A House for Mr Biswas 1961

1
A House for Mr Biswas (1961)

• V.S. Naipaul

2
Indian culture in Trinidad

• Among the tumbledown timber-and-corrugated-iron
  buildings in the High Street at Arwacas, Hanuman
  House stood like an alien white fortress. The
  concrete walls looked as thick as they were, and
  when the narrow doors of the Tulsi Store on the
  ground floor were closed the House became bulky,
  impregnable and blank. (488)

3
Indian culture in Trinidad

• fortress maintaining Indian culture even in
  exile
• Indian culture remains alien to the Caribbean
• fortress this alienation must be preserved
• impregnable cultural contact cannot affect
  Indian essence

4
Hanuman
5
Hanuman

• Indian tradition defined as Hindu tradition
• cultural difference defined through religion
• concrete statue of Hanuman religion as a
  fortress, unchanging
• conspicuous show of religion

6
A House for Mr Biswas (1961)

• The balustrade which hedged the flat roof was
  crowned with a concrete statue of the benevolent
  monkey-god Hanuman. From the ground his
  whitewashed features could scarcely be
  distinguished and were, if anything, slightly
  sinister, for dust had settled on projections and
  the effect was that of a face lit up from below.
  (488)

7
Mr Biswas

• Mr Biswas went to Hanuman House to paint signs
  for the Tulsi Store, after a protracted interview
  with a large, moustached, overpowering man called
  Seth, Mrs Tulsi's brother-in-law. (488)

8
Signs

• What does the painting of signs imply about Mr
  Biswas' relationship to Hanuman house?

9
Painting of Signs

• Mr Biswas subordination to Hanuman house
• he is paid to advertise its claim to greatness
• painting of signs as a menial, yet culturally
  important task
• he gets the job only because he is a Brahmin

10

• He began by decorating the top of the back wall
  with an enormous sign. This he illustrated
  meaninglessly with a drawing of Punch, who
  appeared incongruously gay and roguish in the
  austere shop where goods were stored rather than
  displayed and the assistants were grave and
  unenthusiastic. (488)

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What is the relationship between the sign and the
store?

• the sign participates in the creation of fiction
• fiction the greatness of Hanuman house
• fiction of the store vs. unappetizing interior

12

• Twofold incongruence
• - signs create artificiality, fiction
• - Mr Biswas knows nothing about Hanuman house

13
What ingredient is missing in Mr Biswas life and
the story?
14

• These assistants, he had learned with surprise,
  were all members of the house. He could therefore
  not let his eyes rove as freely as usual among
  the unmarried girls. So, as circumspectly as he
  could, he studied them while he worked, and
  decided that the most attractive was a girl of
  about sixteen whom the others calle Shama. (489)

15

• She was of medium height, slender but firm, with
  fine features, and though he disliked her voice,
  he was enchanted by her smile. (489)

16
If you were Mr Biswas, what would you do next?
17

• Still, he stared at her with growing frankness.
  When she found him out he looked away, became
  very busy with his brushes and shaped his lips as
  though he were whistling softly. In fact he
  couldn't whistle all he did was to expel air
  almost soundlessly through the lecherous gap in
  his top teeth. (489)

18

• Meeting Alec in Pagotes, Mr Biswas said, 'I got
  a girl in Arwacas.' And a few days later
  Bhandat's eldest boy said, 'Mohun, I hear you got
  a girl at last, man.' He was patronizing it was
  well known that he was having an affair with a
  woman of another race by whom he had already had
  a child he was proud of both the child and its
  illegitimacy. (489)

19
Romance glory in Mr Biswas' life

• The news of the girl at Arwacas spread and Mr
  Biswas enjoyed some glory at Pagotes until
  Bhandat's younger son, a prognathous,
  contemptuous boy, said, 'I feel you lying like
  hell, you know.'

20
If you were Mr Biswas, how would you save your
reputation?
21

• When Mr Biswas went to Hanuman House the next
  day he had a note in his pocket, which he
  intended to give to Shama. (490)

22

• He passed Shama's counter and, without looking
  at her, placed the note under a bolt of cloth.
  The note was crumpled and slightly dirty and
  looked ineffectual. But she saw it. She looked
  away and smiled. It was not a smile of complicity
  or pleasure it was a smile that told Mr Biswas
  he had made a fool of himself. (490)

23
If you were Mr Biswas, what would you do next?

• He felt exceedingly foolish, and wondered
  whether he shouldn't take back his note and
  abandon Shama at once. (490)

24

• Mr Biswas, now busily cleaning brushes, wiping
  them dry, and putting soap in the bristle to keep
  it supple, was sure that Mrs Tulsi was listening
  with only half a mind, that her eyes had been
  caught by the note I love you and I want to talk
  to you. (491)

25

• Seth came, looking as though he had spent the
  day in the fields. He wore muddy bluchers and a
  stained khaki topee in the pocket of his sweated
  khaki shirt he carried a black notebook and an
  ivory cigarette holder. He went to Mr Biswas and
  said, in a tone of gruff authority, 'The old lady
  want to see you before you go.'

26

• Then Mr Biswas had another surprise. Through the
  doorway at the far end he saw the kitchen. And
  the kitchen had mud walls. It was lower than the
  hall and appeared to be completely without light.
  The doorway gaped black soot stained the wall
  about it and the ceiling just above so that
  blackness seemed to fill the kitchen like a solid
  substance. (492)

27
Kitchen

• Hanuman house as a facade of Indian splendor in
  exile
• mud wall vulgarity, poverty
• Seth dirty shirt, ivory cigarette holder
• idea of incongruence
• Hanuman house as a show, a fiction

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If you are Mr Biswas, how do you feel?
29
What is the worst thing that can happen to you?
30

• 'So you really do like the child?'
• It was a moment or so before Mr Biswas, behind
  his cup, realized that Mrs Tulsi had addressed
  the question to him, and another moment before he
  knew who the child was. (494)

31
If you are Mr Biswas, what do you do next?

• He felt it would be graceless to say no. 'Yes,
  he said, 'I like the child.'

32

• 'I mean,' said Mr Biswas, 'does the child like
  me?' Mrs Tulsi looked as though she couldn't
  understand. Chewing, with lingering squelchy
  sounds, she raised Mr Biswas' note with her free
  hand and said, 'What's the matter? You don't like
  the child?' (494)

33
Entrapment

• The world was too small, the Tulsi family too
  large. He felt trapped. How often, in the years
  to come, at Hanuman House, living in one room,
  with some of his children sleeping on the next
  bed, and Shama, the prankster, sleeping
  downstairs with the other children, how often did
  Mr Biswas regret his weakness, his
  inarticulatenes, that evening! (495)

34
Tragedy

• Hanuman House as a fiction
• leading others to believe in its reality
• the sign painter is trapped into believing in the
  reality of his own signs
• fortress Hindu community as aggressive
• Mr Biswas is trapped by his own kindness

35
A House for Mr Biswas

• satire on the Indian custom of arranged marriages
  
• 'Does the child like me?' as a cultural faut pas
• Indian tradition as absurd, entrapment