A House for Mr Biswas Essay Questions

Although the novel is recognized as autobiographical, it is not Mr. Biswas, its protagonist, but rather his son, Anand, who corresponds to the person of V. S. Naipaul, the author: Mr. Biswas corresponds to Naipaul's father. Does the narrator of the story appear to identify or sympathize more with the father or the son? Cite textual evidence to support your answer.

While it may be true that the vast majority of the book describes the story from Mr. Biswas' perspective, as Anand reaches school age, we begin to hear not only more of what he does, but even certain intimate details, such as his writings in a quasi-diary about his discomfort with the domestic squabbles at the Tulsi house. By the time Anand studies and then passes the exhibition exam, even we still glean this from Mr. Biswas' mind, we have the sense not only of the spotlight passing from father to son, but also of the son looking back and seeing himself in his father. Thus, the two characters very subtly become identified with each other.

Naipaul writes from his experiences growing up in Trinidad in the 1930s and 40s. His intended audience is mostly a Western Anglophone world that may be highly unfamiliar with such practices as the wife- and child-beating described in the Tulsi family. How does the author bridge the gap between his own familiar experience and his readers' unfamiliarity with his culture? Cite specific examples from the text.

Naipaul does not shy away from themes that might discomfort a reader who might fancy herself more "civilized," nor does he use such details for sensationalistic entertainment value. Perhaps comparable to the great Russian realist novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky, Naipaul recognizes some deep psychological value in the representation of the gritty, cruel, and violent aspects of life. However, Naipaul avoids the kind of religious melodrama Dostoevsky is often derided for by foregrounding the ridiculous and self-contradictory aspects of the violent scenes, which he does with a wryness which, even if it was not acquired from Britain, certainly would be very familiar to the British.

Naipaul's father, the model for Mr. Biswas, was a locally recognized journalist. In what sense might a journalist of Mr. Biswas' cast be a precursor to a novelist of Naipaul's sort—both in terms of the relations between the two professions and in terms of the father/son relationship?

Since Anand is the character representing Naipaul, we might observe how Naipaul describes Anand's relation to his father: the latter emphasizes the importance of education and reading; moreover, he imparts, through their family conversations and arguments, an attractive—if also highly cynical—kind of wit. On a couple of occasions, Anand makes insults and rejoinders that show him to be his father's son, but even more so, we may observe the narrator narrating with an unmistakably similar cynical turn.

One of Mr. Biswas' earliest literary experiences is an encounter with and absorption in romantic stories. What becomes of this inclination, and why is this significant in the context of the broader narrative?

The cruel frustration of Mr. Biswas' idealistic notion of romantic love in his somewhat coerced marriage to Shama is one of the most significant, cruelly ironical turns of fate that he experiences throughout the story. We realize that he actually never held onto such an idealism very firmly in the first place; although it is not described explicitly, we get the sense that Mr. Biswas is himself coolly aware of his own lack of resolution. This ambiguous and all-encompassing kind of feeling becomes translated from love for women to a desire for a house of his own—and then, later, into hope for his son.

What is the significance of Western literature in Trinidadian society, and in the story itself?

The narrator places a particular emphasis on Mr. Biswas' interest in classic Western authors such as Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus. This interest is idiosyncratic for the Indian community he grew up in, and it represents the core of his striving to transcend his own condition. Of course, it is also into this Western literary world that Anand/Naipaul go when they study at Oxford, fulfilling the dream of moving beyond the community from which Biswas originated.