Griffiths and Tiffin in the Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts states that London is ―mother country‖. Mother country is related to the metropolitan by
which it is a parent state of colony. The metropolis in European thought was always constituted as the seat of culture, and this meaning is readily transferred to
the imperialcolonial relationship Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, 2007: 123.
a. Willie’s Perspective on the Idea of Home
Willie feels the gloriousness of London which is described clearly in the story. Naipaul‘s major character, Willie, is apparently surprised with the
transformation in London. The rapid transformation gives serenity to Willie at least in a security aspect. In short, Willie gets everything what he wants.
The writer sees that Willie views London differently from two locations before; Africa and India. Willie does not show his criticism toward the
transformation in London. Willie‘s action justifies the status of London as ―mother country‖ which everything is always better than the colonies. Ironically,
the comfortab le condition does not help Naipaul‘ major character, Willie, to find
his true identity. He states clearly that ―I don‘t know how much longer I can keep on living as a guest of these nice people in this l
ovely house in this lovely area‖ Naipaul, 2004: 271. He is a guest in London. According Collins Concise
Dictionary and Thesaurus guest refers to ―a person who receives hospitality at
someone else‘s home‖ 2003: 418. Thus, based on the definition from the dictionary, London is just someone else‘s home. Willie does not categorize
London with all facilities as his home, his true self, his true identity.
b. Willie’s Perspectives on Multicultural Society
The huge transformation in London always attracts all the countries over the world including the ex-colonies such as India, Africa, Australia and America
to come to the ―center‖. Those different countries absolutely always bring their own cultures, language and so on. Those countries are commonly known as
―margin‖ in the postcolonial studies. Since many people from different countries move to London, there occurs the intensive interaction between margin cultures
and mother cultures. Gandhi cites Maria Louise Pratt opinion that ―the colonizer as much as the colonized
–is implicated in the transcultural dynamics of the colonial
encounter‖ Gandhi, 1998: 131. Willie examines comprehensively which Malaysians, Indian, Arabs,
Pakistan, British and so on interact with each other. For Pratt, ―this encounter produces an estrangement of familiar meanings and a mutual ―creolisation‖ of
identities‖ Gandhi, 1998: 131. In other words, England as multicultural state does not provide pure African, Indian, Asian and American. There is no pure
identity in the contemporary era. Willie‘s diasporic movements from Africa until India are seen as
interrogating and negotiating his true identity. Hall in Questions of Cultural Identity Hall, 1996: 4 examines that identities are absolutely rupture which
cannot be collected in the single unit. Identities are disintegrated and split vividly in the contemporary era. They are always in the process of mutation and
