The Reading List of Mr. Biswas in V.S Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas: A Post-Colonial Exploration into the Indo-Trinidadian Cultural Crises

Abstract

V.S Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas is structured in an interesting format where the protagonist recollects memories starting from his birth to his death. Through these memories, we get a scope to visualize the cultural and geographical shift of the Indian indentured labourers settling in Trinidad. As readers attempt to make sense of the narrative, the protagonist is seen providing examples of a few texts at different crossroads of his life. The paper will explore the unsaid implications of these texts on the protagonist’s narration of his life struggles. The paper will further attempt to discuss how Naipaul’s choice of the mentioned texts through the narrative of the protagonist throws light upon the Indo- Trinidadian cultural crises. Lastly, the paper will explore the condition in which the appropriation of the colonizer’s culture is performed along with the preservation of one’s own culture.