Magical Symbolism In Half A Life By V. S. Naipaul

Coming dangerously close to being smothered under the multitude of books written under the broad genre of diaspora and contemporary writing, Half a life by V.S. Naipaul manages to create a niche for itself by having surprising and unconventional characters and settings, tone, storyline and by possessing a very unusual aura, not commonly found elsewhere for that matter.
The first thing that strikes the reader is the tone of the book which is curiously detached and written in a matter-of-fact way. There seems to be no definite story or plot line. At first glance the story takes on an almost surreal quality- one wonders if they haven’t picked up a book written under the genre of Magical realism. After all, how can a person drift from country to …show more content…
The protagonist, William “Willie” Somerset Chandran, is one of the most intriguing characters in the novel. There is absolutely nothing remarkable about him. He lacks the qualities that are usually possessed by the main lead (such as those possessed by a hero or an anti- hero) which helps the readers to sympathise or empathise with the character and experience some form of catharsis. The audience finds it difficult to connect with such a character that has no strong or tangible personality- he could be anyone and everyone. This could perhaps be a way of alluding to the theme of belongingness and loss of identity present in the novel since Willie has not established a definite identity for himself. Throughout the novel he struggles to legitimize his identity- in an aimless and passive way. The only time when he aggressively tries to find himself is during his childhood days as he strives to disassociate himself from the status of his low caste in order to avoid the shame and humiliation that he faces because of it. The length to which little Willie goes to in order to establish a different identity for himself ( that of belonging to …show more content…
The major and more obvious themes of the novel are search for an identity and a sense of belongingness, confusion and inner conflicts, rootlessness – themes that are more commonly found in the writings on the subject of diaspora. Other themes that are not as obvious and even unique to the writings of V.S. Naipaul include the subject of decolonialization of former colonies and its effects on the people, the concept of sex and the attainment of pleasure, and a sharp and keen observation of political situations (often portrayed in the style of a satire, irony or a dark comedy) happening around the world. The theme of racial hierarchies and the crumbling of the values in the post-colonial era that the colonialists had so carefully cultivated is written in a deeply satirical and skilful way. The manner in which Naipaul describes the characters of the story is unique in itself; he focusses on their physical features and their habits, peculiarities etc, while giving less importance to mundane (according to him) details such as names, place of birth and the languages spoken by them. This gives us an impression that we know the characters well enough because of the knowledge or their behaviour, habits etc, when we actually may not. Perhaps this is the author’s own way of telling us about what matters in life and what is really worth knowing about a person – their habits and personality and not their caste