, manages to buy a house in Port of Spain getting a loan from Ajodha. The description of his house reminds us of the opposite description of the Hanuman House:

“The Sun went through the home and laid dazzling strips on the exposed staircase” (572).

Naipaul uses words like “sun” and “dazzling” in his description of the house, words that clearly reveal Mr. Biswas’s happiness and sense of fulfillment.

Though Mr. Biswas later discovers many flaws in the house, but the sense of satisfaction that he owns a house remains in his mind.

  

To conclude, we must claim that ‘house’ is used in the novel as a symbol of identity which Mr. Biswas searches throughout his life instead of running away from it. Naipaul in the novel suggests that for displaced people like Mr. Biswas, having a house is not only a matter of getting a shelter from heat, cold or rain. But it is actually a symbol of order and selfhood within the heterogeneous and fragmented society of Trinidad. Naipaul’s novel succeeds in transcending the individual self by universalizing the issue of alienation. According to Gordon Rohlehr, Naipaul is able to present a hero who is

“in all his littleness, and still preserve a sense of man’s inner dignity” (Rohlehr 190).

In fact, through his novel A House for Mr. Biswas, Naipaul seems to search for his own identity, as he writes,

“Most imaginative writers discover themselves, and their word, through their work” (Naipaul, Return 211).

Works Cited:

Naipaul, V.S. A House for Mr. Biswas. 1961. New Delhi: Penguin, 1992.

Naipaul, V.S. The Return of Eva Peron with the Killings in Trinidad. 1980. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981.

Rohlehr, Gordon. “The Ironic Approach: The Novels of V. S. Naipaul.” In Critical Perspectives on V. S. Naipaul. Ed. Robert D. Hamner. Washington, D. C.: Three Continents Press, 1977.