Multiculturalism - Igcollege.org

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Proceedings of National Seminar on Postmodern Literary Theory and Literature , Jan. 27-28, 2012, NandedThe act of writing his memoirs provides himthe final solution to his sense of dislocation.This is because, through writing, he is ableto take control of the fragments of his pastand shape them into a spiritual andpsychological autobiography.Ralph’s conscious and imaginativeidentification with Britain and the Westaffects him psychologically in a number ofinterrelated ways. He considers his origins.He is descended from a line of ‘theunimaginative, unenterprising, andoppressed’ which is ‘a cause for deep, silentshame.’ [83] This fits with Memmi’scontention that “love of the colonizer issubtended by a complex of feelings rangingfrom shame to self-hate.” [121] Ralph’ssense of shame leads him as a child towithdraw more and more from the peopleand activities around him. He looks forwardto escaping to London and the Europeanlandscapes that are his proper backdrop. Heconceives of himself as protected by theWest. Ralph finds instead that London doesnot welcome him. He is not in his rightfulplace after all. He fails to integrate into theideal culture presented to him throughbooks. From childhood, Ralph haddisowned Isabellan history and culture. Yethe doesn’t find a place in British societyeither. Memmi discusses Ralph’s situationas a common experience among colonizedpersons who emulate the colonizer: Ralphfeels estranged from both cultures andexperiences a crisis in identity. The result isa persistent and pervasive sense ofemotional emptiness. His identity has noculture to center around. He becomes thedouble, yet hollow hybrid colonial subject.He literally loses a feeling of place, or hissense of identification with a place. Heequates placelessness with loss and disorder.[154] This primary experience in Londonserves to propel Ralph into an acceleratingdownward spiral of emotional distress, loss,and growing sense of helplessness andfutility.V. S. Naipaul’s novel The MimicMen is the fictional memoir of protagonistRalph Singh. This is written in a boardinghouse in London. This is a retrospective,first-person account of Ralph’s life. Thisaccount is ranging over his childhood in thefictional West Indian island of Isabella, hisuniversity days in London where he meetsand marries his wife. This novel is anaccount of his somewhat successfulbusiness and political careers back inIsabella. With all the particular details,Ralph Singh is also a prototypical colonialcharacter. He is an intelligent and sensitiveperson. He is confused by the plural butunequal society he’s raised in and for whomidentity is a primary issue. This is becausethe story is related through flashbacks andmemories. Ralph has the opportunity toweave in reflection with narrative and selfanalysiswith exposition. Ralph admitshimself that his feelings, his actions, his lifefit in with ‘patterns’. In this novel, Ralph’ssense of alienation, his experiences as acolonial politician, his struggle with a senseof personal identity, and his inability toconnect with others are linked as variousexpressions of Ralph’s sense of loss anddisconnectedness. These experiences andreactions also fit into general patterns ofcolonized persons acting within ‘typical’colonial situations. Ralph, his wife, and thesocial set they associate with are also apartfrom the rest of Isabcllan society. Themembers of this group, like Ralph, have “allstudied abroad and married abroad.” Theywere “a group to whom the island was asetting” and for whom “the past had beencut away.” [55] They represent what FrantzFanon calls an ‘underdeveloped middleclass.’ This is the result of an anemiccolonial economy that cannot support a vitalmiddle class engaged in production asfinanciers or captains of industry. This isengaged in intermediary activities likesmall-scale business, agriculture, and theprofessions. [149-50] Ralph Singh’sinterests and those of his social setepitomize “the profoundly cosmopolitanmold.” [Fanon. 1963 : 149] Thiscosmopolitan mold is of this class mind-setfor whom the ‘narrowness’ of island life is aconstant contradiction.The narrator Singh’s colonialeducation has taught him that the mother471 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Proceedings of National Seminar on Postmodern Literary Theory and Literature , Jan. 27-28, 2012, Nandedcountry, England, is the symbol of order.When he studies English culture and history,he feels that his own culture is inferior tothat of the colonizer. Therefore, Singh’scolonial education has caused him tobecome a homeless man with no self-image.Singh keeps asking himself whether he isthe product of his colonial education. Heboth recognizes and criticizes colonialmimicry. But he also knows that he cannothelp being a mimic man as he is “a specificproduct of a particular socioeconomicformation called colonialism.” [Cudjoe.1988 : 100] In his attempt to find hisidentity and the ideal landscape, Singh goesto London only to realize that the city doesnot promise anything to an East Indiancolonial subject as he can never identifyhimself with it. In London, Singh realizesthat he can never be an Englishman in spiteof his public school education, and that onecan be English only if he is born in England.One of the critics Louis Simpson haspointed out that the West Indians can onlyface dislocation in the metropolis : “Thedescriptions of the immigrant’s life in “TheMimic Men” show how disillusioning thatlife could be. Nothing would have preparedthe West Indian for the English climate orthe dreariness of living in a boarding house.Confronted with greasy wallpaper and a gasmeter into which you had to feed shillings tokeep warm, he would have had longthoughts.” [Simpson. 1984 : 574]As Bruce King has claimed, byleaving India and going to the Caribbeanislands, the Indians are doomed to isolationand dislocation : “The process of losingone’s Indianness started with leaving India.Thai was the original sin, the fail. After thatIndian traditions could only either decay intodeadening ritual or become diluted,degraded and eventually lost through outsideinfluences and intermarriage withothers.” [King. 1993 : 68] Ralph’s sense ofidentity and consciousness of possibilityappear greatly reduced. Ralph Singh seemsunable to adjust and search a whole identityfrom the fragments of his life. He is caughtin the empty space between two cultures andtwo identities. The writing of V. S. Naipaulindicates a probable and continuing effort onthe author’s part to make sense of the worldand of his situation. This is the situation ofthe formerly colonized. In writing, Naipaulhimself is struggling to imagine analternative to Ralph Singh’s ‘solution’ inThe Mimic Men. The Mimic Men is brilliantin its analysis of the historical legacy ofcolonialism. Some of its political andpsychological effects, the issue, even thepossibility, of political and personaltransformation is hardly raised. The wholeidea of transformation in the novel is itselftransformed into sterile acceptance. Ralph’spolitical experiences raise the interrelatedissues of nationalism, independence, anddemocracy. These experiences serve tointroduce the possibility of creating a bettersociety only to discount it. Ralph concludes“The truth of our movement lay in theRoman house, the court inside, the guardoutside.”[196] The movement was simplythe conceptual abstractions of a small groupisolated from the mass of people. As avictim of the colonial education system andcurriculum, Singh has always beenencouraged to imitate the empire and tobecome a ‘mimic man’: “My first memoryof school is of taking an apple to the teacher.This puzzles me. We had no apples onIsabella. It must have been an orange; yetmy memory insists on the apple. The editingis clearly at fault, but the edited version is allI have.” [90]By presenting different times,places, and situations, he tries to put theparts together to complete the puzzle andrewrite his life. He considers the notions ofcolonization, decolonization, history,culture, race, and politics, to write his ownstory and to give meaning to his existence.Hence, the novel presents Singh’s desire tolearn “what it means to be a colonial subjectin a postcolonial society.’’ [Cudjoe. 1988 :99] The constant shifts between the past, thepresent, and the future may also reflectSingh’s internal chaos. As John Thieme hassuggested, this technique is suitable forpresenting “social and psychologicaldisturbances.” [1987 : 114] However, theirony is that in his search for order, Singh is472 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Page 1 and 2: Proceedings of National Seminar on
Page 46: Proceedings of National Seminar on

Multiculturalism - Igcollege.org

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?