Much of the psychological motivation behind Mr. Biswas' anxieties and ambitions in the story comes from the condition of, to use a socialist term, precarity: a lack of existential stability and predictably, typically as a result of social status or employment status.
Traditionally, in the Trinidadian Indian society he is born into, Mr. Biswas would be able to rely upon his parents to support him with a home as a child, and he would be able to depend upon his society for a gainful employment; however, the death of his father forces him into the awkward position of having to rely on other relatives and, eventually, his in-laws. Upset as Mr. Biswas is by having to cram into Hanuman House, as he later realizes, his food and accommodation are all taken care of, so long as he stays with the Tulsis.
However, Mr. Biswas' sense that this stability is not complete or necessarily lasting; he recognizes this most vividly when Owad's return from England leads to his and his family's being booted from their room in the Tulsi Port of Spain house. In order to have a stable residence, he must have his own income; so, he must work. His pay as a journalist and then government official are fair, but he, along with his in-laws, realize that the key to escaping their precarious circumstances is education, which opens up economic opportunities and social mobility. This insight is made clear in a passage around the time when the education of Anand comes into prominence in the story:
"The widows were now almost frantic to have their children educated. There was no longer a Hanuman House to protect them; everyone had to fight for himself in a new world, the world Owad and Shekhar had entered, where education was the only protection. As fast as the children graduated from the infant school at Shorthills they were sent to Port of Spain" (393).
