Status of women
A very important theme in the book is the treatment of women. Though the majority of characters are women, the women are mostly treated as caretakers, conspirators, or just faces in the crowd. They hardly have any kind of aspirations. The daughters of the Tulsi household are married to men simply because of their caste. The financial stability of the prospective grooms is not considered, nor is any care given for girls' age or consent. A pecking order of women is created in the household where the women with most affluent husbands are seen as better than others. Hence, the windows are forever worried about their future and are trying to start businesses of their own. There is a constant fear of bringing stress on Mrs. Tulsi, and the women often punish their kids to make others "satisfied"—which is just a way to let out their frustration with their current station.
Aspiration
Mohun Biswas, though neither hard-working nor talented, wants to make it big in the world and constantly strives to make it work for him. However, as he matures, his dreams start to get more realistic and he begins to dream simply of a home where he can keep his family without multiple other relations around, and without the constant jabbering of women or intrusion on the privacy of his children.
Family
The theme of family is twisted to the point that it becomes dysfunctional. All the families depicted in the book are dysfunctional in varying degrees. Mohun is almost forced into marrying Shama, and even though he is sexually active, Shama's pregnancies are surprising to him and all his children feel like a burden to him. The Tulsi are a big family, in which the daughters and their resident husbands are mostly treated as servants and the two sons rule like kings.
Housing
From his first move as a child to his aunt's house following the death of his father onward, Mr. Biswas finds himself either living in a relative's home or in a ramshackle excuse for a house of his own, neither of which is able to last long before he has to move again. Especially since he forms a family with Shama so early in his life, Mr. Biswas' life is heavily impacted by the conditions in which he lives; as a contrarian, he desires private accommodations, while as a fairly impractical man, he often depends upon others in order to have accommodations at all.
Education
Although Mr. Biswas receives some training from a pundit and learns to read English at a school, he never goes so far with his education as to be able to gain the kind of social mobility that becomes open to his son, Anand. Mr. Biswas and the Tulsi family understand that, along with the decline of the family structure and the economic changes in Trinidad, education—not for themselves, but for their children—is the key to independence and prosperity.
Distrust
From very early on, Mr. Biswas feels that he is being duped by others around him, especially the Tulsi family, against whom he complains incessantly even while living under their roof, almost to the end of his life. Part of this distrust may come from the fact that, without a substantial source of income and a residence of his own, he knows that he depends upon the means of the Tulsi family; therefore, they have a certain stranglehold on his life.
Secularism
The story portrays religion in Trinidad, whether Hindi or Christianity, in wry—if not outright satirical—terms. Hari, the pundit, is ridiculed by Mr. Biswas for bringing bad fortune upon houses and people he blesses; and Dorothy, the westernized wife of Shekhar, is disdained by Mrs. Tulsi's daughters for her pretentiousness.
