V. S. Naipaul "One out of many" – Flashcards
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Hybridity Intersection of oral and written forms. Globalization. Literature that reflects the local conditions. For example, transforming a traditional European genre by introducing elements of local customs and storytelling.
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Postcolonial Literature
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It means the reading is going to have a cynical tone, and that the reading will be based more on Santosh's change from one society to the next rather than the change of the government, a more socio-cultural point of view.
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-Born in Trinidad and Tobago to Indian parents. -Controversial life and apolitical views (in his Nobel lecture he says that "to have a political view is to be prejudiced"). -The writer Salman Rushdie denounces Naipaul as a Fascist and misogynist. -Born into a family of writers. -Love/hate relationship with family. -Father a struggling and depressed journalist. -Mother and grandmother domineering and distanced. How do these biographical details inform our reading of the text?
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When he escapes his first employer, he is able to adopt the American ways when he starts working with Priya. Though as the pressure of legality and finances presses on him, he looses that sense once more, and begins to see himself as part of Priya once more, so he starts to call him Sahib once more. So in a way he escapes his old idenity, but continues to find himself in more subserviant postions in his life.
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Is Santosh able to escape his native identity and redefine his life, or does he simply reinvent his original life in American terms? Nostalgia? Priya: urgency to retain one's heritage. Loses looks and health, reverts to calling Priya "Sahib"
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The title captures the irony of the story, because he is out of many, in the sense of his mind. He goes from Bombay to America where he feels isolated and alone, and yet he is simply one out of many there, he is no one amazing individual. This is also one of the mottos of the US
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The title of the short story is "One Out of Many." How does this title capture the theme of identity?
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Difficulty of coping with Western living. Willing to sleep in a cubby. Perception of the hubshi woman as Kali (Indian goddess of death and destruction)
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Santosh responds to life in America as both an "imprisonment" and a "freedom." Which of these qualities seems to better define his perception of his new life by the story's end?
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They come to represent freedom and enlightment, because they are his key to legality, and like his old home they are always outside in the sunlight. They are more a sense of community that he used to home, which frees him in the end, and yet also confines him by the marriage.
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What do the hubshis represent for Santosh by the story's end—imprisonment and degradation, or freedom and enlightenment?
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A converison, or type of assimilation to the American culture. Something that is too big for him, both symbolically and actually. It represents the American ideal of the individual, something Santosh comes to learn in his life there.
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What does the green suit represent to Santosh?
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He needs to be legal
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Why does he eventually decide to marry the hubshi woman?
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No, the stort ends when Santosh marries the hubshi woman in order to become legal, and decided to simply live his life until he dies.
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Does the story have a happy ending? Use examples to support your argument.
