V.S. Naipaul’s fourth novel ‘A House for Mr. Biswas has been regarded as his impressive achievement. It traces the struggle of Mr. Biswas to own a house. In a picturesque novel tradition, it depicts the chronicle of a low born child who because of physical and economical limitation is compelled to live by his wits. Its story is a series of episodes which through never spectacular are unusual and absurd. His struggle is put in the background of deprivation, crowding and insecurity which make the possession of a private dwelling an ideal goal in life. He is a hero in all its littleness and absurdity. He is an everyman as he expresses a keen awareness of the absurdist. He conforms Albert Calms’ fundamental definition of the absurd, “Absurd means, one who feels within him a longing for happiness and for reason”. The present work is round protagonist Mr. Mohun Biswas and his life struggle to get a house of his own.
Unlucky since birth:-
Mr. Mohun Biswas was born in a village of Trinidad, of humble parents. His maternal grandfather had been immigrated to Trinidad from India. He was born with six fingers. So Pandit read his futures as ‘He would grow into a lecher, a spendthrift and a liar’. Thus ever the midwife made predication that the boy bon at midnight hours would eat up his own mother and father. Indeed it happened one day, his father drawn in a pond. Here we study the story of Mr. Biswas’ life in the novel that is full constant anxiety, recurrent setback, repeated failure and many blows given by society and his own fate.
His reading and unorthodox Ideas:-
Biswas is sent to the local Canadian Mission School for his early education at a village called Pagotee. He is fond of reading and regularly borrows books from the library. This reading widens his mental horizon, increases his knowledge and develops a habit of thinking, rethinking and mediation. The background of reading and writing enables him to get a job as a newspaper reporter and later as Community welfare Officer, though he fails to make out a solid literary career. More over in dealing with people he remains failure. Despite his wife reading and his intellectual interest he is a man only of mental ability. At the Chase, he can not run even the Tulsi food shop successfully, because he doesn’t not know how to deal with the customers. At Green value-estate he fails to win the loyalty or the good will of the laborer. All remain hostile to him. The novelist has described him as ‘a rolling stone’ a man with no steadiness in his work, purpose and ambition.
His love of independence and Rebellious nature:-
Then he marries Shama, but never enjoys happy married life. It proves to be a failure. From the very first day of his marriage, he feels that he has been duped by the Tulsi family. He thought to get good dowry and a separate residential house from his mother in law, but is asked to live as dependent and to work in Tulsi-store as other sons in law of Mrs. Tulsi. But he is a young man with self-respect, does not like to submit himself to victual ownership of Mrs. Tulsi and Seth his brother in law. Now he begins to comment Tulsi family members as blood suckers. He tells them nasty thing. He begins to struggle for liberation from their hold upon him. However his efforts to lead an independent life fail. He is complied to run the Tulsi food shop in a village “The Chase”. But when the shop collapses, he is sent to works as supervisor on the Tulsi-Estate at Green Vale. Here with a feeling of independence he starts to build his own house. But on account of shortage of money and illness, his dream of house remains incomplete. After all he has to begin a new chapter in his life. Compelled by circumstance, he is to Tulsi -estate at Shorthills. Here he again tries to build his own house but his house catches fire. Once again he is thrown to live in Tulis’s house in Port Spain. After that a furious quarrel happens between Tulsi and him. He takes a loan from his uncle Ajodha and mages to buy a house in Sikkim street in Port of Spain. At last he fulfills his dream. Here the novel is contained with a large account to MR. Biswas’s struggle, rebellion against Tulsi which cruse his individually. He finds everyone who comes under Tulsi-clan loose their identity His rebellion nature led him to liberation from Tulsi-hold but his triumph is very late, after as much straggle, failures, set backs,. He gets the house of his own, but is unable to enjoy his feeling of triumph for a long time He is premature death denies to him this pleasure of life.
As a father:-
Just as husband a father too proves a big failure. His children do not feel only deep affections for him. They do not become attached to him. As a father, he too does not try to please his daughter by giving her present on X-mas. Mr. Biswas takes a good deal of interest in Anand’s education and arranges for extra lesion for the boy. But Anand is far from becoming devoted to his father. Even after Anand has gone abroad on a scholarship, his letters to Mr. Biswas do not show much affect. Thus as a father he remains an unfortunate man.
A man of Mediocre Ability:-
He fails not only in dealing with his wife and children, he also fails in dealing with people or strangers around him. Despite his wide reading and intellectual interests. Biswas is a man of mediocre ability. He does not know how to run the Tulsi food shop successfully. A lawyer’s clerk cheats him and drags him into litigation. At Green Vale he fails to win the loyalty of the good will of the laborers whom remain hostile to him and who burn down the house which he has built. He can not get on well with the management of the’ The Sentinel’s magazine. In fact he is no judges of human nature and can not form any lasting friendship. He falls on all fronts – as a shop-keeper, as an overseer, as an investigator and also as a Community Welfare Officer. He can be described as a rolling stone. He is never steady in his purpose or ambition. In fact he has no real ambition. His real ambition is to possess a house his own. It is partly fulfilled because he has to mortgage it at last.
As an absurd man:-
Looking to all the above aspects of his personality. Biswas is by no means a hero in the traditional sense. An ideal hero ought to be strong, brave, virtuous, free from hatred, kind hearted, highly intelligent and very effective in his dealings with other people. Biswas can not be considered as a hero in that sense. Because he suffers from several shortcomings and limitations. He often behaves in an irrational and persevere manner. A critic calls him as absurd man’. Tulsi family regards him as a buffoon and a trouble maker. He reaps only failure in almost every field of life. He neither loves nor is loved by the members of his own family. Eventually he dies as a heart-patient Thus Naipaul des not intend this man to be a hero.
As a Moral hero:-
He has some virtues also. He is a man of self-respect and thirst for independence. He is heroic in the matter of self-assertion and self development. At last, he has a house of his own and becomes free from the suffocating atmosphere of the various Tulsi homes. More over, he has a high sense of humour and wit. He is not a hero in a physical sense, nor he is an intellectual giant. But he is a moral hero. Thought his career, he preserves his moral integrity and remains true to himself. He does not like to live on charity but prefers a premature death. That way he dies as a most contended man of our times.
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