On Diasporic Identity In A House For Mr.Biswas

With the rapid development of their economy, people deeply concern over the development of culture in the post-colonial countries, and are also gradually aware of the importance of inter-cultural communications. The literary works about post-colonial societies play an indispensable role in the world. As one of the leading lights in post-colonial literature, V. S. Naipaul expresses great concern over the underdeveloped third world, especially his homeland India, birthplace Trinidad and Africa suffering a long-time destitution in his novels and travelogues. His literary composition principally probes into the crises of national cultures and the issues of individual identities. As one of his early outstanding works, A House for Mr. Biswas, describes that these Indian immigrants lose their root and identity in Trinidad. The motif of this novel is to reveal that it is tough for these immigrants to pursue their independence, freedom and identity. Diasporic identity, which refers to the relationship between location and identity, is applied to explain the different destinies of the three generations of Indian immigrants. With the change of living circumstance, the older generation makes a vain attempt to live in a closed society. Afterwards, the second generation tries to learn how to get on well with the native and how to reconcile themselves to the new mode of living. The third generation studies abroad to look for the ways of realizing dreams and gradually gets accustomed to the western mode of living and thinking. The purpose of this thesis is to reveal that the immigrants’ identity crisis is a universal phenomenon in the world, and also explores that under the influence of western culture and economy, although the progress of anchoring their identities is brimming with hardships and sufferings, these immigrants are gradually accustomed to the society dominated by suzerain culture, and shape their particular, complicated and heterogeneous identities.