V.S. Naipaul’s Mimic Men: Analysis of Identity Crisis

V.S. Naipauls mimic Men Analysis of indistinguishability CrisisAbstractThis name attempts to determine representation of identicalness crisis in V. S. Naipauls work Mimic Men. And this article attempts to relate how this sassy is replete with the theme of identity crisis. Furthermore, the analysis of the novels genre and characters decl are themes that are coloured by postmodern trait of fragmentation, which is discussed on a theoretical base with a focus on the theme of identity crisis. V.S. Naipaul has always represented a denial of the third-world spirit, and has represented societies that have recently emerged from colonialism. He describes the way these societies function in the post- colonial order. though regalism has passed and the colonies have attained an independent status, still these nations of the one-third World faces a lot of problems like economic, social and political, and these are emerged identity crisis in the society. As a post- colonial novelist, Naipaul concentrates on major themes cerebrate to the problems of the colonized people. As an observer and interpreter of the ex- colonies, he clarifies the inadequacies of much(prenominal) societies. In his novels, The Mimic Men, the theme acquire a universality and observes and presents the fragmentation and alienation happen to be the universal pickle of man in the present day world.IntroductionSome eminent Third World critics concentrate mainly on Naipauls development as a creative artist who picks up issues relating to the Third World. His works throw illumination on the Post-colonial and post- imperial realities that have shaped the contemporary societies and provides important insights relating to them. Naipauls novels lead to a better understanding of the problems that are faced by the post- imperial generations. In The Mimic Men, it has been observed that, as in the novels studied in the previous chapters, the characters as well as situations in The Mimic Men are dealt with by an ambivalent approach. The larger emphasis, however, has been seen to be laid on Singhs attitude which creates ambivalence identity crisis by emphasising his seesaw relationship to Isabella and London. For instance, in the attic scene, Singh has been observed to vacillate between the magic and the devastation of the city, which is London, the heart of Empire. Then, in the forward scene, Singh on the one hand criticises his colonial island for organism a transitional and makeshift society that lacks order, and on the other hand, he describes London as the greater disorder and the final emptiness. While Singh finds the natural elements of London, such as the snow and the light of dusk gorgeous, he detests Londons dullness and lack of colour. Soon after Singh has left Isabella with the intention never to return, he states that London has gone sour on him and that he longs for the certainties of his island, although this is the place from where he once wanted to escape. These early sc enes, then, which pass during Singhs stay as a student in London, tell about Singhs disillusionment with London, to where he has come, fleeing disorder, and to find the beginning of order. In a second flash-forward, however, as Singh arrives at Isabella, he calls his journey to and from London a double journey and a double failure. This ambivalent situation indicates that Singh is nowhere at home, and it is an indirect criticism towards the coloniser, who support be said to be the original cause of Singhs root littleness, identity crisis, because he has displaced colonial people like Singh. This argument is reinforced by an utilization given by Singh, where, to write his biography, he prefers the dull suburb hotel of London to the pastoral cocoa estate on Isabella. Singh calls his return to Isabella a mistake, but he believes that the cause of his mistake has been the injury inflicted on him by London, where he can never feel himself as anything but disintegrating, pointless, and fluid. This is another example that shows to what extent Singh has been impact by the colonisers practice of displacing people. Leaving Isabella, Singh feels relief. But as he arrives in London Singh feels he is bleeding. For the second time he senses the forlornness of the city on which he has twice fixed so important a hope. Twice he has come to the centre of Empire to find order, but twice he has been disillusioned.Identity crisisThe identity crisis that his characters face is due to the destroying of their past and those who eventually overcome the crisis are the ones who have recovered their past or in some manner managed to impose an order on their histories and moved on in life. Naipauls attitude to culture has always been progressive. It is the Third- Worlds blind mimicry of the westmost that he cannot stomach. He lashes out at the shortcomings of Third- World societies, which have their roots in their traditional cultures, but are unmindful of them in their blind side b y side(p) of the West. They are thus able to maintain a distinct identity. But for the generation born in exile, life in the foreign soil proves some fatal, as they have not been blessed with the insularity of their forefathers, who went there from India. For the new generation, India loses the sense of reality that it had conveyed to their ancestors. The major themes that emerge from a reading of his novels are related to the problems of the colonized people their sense of Alienation from the landscapes, their identity crisis, the paradox of freedom and the problem of neocolonialism in the ex-colonies. The people who can no longer identify with a cultural heritage lose the assurance and integrity which the locating racial ancestor provides. In addition, the harsh conditions of colonialism have left the West Indian worst conditions under the burden of poverty and ignorance. Because psychological and physical conditions correspond so closely, the unhoused, poverty stricken West Ind ian is so often culturally and spiritually dispossessed as well. His only alternative is to strive after the culture of his ex-colonial masters even though he is unable to identify with their traditions and values. In The Mimic men, however, Kripal Singh is not handicapped by poverty, ignorance, a lack of natural talent or the persecution of a grasping Hindu family. He has gained the material success, public credit and apparent independence that Ganesh, Harbans and Biswas all longed to have. In addition, because of his university education and his exposure to a more sophisticated society in London, he is better able to fill out and articulate the many ills of his native back ground. but his clearly superior status and acute consciousness do not make him any less vulnerable to the subtle, yet over powering consequences of his psychologically fragmented and confusing past. In fact, his ability to rationalize his own condition sharpens rather than reduces his total alienation from hi s surroundings and his final rejection of an active life. The Mimic Men, however, is more than a mere elaboration of Naipauls previous West Indian novels it is a profound re enactment of the growth and nature of the East Indian, west Indian psyche and its reaction to the three cultures, Indian, Creole and English, which influence it. In the process, Kripal Singh, the narrator, confessor and visionary, comments on power, politics, social and racial interactions, sex, education, displacement, isolation and identity crisis as experienced by the ex-colonial. Each topic is used to illuminate a facet of his mind.ConclusionTo summarise what has been argued above, Singh is disillusioned about both Isabella and London, because he is a member of a colonised people that has been displaced identity crisis on a colonial slave-island, with a racially and culturally mixed population. In the goal before Singh comes to London, he vacillates between his longing to escape from the island, where he feels displaced and rootless, and the feeling that experience past on the colonial island nevertheless attaches him somehow to it. During Singhs political career, the ambivalent attitudes in Singh and Browne have shown that, while they seem to criticise the colonised and the colony, their ambivalent attitude actually indicates that the real source of the faults criticised in individuals and the society is to be found with the coloniser. Finally, Singh escapes from his artificial home to the imperial centre and claims to have found fulfilment there, but his ambivalent attitude again shows that these are not real fulfilments, but only excuses used by Singh to find a sense of attachment in a certain location of the earth. However, even during this seeming compromise, Singh makes his important statement that finally attaches him to his own culture and not to the one of the coloniser.ReferencesBongie, Chris. Islands and Exiles The Creole Identities of Post/Colonial Literature.California Stanford University Press, 1998.Harney, Stefano. Nationalism and Identity Culture and the Imagination in aCaribbean Diaspora. Kingston University of the West Indies, 1996.Naipaul, V.S. The Mimic Men. London, New York, etc. Penguin Books, 1969. (Firstpublished 1967).