A SEARCH FOR IDENTITY AND PERSONHOOD IN V.S NAIPAUL'S A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS AND SAMUE

Abstract

Studies have shown that many people are faced with identity crisis; theycannot identify their personhood especially when such people are not in their place of origin or as a result of acculturation. Such people do not know whether they belong here or there and so they tend to search for their personhood. This work, therefore, examines the issue of search for identity in V.S Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas and Samuel Selvons's The Lonely Londoners. Critical evaluations of the novels reveal that life is full of constant movement in search for better conditions. Naipaul is one good writer who searches for self. One reading his works will find out that almost all his works dwell on colonialism and its effect on his people. His writings reveal the inner most mind of a Caribbean people. Also in Samuel Selvon's The Lonely Londoners, the writer explores the issue of racial discrimination and confrontation which is invariably reflected in the condition which the blacks were forced to live; their persistent struggle to be recognized and be identified with the rest of the world. The data for this study is extracted from both primary and secondary sources. Postcolonial criticism is the theoretical anchor of the study. This study reveals these two novels as works of art that deal with the problem of isolation, frustration, nostalgia, quest for identity and negation of an individual. Findings also reveal that it is a peculiar problem in the West Indies as well as all the third world countries.