The Theme Of Identity In Naipaul's In A Free State

Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul is unsurprisingly highly acclaimed name in the history of the postcolonial Indian Diasporic Literature. Though the question of identity is not new, and much work has been done on this theme of identity , still a few very important strands of identity are still untouched . V.S. Naipaul , a novelist, essayist, a short story writer, author of many travel books, was born in Trinidad to Indian parents and has resided in England since 1950. His early works drew praise for clear prose style and delicate sense of humor. Naipaul is sensibly acute in describing the quality of sensitivity to sights, smells and sounds. His descriptive writing of the physical world and the scenic beauty is elaborate.

44 ). In a Free State is one of the best works of fiction that deals with the subject of cultural incommensurability and the broken symmetry of colonial relationships. Naipaul 's use of multiple stories helps him present a more balanced perspective than a straightforward novel would have allowed, the subject is one he has made his own, and his prose is up to its usual high standard. There can be little surprise when In a Free State won the 1971 Booker Prize. Although In a Free State is a sequence of five works — two short stories (the prologue and the epilogue), two forty page novellas and a one hundred and forty page short novel — linked by a common theme, all are about individuals stranded in foreign countries and confronted by alien cultures. In "One out of Many" an Indian servant is almost accidentally transported to Washington, where he finds a niche for himself but remains profoundly alienated from the world around him. "Tell Me Who to Kill" is the tragic story of a West Indian who moves to London. The novel "In a Free State" is about expatriate English civil servants in a recently independent African state torn by civil war. And the epilogue and prologue present the more detached view of an experienced traveller writing in his