One out of Many
V. S. Naipaul (1932- )
English Literature III
Cecilia H. C. Liu
V. S. Naipaul
Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was born in Chaguanas, Trinida d, on August 17, 1932. His pare nts were descendants of Hindu i mmigrants from northern India, a nd as a youth he felt alienated fr om his surroundings and what h e felt was the cultural poverty of Trinidad. These feelings of displ acement has become a recurring theme in his later fiction and ess ays; in 2001 he was the Nobel P rize winner in literature.
South America
Caribbean Countries
and Trinidad
Characters
Santosh:
- A cook
- He wants to find his self-identi ty in U.S.A
- He feels that he is isolated fro m this new environment.
- He is anxious about new envir
onment and lacks of security i
n Washington, D.C.
Characters
Priya:
• He is a restaurant owne r
• He is like Santosh’s me ntor
• He always speaks like a
philosopher and is so s
weet (p.2736 )
Characters
Hubshi maid:
• She is a supermarket’s cashier
• Santosh says that she is like “Kali”
• She marries to Santosh in the end of story
• “Hubshi” means Negro/
Negress in English; it’s
a disparaging word.
Characters
Santosh’s employer:
• He is a government offi cer and nominated to W ashington, D.C
• Santosh called him “Sa
hib”, which means Mast
er
Summary:
• Santosh was originally in Bombay, working for a middl e-level government official. When his employer was re assigned to Washington, D.C., Santosh faced the pros pect of dismissal and had to return to his village in the hills. Rather than facing this loss of prestige and comfo rt, he pressed his employer to take him to the United S tates. He soon regrets coming to the US because in hi s new home, Washington, D.C., he feels unsafe and o ut of place. Soon after he arrives, he has an experienc e that will make it impossible for him to return to India.
Summary:
He becomes aware of his own identity. He loses the ability to confide in his employer. The only Americans who seem real to him are on television which is where he usually sees them; the
$3.75 he earns per week is not enough to allow for social
activity. In order to get his
freedom again, he decides to marry to the black woman
(Hubshi maid), because in this way he gets the Green Card and becomes a legal citizen.
Symbols
“It was bright and hot outside, cool inside.” (p.2724, p
ar2 from the bottom)
“I felt I would choke in the tiny, hissing room at the b ack” (p.2725, par3 line 4)
C. Apartment:
“The corridor was long: doors, doors…Below that i mitation sky I felt like a prisoner.” (p.2726, par3 from t he bottom) Santosh first intends to search from p ersonal freedom, but he eventually imprisons himself.
Imagery of prison :
A. Cupboard
B. Airplane:
D. Washington:
Imagery of prison:
“I understood I was a prisoner. I accepted this and adjusted. I learned to live with apartment, and I was even calm.” (p. 2729, par4 from the bottom)
“I was free to go out; I had my separate entrance.
But I didn’t like being out of the apartment… ”
(p2729, par4 from the bottom) Santosh was free to go out, but was afraid to leave his apartment.
“I wanted the fire to spread and spread and I wanted everything in the city…to be destroyed and consumed.
”
(p.2734 middle par line5) He comes to understand that he
Col or Green
Green is a symbol of natural growth and signifies hope of eternal life.
“Of that drive I remember green field…”(p.2726 par4 L3)
“I found I had come to a round about with trees and a fountain where…through the traffic to the green circle.” (p.2728, par3)
Symbolizing prosperity, inexperience
“I still have the things I bought that morning. A green hat, a green suit”
“Ignorance, inexperience; ”(p.2731 par1)
◆
◆
The fearful goddess with a heart of a mother. She
brings the death of the ego as the illusory self-centered view of
Hubshi woman Destruction/ Death
“I saw her as kali, goddess of death and destruction…”(p. 2733, par6 line6)
Contras t
Economic
pressure Bombay V.S Washington
◆ Different living standards
In Washington “They were all dressed as though they were going to wedding…”(p2724, par 2 L5)
In Bombay “the loose long–tailed shirt, the wide-waisted pants…”
◆ Rupees & US
“My employer said, ‘Washington is not Bombay, Washington is example’.” (p2723 par4 from the bottom)
“I though about the money I had been spending…I had been thinking in rupees and paying in dollars…”
Contra st
Past V.S Present
Past Free in Bombay
Present Imprisoned in Washington
He became more careful of his appearance.
In Bombay, Santosh could pass without his looking in the mirror for a week or a month. But now he
became obsessed with his appearance.
“Once my employer had been to me only a presence I used to tell him then beside him I was as dirt.”
“Now I found that, without washing it, I was… see him as an outsider might see him.”(p.2735, par5)
Santosh intends to search for his own definition of
◆ Change his concept of value
A . B.
Contrast
C. Santosh married with the Hubshi woman.
In his country, they do not care for the hubshi, they can not embrace the hubshi woman. But in
the end of the story, he accepts Priya’s suggestion.
This marriage makes him become a free American citizen.
◆ Change his concept of value
Racial Prejudice ---> Racial Antipathy
American V.S Indian Indian V.S Hubshi
Hubshi: derogatory Indian term for African blacks
“Then she pointed to the policeman with the gun outside and ta ught me: ‘He pig.’ (p. 2730 par 2 from bottom)
“It is written in our books, both holy and not so holy, that is in decent and wrong for a man of our blood to embrace the hubshi woman. To be dishonored in this life, to be born a cat or a mon key or a hubshi in the next!” (p.2731,par 2)
Identity problem
Self –awareness (escape) Seeking for freedom
Isolation
Struggle between a pursuit freedom and of a sense of belonging
Fear of “change”
The disappointment
Try to find a way out of the plight
American V.S Indian
the airline girl shows her dislike of him ( 2724, the middle par, L5)
the girl in the restaurant sees Santosh as a barbar ian
(2728,the first new par, L3)
a warning of Santosh’s master—(2727, last par, L 3)
Indian V.S Hubshi & black
hubshi (Derogatory Indian term for African blacks), and Santosh cal ls them “wild race”(2726,par 2,L9)
gas-lamps (Santosh thinks it’s a warning to the blacks)—(2729, the l ast line)
cleaning (Santosh thinks the blacks won’t do cleaning in real life—
(2797, par 4)
embrace (having sex, Santosh takes the blacks as debasement just like animals)—(2731, the first new par, L8)
Freedom in Bombay V.S Imprisonment in Washington Washington American dream, so called “free world”
Both of Santosh and his master are aware that they may live anot her life style in Washington—(2723, par 6, 7, 8)
Modern city and electric city (showing a totally different view from Bombay)—(2725, par 7), (2726, par 2, L3)
Dress style
Santosh disapproves the dress style of American (showing the different life style between the rich and the poor)—(2728, par 2, L3)
Cleanliness
(Santosh learns “the real life”
of the American from TV)— (2 730, par 2, L7)
Religion
(Indiana take it as a holy thing, but the Americans do not take the
ancient temple of India as a big deal)
Fear → curiosity and disapproval →change→ fea r → isolation
Santosh starts to fit himself into American life style (language and d ress)—(2731-32)
Santosh finds out that his old sickness and fears coming back after his so called “victory”—(2741, par 2 from the bottom, L3)
Santosh wants to get out of the struggle physically and mentally—2 744 (last par)
Priya tries to join a different culture, but he still cannot be accepted
Q&A
1. Do you think that Santosh is really free in the end of the story?
We think Santosh is not really free in the end of the story. He finally loses in the western world and entrapped in a state of homelessness.
Although he becomes a free and legal citizen, he los es his spiritual freedom in marrying a Hubshi wo man. He has no “real home” to which he can reall y feel that he belongs.
Works Cited
• Liu, Cecilia. Modern/Postmodern English Literature: One Out of Many. 7 May 2006 <http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/iacd_2003 S/c_pm_lit/oneoutmany.htm>
• Naipaul, V.S. “One Out of Many.” The Norton Anthology of En glish Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams, et al. 7th ed. Vol. 2. New Y ork: Norton, 2000. 2722-45.
• The Nobel Prize in Literature 2001 (V. S. Naipaul). Nobelproz e.org
1 May 2007 <http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/2001/>
. (You can view Naipaul’s biography, Nobel lecture and intervi ew in this site.)
