Houses in A House for Mr. Biswas essays

Houses in A House for Mr. Biswas essays "He had lived in many houses. And how easy it was to think of those houses without him!" (p. 125) During his life Mr.Biswas, the protagonist of V.S. Naipauls novel, lived in many different houses. His erring began from his fathers mud hut in the swamplands from where his family was almost expelled. Mr. Biswas moved to the Hanuman House, which was followed by a string of houses: the Chase, the Green Vale, Shorthills, the Tulsi apartment in the Port of Spain, until he finally bought his own house where he died at Sikkim Street. But what makes the houses so important in the novel? In the epilogue, Naipaul ends the entire book, with the word house. The same word is also found in the title. Clearly there is an importance. I think that Mr. Biswass search for a house is his search for connection, his search for belonging somewhere and his search for a way to not be alone - even though his loneliness never leaves him. For Mr. Biswas, the metaphor of house is the fundamental structure he fails to have in own his life. His fathers mud hut in the swamplands was the first house Mr. Biswas got to know. It was a very rural dwelling, but it still symbolized (family) property and it was the only house to which he had some right (p.39). Ironically, Mr. Biswass mother Bibti was intimidated to sell it and this "house" and land became valuable and profitable for others when oil was discovered - it proved worthless for Mr. Biswas. From this moment forward there is only a growing sense of rootlessness in him. His inability to connect with others increases and only reinforces by the other houses in which he ends up to live in. As a result of an innocent flirtation Mr. Biswas becomes trapped with the Tulsi family. He moves to the impressive looking Hanuman house, which in reality turns out to be a dirty, overcrowded old building behind the facade. There he is increasingly ostracize ...