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53 pages 1 hour read

V. S. Naipaul

A House for Mr. Biswas

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1961

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Part 2, Chapter 4-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary: "Among the Readers and Learners"

The effects of World War II continue to change life on the island of Trinidad, such as an American military base being built on the island. Many members of the Tulsi family decide to leave Shorthills and return to Port of Spain. Mr. Biswas and his family are accompanied by the family of Chinta and Govind, the Tuttle family, and the widowed Basdai as they return to Mrs. Tulsi's house in the capital city. The house is "never quiet" (275). Basdai moves into the servants' quarters in the house. She sets up a boarding house for the children of Shorthills who, due to the upheaval of the war, face difficulty in commuting to Port of Spain every day for school. The children stay in the boarding house to attend school, though they must deal with the strictness of Basdai, who is exercise her "flogging powers" (277) and discipline them for the slightest infraction.

At the newspaper, a new fund is set up to help the poor. The Deserving Destitute Fund is a "permanent" (279) campaign to provide financial relief to the poorest people. Mr. Biswas is made an investigator for the fund, which means that he travels across Trinidad in search of the poorest, most desperate people and he must "find one deserving destitute a day" (280). While he travels around, searching for destitute people, he is offered accosted and offered bribes, which he takes to be "a mark of status" (281). The Tulsi widows visit him and ask, "could they be considered Deserving Destitutes?" (282). Mr. Biswas refuses, as he fears for his job. At this time, Mr. Biswas learns that Bhandat has fallen on hard times and is now "living in poverty" (283). He visits his old enemy and discovers that Bhandat has become deaf and that his living situation is unsustainable. Mr. Biswas offers to try to help but he cannot "promise anything" (287).

On the weekends, Mr. Biswas and his children continue to visit Tara and Ajodha. The Biswas children are not welcomed by Tara's adopted nephews, Rabidat and Jagdat. However, Mr. Biswas and Jagdat spend time together, smoking and drinking alcohol. Jagdat rarely mentions his father, Bhandat. The domestic situation at Tara and Ajodha's house is rife with "antagonism" (289), and everyone argues frequently about inconsequential issues.

At the house in Port of Spain, the social bonds between the family are similarly strained. Govind becomes the "terror of the house" (290), and he abuses Chinta on a regular basis and no one intervenes. Mr. Biswas becomes unlikely friends with Mr. Tuttle, who is also an outsider in the family and who is shocked and alienated by the Tulsi family. Like Mr. Biswas, he believes that his marriage into the Tulsi family is as though he has "fallen among barbarians" (291). Mr. Biswas and Mr. Tuttle form an alliance against Govind. With Anand continuing to study hard, Mr. Biswas tries to motivate his son by promising to buy him a bicycle if he wins a prestigious college scholarship though adds the disclaimer "war conditions permitting" (297). Anand studies hard for the exam but, while sitting the exam, makes a simple and regrettable mistake when he "left out a whole question" (301) and forgot to return to it. Mr. Biswas learns that his mother Bipti has died. Mr. Biswas and his family enter a period of mourning. He writes a poem about her and, only then, does he feel "whole again" (306). He reads the poem for a small literary group that he has joined but he is ashamed when, while reading, he is overcome with emotion. Despite his mistake, Anand finishes third and wins a place on the scholarship program. The son of Govind and Chinta, Vidiadhar, also sat the exam but he did not place high enough to win a scholarship and, in contrast to Anand's celebrations, he suffers an "unhappy evening" (309). Anand assumes that the "war conditions" (310) mean he will not receive the bicycle that he was promised.

Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary: "The Void"

The news about Anand's scholarship pleases Mr. Biswas, who loves the "rules, ceremonies, and customs" (312) of the college that Anand will attend. He is proud of his role as a parent, even though his daughter Myna also sits the exam but does not win the scholarship (though she does pass). His children's success is enough to temporarily distract him from his desire to own a house of his own. He views his "circumstances as unalterable" (312). Mr. Biswas's role as the "expert on matters of social welfare" (313) at the newspaper alerts him to the people setting up a new welfare department in Trinidad. The Community Welfare Department is intended to help people across the island and the head of the department, Miss Logie, offers Mr. Biswas a job. She also offers Mr. Biswas and his family the chance to stay at her beach house. Mr. Biswas accepts her offer and takes his family on vacation, though he is afraid that Miss Logie will visit his crowded, chaotic home and judge him. The Biswas family spends an idyllic week beside the beach. Then, the vacation is over, and they dread "returning to what they knew" (320).

Now that he has a new job, Mr. Biswas buys new suits and shows off his fresh attire at a cricket game. As he struggles to make an impact in his new role, he worries that the department will be shut down. He believes that his current good fortune is "too good to last" (322). He is tempted by the offer to buy a car using a "painless government loan" (322) with very low interest rates. After a drive in the car, however, the family's enthusiasm for the vehicle quickly wanes. After acquiring the car, Mr. Biswas gifts his old bicycle to Anand and his promise is "thereby partly fulfilled" (326).

The house in Port of Spain is thrown into upheaval when the Tuttle family announces that they want to move out. Mr. Tuttle, to Mr. Biswas's horror, has bought a house. While Mr. Biswas covets their larger rooms and hopes to move his family into the newly vacated space, Mrs. Tulsi announces that she is moving back to the city. When she comes to the house, her behavior is not the same as before. She is much older now and her body and her mind are compromised by her aging, though she has "no precise illness" (327). Despite her struggles, she grows close to Mr. Biswas's daughter Myna. Each day, Mrs. Tulsi tells Myna to inspect her head for lice.

Owad, the "adventurer of the family" (330), finally announces his return from studying medicine abroad. He studied in England and Russia. Unfortunately for Mr. Biswas and his family, Mrs. Tulsi decides that Owad needs space at the family home in Port of Spain. She kicks the Biswas family out, offering them "alternative accommodation" (331) in one of the Tulsi-owned tenement buildings until they can return in a few months' time. Mr. Biswas is furious at being imprisoned by Mrs. Tulsi's whims. The Biswas' spend three months away from the house before they are invited to return. When they do, they discover that Owad's status as a doctor has given him a new standing in the Tulsi family, even though he is yet to arrive back in Trinidad. The return to the house prompts Mr. Biswas to realize that his children are almost grown up. He is shocked that he has practically "missed their childhoods" (336).

Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary: "The Revolution"

Now that Seth is ostracized from the family and Mrs. Tulsi has grown old, Owad returns to a large welcome party and quickly becomes the de facto "head of the family" (339). Everyone in the family looks up to Owad. They gather to listen to his stories, and they are shocked by his revelation that true Indian people are "a disgrace to Trinidad Indians" (340). Anand is especially fascinated by his uncle, especially the communist ideology that Owad now preaches. Owad lectures the household on how much better their lives would be "in Russia" (342). The house is briefly peaceful under Owad's new rule, with everyone "waiting for the revolution" (343) that will bring about the communist utopia promised by Owad.

One day, Anand plays cards with Owad. The game ends when Anand feels disrespected and insulted by his uncle, who criticizes his "conceited selfishness and egocentricity" (346). He criticizes Owad, who slaps Anand. The slap humiliates Anand, who goes to his father and insists that they "must move" (348) to a new house as soon as possible. Mr. Biswas sympathizes with his son, but he pleads for patience. Before long, Mr. Biswas is similarly annoyed. He argues with the other people in the house about leaving the lights on too long and racking up large electricity bills. Mr. Biswas causes a big scene, at the end of which he announces his intention to leave the house and take his family with him. However, his anger quickly grows "stale" (352).

Despite announcing that he wants to leave, Mr. Biswas does not yet have the money to purchase a house of his own. At a bar, he meets a legal clerk who claims that he can sell Mr. Biswas a house at a very reasonable rate. At first, Mr. Biswas is sure that the house is "not for him" (355) but he cannot stop thinking about it. Mr. Biswas sells what he can and borrows money from Ajodha to buy the house from the legal clerk. Shama is concerned about the deal. She warns her husband that the "high and mighty house-seller" (359) might not be trustworthy. Mr. Biswas ignores his wife's advice and purchases the house.

Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary: "The House"

Mr. Biswas makes his "final decision" (361) and moves his family into the new house. As Shama predicted, the deal was too good to be true. Mr. Biswas talks to his neighbors and soon learns that he has vastly overpaid for the poorly built, poorly maintained house. He knows the clerk lied to him but the pride over actually owning a house is enough to smooth over his initial concerns. When the Tuttles visit, they are impressed by the house and their reaction validates Mr. Biswas's bad decision. Added to this, his children are happy to finally move out of the Tulsi home. They prefer the broken, poorly constructed house to any other where the family has lived in the recent years.

Mr. Biswas has a moment of victory when, after inspecting the garden fence, he realizes that the property line is actually "A full twelve feet inside the boundary indicated in the deed" (367). He moves the fence and reclaims a small amount of additional land for his garden. This pleases him greatly. At the same time, the reclamation undermines the clerk's plan to build another home on the neighboring property. Mr. Biswas is delighted that he has extended his own property and dealt a blow to the man who made him overpay for such a badly-build home.

Epilogue Summary

Owad leaves Port of Spain after marrying a violinist. The Community Welfare Department is shut down because it has "grown archaic" (369) so Mr. Biswas leaves his government job and goes back to work at the newspaper. While he works hard, he is never able to fully repay the money he owes to Ajodha. Despite his continued lack of success, his children exceed his expectations. Anand and Savi both leave the island to study abroad, which delights Mr. Biswas. During this time, however, he becomes ill. He collapses while working at the newspaper office and he is forced to spend a month in the hospital. Anand remains abroad and does not respond to Mr. Biswas's letters, but Savi comes home when her father's condition worsens. After being discharged, he is fired by the newspaper with "three months' notice" (370), and he cannot find another job. Savi finds a well-paid job on the island. Though she is young, her salary is far above anything Mr. Biswas was ever paid. Mr. Biswas dies. He never sees Anand again, but he is surrounded by his wife and his other children when he "dies suddenly" (371). After his death, the Biswas family do not return to the Tulsi home. They continue to life in the house bought by Mr. Biswas.

Part 2, Chapters 4-Epilogue Analysis

Mr. Biswas finds a government job. When he is working for the government, he believes that he is finally successful. He measures his success against the colonial institutions which define life on the island of Trinidad, believing that he is finally a part of the same systems which extract wealth from the colony and send it back to Great Britain. By working for the state, Mr. Biswas ranks himself alongside the powerful institutions of the country and distinguishes himself from the poor community from which he heralds. As on many occasions, Mr. Biswas is wrong. He is not a colonial benefactor. He does not benefit from the colonial apparatus. His job is to manage and maintain the colonial institutions on behalf of the people who are extracting wealth from the colony, mediating the circumstances of the poorest people on the island to prevent too much civil unrest. Mr. Biswas is a passive management tool for an exploitive institution which he does not understand. Even his relation to the material wealth of the state is misguided. When they reimburse him for his travel expenses, he believes that he has ascended into a new realm of earning potential. But these expenses are not additional wages; they are reimbursements for his own money, each one itemized and accounted for so that he is not able to cheat the system. Any minor profit Mr. Biswas makes on his expenses are inconsequential in comparison to the institutions of colonialism to which he now believes that he belongs. He congratulates himself on being recompensed for spending his own money. The state has convinced him to be pleased that they are managing his own resources on his behalf in a tragic echo of the entire colonial structure.

Mr. Biswas uses his relative wealth to purchase a home. As always with Mr. Biswas, he is his own worst enemy. He allows himself to be tricked into purchasing a home that he cannot afford and, more importantly, being scammed into overspending on a home which is poorly built, and which will cost him a fortune to maintain. The romantic side of Mr. Biswas is evident again. Just like he allowed a momentary infatuation for Shama to become his whole life, a momentary affinity for the idea of owning a home locks him into a terrible deal. He does not survey the house to any reasonable degree, nor does he properly check the background of the man selling the house. He fails to do his due diligence because he allows the man to talk him into buying the house. Mr. Biswas has wanted to own a house for so long that a small part of him wants to be talked into purchasing the house. As with his marriage to Shama, he is given the opportunity to back out of the deal but—infatuated with a desire to please people and a romanticized ideal of his future—he cannot say no. When Mr. Biswas buys the house, he achieves a lifelong ambition. When he realizes the poor quality of the house that he has bought, he is once again taught that his ambitions and his dreams are tainted by their realization. Many years before, he dreamed of having a day to himself and then quickly became bored when he found himself with a free day. When he finally purchased a house of his own, the realization of this dream leaves a similarly bitter taste in his mouth.

The epilogue of A House for Mr. Biswas demonstrates that tragedy is a constant feature in Mr. Biswas's life, right up until his final days. He suffers medical problems and loses his job. He worries about losing his house. When he sends a message to Anand and Savi that he is sick, only Savi returns from abroad to be with her father. For years, Mr. Biswas has tried to achieve his dreams vicariously through his son. He insisted that Anand receive a good education so that Anand would be able to achieve his independence in a way that Mr. Biswas never could. Ironically, Anand has become too independent. He has left Trinidad to study abroad and he is increasingly alienated from his father. They barely communicate, meaning that—at the peak of Anand's success and in the final days of Mr. Biswas's life—the father is barely able to envision his son's success because Anand is so far away. Anand is too successful to provide the gratification and validation that Mr. Biswas craves. This tragedy is heightened by the presence of Savi. The often-overlooked daughter also travelled abroad to study, but she was able to return to be beside her father in his final days. She immediately finds a job on the island and is paid more than Mr. Biswas was ever paid. Her success is palpable, immediate, and rewarding to her parents. However, the ability for Mr. Biswas to vicariously enjoy his daughter's success is tainted by their unfamiliarity. The more she succeeds and the more he witnesses her success, the more he is reminded that he overlooked her in favor of Anand for so many years. Even in his final days, when he is driven around the island by his successful daughter who has achieved everything that he always wanted for his children, he is forced to reckon with his failure to give Savi the care and attention that she deserved.

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