NAIPAUL’S ADOLESCENCE AS SEEN IN HIS MIGUEL STREET
NAIPAUL’S ADOLESCENCE AS SEEN
IN HIS MIGUEL STREET AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
BRUNO MUKTI SATYAWAN
Student Number: 054214102
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2011
NAIPAUL’S ADOLESCENCE AS SEEN
IN HIS MIGUEL STREET
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
BRUNO MUKTI SATYAWAN
Student Number: 054214102
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2011
It’s better to feel shy in five
minutes than to be a jackass for
a whole of life.
This thesis is dedicated to my self and my
beloved father and mother
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH
UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama : Bruno Mukti Satyawan Nomor Mahasiswa : 054214102 Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah yang berjudul:
NAIPAUL’S ADOLESCENCE AS SEEN
IN HIS MIGUEL STREET
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal : 5 Mei 2011
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
I declare that the thesis I have written does not contain any works or parts of the works of other people, except those cited in the quotations as any academic paper should.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my gratitude to those who have help and support me in writing this thesis. Thanks to the Almighty God, Jesus Christ for His blessings and the grace. I would also like to thank to my advisor, Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S., M.Hum., and to my co-advisor Adventina Putranti S.S., M. Hum. for the helps, guidance, and support that have been given to me so I could complete this thesis.
I would like thank to my parents, for supporting, praying and also providing some fund for this thesis. My thanks also go to Sondang Maduma for her supports when I was down, to the leader of Lancang Group, Ian Guruh for some suggestions that he gave for this thesis, to the member of Lancang Group, Sindu, Aris, Johan, Bob, Chris, Ben, Buntara. To the Lie Lie Clan, (Ferdi, Fuja, Steph, Alex, Nico, Bayu.) and JogjAngler (Galih, Troy, Aye, Cylas, Adhi, Jeki, Rendy, Edo Simbah, Gigih) for giving vacation pleasure. To Tunggorono Warriors, Yusup, Kyq, Rahmat, and Paul Pontbriant de Vieira.
My thanks also go to Agan-Aganwati Kaskuser (The Largest Indonesian Community) for their helps in finding books and sources from the internet, and also for their supports. Last, I would like to thank everyone whose names can not be mentioned here who have helped the writer during his study in Sanata Dharma University and given also their contribution to this thesis.
Bruno Mukti Satyawan
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE…………………………...………………………………………...i
APPROVAL PAGE
…………………………..…………………………………ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE
………………………….……………………………..iii
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN
………………………..…………….……………..iv
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
…………………………………….……...v
MOTTO PAGE
……………………………………..………………………......vi
DEDICATION PAGE
………………………………..…………………..........vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
……………………….………………..………...viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
……………………………..………………………..ix
ABSTRACT
…………………………………………...…………..…………......x
ABSTRAK
……………………………………………...……………………….xi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
………………………………………………1
A. Background of the Study …………………………………………………..1
B. Problem Formulation ………………………………………………………4
C. Objectives of the Study ……………………………………………………4
D. Definition of ter ms ………………………………………………………...4
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW
……………………………….…..7
A. Review of Related Studies ………………………………………………...7
B. Review of Related Theories ……………………………………………….9
1. Review of Theories on Character ………………………………………9
a. Theory on Character and Characterization ………….……………..9
b. Theory on Adolescence ……………………………………..…...12
2. Review of Naipaul‟s Adolescence……. ……………………………...13 C. Theoretical F ramework …………………………………………………..18
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY
…………………………………………..20
A. Object of th e Study ……………………………………………………….20 B. Approach of the Study ……………………………………………………22 C. Method of the
Study ……………………………………………………...22
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS
…………………………………………………...24
A. The Characterization of the Main Character as the Narrator in the Naipaul‟s
Work of Literature, Miguel Street ……………………………………………25 B.
The Life Sonny as the Narrator in the Miguel Street Reflect to the Author‟s Adolescent Life..
……………………………………………………………..36
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION
……………………………………………….52
BIBLIOGRAPHY
……………………………………………………………...55
APPENDIX .........................................................................................................56
ABSTRACT
BRUNO MUKTI SATYAWAN. Naipaul
’s Adolescence As Seen In His Miguel
Street. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata
Dharma University.This undergraduate thesis discusses Naipaul‟s Miguel Street. The story in the novel tells about the narrator named Sonny who lives in the street and tries to find his identity by learning much from the society and environment. There is a strong relation between work of literature and the author. Many literary works such as novels are proved as autobiographical fiction. They represent the author‟s course of life in the novel, which refer to represented by fictitious characters, events and setting. Because of that reason, in this study the writer tries to find how much the author‟s personal life support the creation of the novel, Miguel Street.
There are two questions as the problem formulation in this study: first, how the character of Sonny is in Miguel Street characterized and the second how the life of Sonny as a character in the Miguel Street reflects
Naipaul‟s adolescent life. The writer conducted library research in working on the study. The primary source is the novel itself entitled Miguel Street by V.S. Naipaul. The secondary sources are from article from the internet, Finding The Centre by V.S. Naipaul as the book of autobiography and also other source related to the novel. In answering the problem formulation, the writer applies some theories; those are theory of character, characterization, and adolescence. The study applies historical-biographical approach.
From the analysis from this study, Sonny the narrator as the main character in the novel Miguel Street reflects Naipaul‟s adolescent life. Sonny as the narrator is characterized as an observer or someone who is much learning from the society. He is also characterized as a person who is not risk taker, someone who does not want to take a risk in everything he does. Sonny as a wise boy is thinking that a role in the society is not really important for him. He only wants to become himself. When it compares to Naipaul, there are some similarities between them. Naipaul has the same characteristics with Sonny. Naipaul is characterized as an observer, someone who really likes to read, not a risk taker and wise. And the last he wants to be him self likes Sonny. It can be concluded that Sonny reflects Naipaul
‟s adolescence.
ABSTRAK
BRUNO MUKTI SATYAWAN. Naipaul
’s Adolescence As Seen In His Miguel
Street. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata
Dharma.Skripsi ini tentang novel karangan Naipaul yang berjudul Miguel Street. Cerita pada novel menceritakan tentang seorang narator bernama Sonny yang tinggal di jalan itu dan berusaha untuk mencari jati dirinya dengan belajar banyak dari masyarakat dan lingkungan. Ada suatu hubungan kuat antara karya sastra dan pengarang. Banyak karya sastra seperti novel telah terbukti sebagai karya fiksi autobiografi. Karya-karya sastra tersebut merepresentasikan kehidupan atau pengalaman pribadi pengarang melalui karakter-karakter fiktif, kejadian dan tempatnya. Karena alasan tersebut, pada studi ini, penulis berusaha untuk menganalisis sejauh mana pengalaman pribadi pengarang mendukung penciptaan novel Miguel Street.
Ada dua pertanyaan sebagai sebuah rumusan masalah pada studi ini: pertama adalah bagaimana karakter Sonny pada novel Miguel Street di karakterisasikan dan yang kedua adalah bagaimana kehidupan Sonny sebagai karakter pada novel Miguel Street mencerminkan masa muda Naipaul.
Penulis melakukan studi perpustakaan untuk menganalisa isi cerita novel. Sumber utama dalam studi ini adalah karya sastra novel itu sendiri yang berjudul
Miguel Street karya V.S. Naipaul dan data-data pendukungnya adalah artikel-
artikel dari internet, Finding The Centre karya V.S. Naipaul sebagai karya autobiograpinya dan juga sumber-sumber lainnya yang memiliki hubungan dengan novel. Untuk menjawab rumusan-rumusan masalah yang di ajukan, penulis mengaplikasikan beberapa teori seperti teori karakter, penokohan, dan teori pada masa remaja. Studi ini menggunakan pendekatan histori-biografi.
Berdasarkan analisis di studi ini, Sonny sang narator sebagai karakter utama pada novel Miguel Street mencerminkan masa muda Naipaul. Sonny sebagai Narrator dikarakterisasikan sebagai seorang pengamat atau seseorang yang belajar banyak dari masyarakat. Dia juga digambarkan sebagai seorang kutu buku, selain itu dia merupakan seseorang yang tidak suka mengambil resiko dalam hal apapun yang akan dia lalui. Sonny yang juga bijaksana berpikir bahwa suatu peranan dalam masyarakat tidak begitu penting, dia hanya ingin menjadi dirinya sendiri. Ketika dibandingkan dengan Naipaul, banyak kesamaan diantara mereka. Naipaul mempunyai kesamaan karakter dengan Sonny. Naipaul dikarakterisasikan sebagai seorang pengamat, seorang yang suka sekali membaca, tidak suka mengambil resiko dan juga bijaksana. Dan yang terakhir dia ingin menjadi dirinya sendiri seperti Sonny. Itu dapat disimpulkan bahwa Sonny mencerminkan masa muda Naipaul.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study People, as observers of this complicated world have been trying to
describe this confusing world. Whether or not they can describe this world freely as what they want. People can create their world and also the development of the world through literature. The changes of the world are also the changes of the people, which mean that people are controlling the world or the world is controlling people. There is one link between people and the world that can not be broken. That is what makes the relation between people and the world is so close.
Both the world and people have their own characteristics. There is no difference between people and the world in the characteristic. Sometimes people make the characteristics of the world and people follow those characteristics of the world. Beside the following characterization of the world, people also can make their own world by their imagination. They make a critic for the real world by making a world through the literature, or the good imagination of the world that they want.
The world that Naipaul writes in his novel, Miguel Street, is the real world, but he describes it in different way. The world that he makes is also the combin ation of his life, his friends‟ life, and his friends in imagination. In short, Naipaul creates a world by the work of literature to describe his own world in the different world. Different world here means the novel. The novel itself is the
2 world that is created by Naipaul. Naipaul is free to make the world as a God, because he is the creator. He can choose everything that he wants to fill in the world that he made. And for the rules of the world, of course Naipaul can arrange it freely.
In Miguel Street, Naipaul as the author of the novel describes his own characteristic in another person. The person was named Sonny, the main character on the novel. He has a good role in the novel, because he is the chosen one that is a representative of the Naipaul to describe the world that Naipaul makes. Since Sonny becomes the narrator in that novel, he is the moderator of the world made by Naipaul control for the story. He describes every character in the novel in every chapter. Moreover, he describes the characters that really exist in the real world and characters that are only made by Naipaul in the world that he makes. In the end of the story he tells us about his own character and the way of his life.
In the world of Naipaul Miguel Street, the evidence of the real people here is a man named Hat, he really exists in the real world, but he also exists in the Naipaul world. Hat is Naipaul‟s friend who helps Naipaul in create the world. Naipaul also puts the other characters in his novel; these other characters also exist in his true world. The setting in the novel is derived from the real world, where the author lived in Trinidad. The freedom is the topic of the novel chosen by Naipaul. That everybody can see what Sonny wants in the end of the story.
It is impossible that he has chosen the world in the novel randomly because every part in the world has taken a good rule for the development and also the changing of the world. It is also similar with the character Sonny as the
3 main character and also the narrator of the world of Naipaul Miguel Street. There is a purpose why Naipaul chooses Sonny as his representative in his own world and also the other character.
There are similar characteristics between Naipaul and the character of Sonny in the novel Miguel Street as well as all the characteristics shown directly.
It is also same with Hat, a man who makes a thing without a name named Popo, and Bogart. These characters that support Hat and Sonny in the Miguel Street also have been shown directly in the characterization by Naipaul. Because Sonny takes important place in the Novel, the other characters are also important in the development of creating of the world of Naipaul.
In the novel, there is also a changing character in the Miguel Street, those all characters are changing in the end of the story; it is on the describing of the character in every chapter. So, in the novel, almost all of the character has changing in the end of the story in chapter. But, that is the message that Naipaul wants to show us, absolutely about the freedom that Naipaul wants that also seen in the narrator of Miguel Street, Sonny. In this thesis, the writer wants to analyze the characteristics and the ways of thinking of the narrator and the author by compares the novel, Miguel Street and Finding The Centre.
4 B.
Problems Formulation
In order to make this thesis organized, there are some questions to guide of the discussion. The questions are intended to clarify the problems that will be analyzed later. The questions are formulated as follows: 1.
How is the character of Sonny in Miguel Street characterized? 2. How does the life of Sonny as a character in Miguel Street reflect Naipaul‟s adolescence?
C. Objectives of the Study
The aim of this study is to answer the question set up in the problems formulation above. The answer of the first problem formulation will answer how the characterization of Naipaul is. After that, the second problem formulations will be based on the findings of the first problem formulation. Therefore, the main goal of the study, wh ich is to see the reflection of Naipaul‟s adolescence, will be answered.
D. Definition of the Terms
Before continuing the discussion, let us define some terms absolutely used in this thesis so that we might have one and agreed upon understanding on them.
5 a.
Character
Character is the individuals who appear of the story and it refers to the mixture of interest, desires, emotions, and moral principles. The character on the story must relevant with the event of the story. Usually the events cause some change either in him or attitude toward him. (Stanson, 1965: 17)
b. Characterization
Characterization is the representation of the character or a person that presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say the dialogue and by what they do action. (Baldick, 1994: 34)
c. Biography
In
Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary Unabridged explain the
term biography, which means the histories of individual lives, and it is also considered as a branch of literature or an account of personal‟s life, which is written or told by another. In book entitled A Handbook to Literature, Holman and Harmon explained that biography might be defined as the precise presentation of the life history from birth to death of an individual, along with an honest effort to interpret the life so as to offer a unified impression of the character, mind and personality of the subject. (Webster, 1989:711)
6 d.
Adolescence
Adolescence is commonly used with more than one connotation. In its simplest sense, it is applied to those within the age-group which is developing from the childhood to the adult status. The term as so used is some ages between, say, twelve, and twenty, or more accurately, to those who are physiologically old enough to have experienced puberty but not yet sufficiently mature to have developed the physical stability of adult life. (Fleming, 1948: 2)
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of related studies Growing up in a devout, orthodox family where the Hindu way of life was
stressed, Naipaul became acutely conscious of the kind of food he ate. William Walsh writes in his book, V.S. Naipaul: "The family were Brahmins, the modes and forms of life at home profoundly Indian, and Naipaul has retained to this day characteristic Brahmin delicacies and repugnancies" (1). At the age of thirty-two on a journey by airplane to Paris, Naipaul announced to the steward: "I am sorry ... But I don't eat meat ... but you must have an egg or some fish or something" (The Overcrowded Barracoon 34). This sensitivity to food is characteristic of Naipaul. It caused disturbance at home many times when his mother had cooked food that Naipaul avoided.
Even Naipaul's mother saw that the social environment in Trinidad was not suited for her son's growth and development. She was becoming particularly concerned not only with the quality of his associates but also the places to which they went. When Naipaul came home late two or three nights with the sent of liquor on his breath she became worried. At his own request, his friends took him to a club on Independence Square where they sat at a bar and drank. The I- narrator of Miguel Street describes the bar with more accuracy.
8 Kumar Mahabir (2008, 5), in his study of V.S Naipaul: childhood and
memory said that Miguel Street is considered to be semi-autobiographical novel.
The story is about Naipaul's boyhood experiences. The I-narrator in the Miguel
Street is the representation of Naipaul in the real life when He was a young. For
the example that Kumar Mahabir take to give evidence is the I-narrator was heavy drinker and in reply to his mother says: "What else anybody can do here except drink?" this is the reason of the I-narrator to escapes from the island to study drugs by being endowed with a government scholarship.
The other studies review, Shirley Chew, in her studies of "Strangers to
ourselves": landscape, memory, and identity in V.S. Naipaul's A Way in the World
said that Naipaul is clung to displacement like a floating buoy. It means that Naipaul want to be himself. He wants to face his life like water in the river. Life must go on; whatever will be. Shirley Chew also said that the world of Naipaul is like the shadow of his life. What Naipaul wrote on his novel are the experiences of his life.
Shirley Chew here in her study tries to explore the strategies by which Naipaul makes of the fictional form a vehicle for the several worlds and subject positions that he inhabits for example, as (post) colonial and migrant and that he produces, in the course of the narrative, as distinct or contiguous or intersecting. This is to know much the narrator in Miguel Street that represent Naipaul‟s life in the novel.
9 Naipaul was to grow more conscious of being a stranger in Trinidad.
Trinidad is viewed here from the perspective of Naipaul at the time of writing; it is also the home and colony he left behind in 1950. The autobiographical elements are handled here with a new economy that helps to secure them as the base for the ramifications and excavations of Trinidad's history to be pursued in the work.
This thesis, however, is an attempt to capture the way Naipaul presented his character in his Miguel Street especially in characteristics and ways of thinking in adolescent life. Those reviews can give strong evidence that Naipaul‟s‟ work of literatures reflect his experience in life, especially his adolescence which is reflected in Miguel Street. Although these reviews do not give much information about Naipaul‟s biography when he was adolescent, but these reviews really help in the way that they provide in depth examination of Naipaul‟s character. This fact is important to support the analysis in chapter four.
B. Review of Related Theories 1. Theory On Character and Characterization
Robert Stanton in Introduction of Fiction said that character is the individuals who appear of the story and it refers to the mixture of interest, desires, emotions, and moral principles. The character on the story must relevant with the event of the story. Usually the events cause some change either in him or attitude toward him. (1965: 17)
10 In characterizing a character, Perrine states that an author can present either directly and indirectly. In direct presentation, the author tells about a character straightly in the sentence or by the dialogue of other character. Meanwhile, in indirect presentation, the author presents the character‟s personality from how the character acts, talk, or how they interact with others (1974: 68).
Similar to Perrine, Abrams said that an author may present characters in two techniques from the narration: showing and telling. In showing, the readers can identify who the characters are by what he or she does to say. In telling the narration will give the description of the characters (1981: 24). An author may use both techniques at once in his work in order to present the characters to be more emotionally convincing, which will help the readers easily to identify them.
Characterization is the representation of the character or a person that presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say the dialogue and by what they do action. (Baldick, 1994: 34).
In Understanding Unseen, Murphy (1972:161-173) defines nine ways to make the readers easier to understand the character. Those nine ways are: a.
Personal Description It is an author‟s description of a person‟s appearances and clothes.
The author describes the character in details, the face, skin, eyes, and
11 clothes. The personal description is very important because it can give clues to the character.
b.
Characters as Seen by Another.
The author describes a character through the eyes and opinion of another character. Through the other‟s view and opinion, the reader may get a reflected image.
c.
Speech The author can give some insight to the character through what person says. The author present some clues to character whenever a person speak, whenever he is in conversation with another or whenever he states his opinion.
d.
Past Life The reader can learn something about a character‟s past life to give them a clue to help the reader to shape the character. This can be done by the direct comment by the author, the person‟s, thought, his conversation, or through the medium of another person.
e.
Conversation of Other The author can give the reader some clue to person‟s character through the conversation of other people and thing they say about him.
People talk about other people and the things they say often give a clue to the character of the person spoken about.
12 f.
Reaction The author can give the reader a clue to a person‟s character by letting the reader know how that person react to various situations and event.
g.
Direct Comment The author can describe or comment on a person‟s character directly.
h.
Thought The author give the reader direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about, what is on the person‟s mind and what he feels reflect on his character. i.
Mannerism The author can describe a person‟s mannerism, habits, or idiosyncrasies which may also tell us something about his character.
2. Theory on Adolescence
Recognition of individual and social problems specific to adolescence appears to be of relatively recent growth. A brief survey of its development is of some relevance here. Recorded discussions of education among Egyptians, Jews, and Greeks in pre-Christian times carried memories of the rituals of primitive initiation ceremonies; and their expectation of uniform and sudden maturing was re-echoed through many later centuries by writers who had little to say beyond an emphasis on the discreteness of the different periods of childhood and an
13 assumption that there was a clearly-defined and swift transition to adult status at some point at which wise admonition could profitably be directed by a parent to a child or by a teacher to a pupil.
It was assumed by the more philosophic of these early thinkers that there were distinct stages in individual development; a blossoming of the body, followed by a maturing of the emoticons or appetites and terminated by the growth of the intellect. The period of adolescence was extending from fifteen to the time of marriage at about twenty-five. During these years the sex functions awakened, the youth underwent a new birth, and true social life began. Soul was now added to intellect and sense; and beauty, goodness and truth acquired a personal value.
Adolescence is a new birth for the higher and more completely human traits are now born. The child comes from and harks back to a remoter past; the adolescent is neo-atavistic and in him the later acquisitions of the race slowly become prepotent. Development is less gradual and more salutatory, suggestive of some ancient period of storm and stress when old moorings were broken and a higher level attained. Important functions previously non-existent arise. Every step of the upward way is strewn with wreckage of body, mind and morals. Adolescence is certainly a period in which rapid physical development occurs. The child at this period becomes able to pass from the exploration and the conquest of his home, his garden or his street to experimentation with the actualities of adult living. (Fleming, 1948 Pp 33-34)
14 3.
Review of Naipaul’s Adolescence
Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was born in Chaguanas, Trinidad, on 17 August 1932. He is the eldest son of a second-generation Indian. He was educated at Queen's Royal College, Trinidad, and, after winning a government scholarship, in England he studied at University College, Oxford. He worked briefly for the BBC as a writer and editor for the 'Caribbean Voices' program.
Naipaul had a postcolonial cultural perspective when he was adolescence. He had three identities at the same time. He was also confused with his self- identity. He was at the same time an Indian, England and Trinidadian. When he was adolescent, he tried hard to find out his self-identity. Beside his identity, he lived in the some situational environment. The homelessness, placelessness, alienation and deracination were the environment that taking influences about his adolescence.
The way he tried to find himself is by travelling. Since that was the way Naipaul thought, he could think more efficiently to find out himself. For the psychological state of the Naipaul when he was adolescence, he thought that he learned to look into his own way. He also had a philosophy of life at that age. His philosophy is to change from negative into positive.
When Naipaul talked about identity, he had an opinion about that. He said that identity is not given, but constructed and contingent. Sometimes Naipaul undergoes certain suffering and identity confusion of immigrant. He thought that many things had occurred to make him what he is now. He can surely life with all the things that make him.
15 Naipaul was educated in the mother country, England. This was his second home for his life. Trinidad is only his birth land. For Naipaul, Trinidad is an alien land, he felt slightly like a stranger in the Trinidad. In order to do his philosophy, to change negative into positive, Naipaul began to turn his sense of alienation into powerful capacity to feel home in any place. This is what Naipaul thought when he was in the way to become an adult.
Naipaul here was the products of a racial and cultural mix. To fight with this situation, Naipaul struggled to find his identity in the multicultural society in his life. Naipaul also denied racial characteristics in order to become more respectable. The characters of Naipaul itself at that period are multiple, unfixed and changing. Naipaul could not achieve one identity because he had multi- background identity. What Naipaul did when he was adolescence was adapted from certain things that he had read.
Naipaul was speaking of his mother as belonging to an ancient Christian community, but he kept his father as a Brahmin. After all of his experiences and all of what he had read, he began to re-make himself in order to give a feeling of power. He did not want to go back to India. He wanted to search a new route in his life and creating new meaning in the flow. Although in the end of his adolescence he thought that he did not know where he was, he did not think that he could pick his way back. He might not unpack and never behaved as though he was staying somewhere. He was educated in London, England. There he lost his native language and spoke English very well. The last decision of the end of his adolescence was when he decided to face any possible challenge in the future.
16 According to Kumar Mahabir (2008), in his study of V.S Naipaul:
childhood and memory , Naipaul was enjoyed reading when he was young. He also
likes to tell stories whenever he was in a group. At that time, Naipaul was serious about making a career in writing. The relationship between Naipaul and his Father is good, because his father wanted Naipaul to become a pundit although he was a young man. His father died in 1953 of a heart attack while Naipaul was still pursuing his Bachelor of Arts degree at Oxford University in England.
Naipaul considers his relationship with his father, Seepersad Naipaul, to be a crucial aspect of his childhood. And whenever he is talking or writing about his personal life in Trinidad, it is almost certain that he would make mention of him. In fact, he states that what he has become is because of that close relationship with his father. He says, "My father was a defeated man: I think that contempt was all that he could teach. I was contaminated by this".
In 1943, when Naipaul was eleven years old, his father published a small collection of short stories. The printing was done, slowly, by the Guardian Commercial Printery; my father brought the proofs home bit by bit in his jacket pocket; and he shared his hysteria when the line typists. Naipaul's father dedicated his collection of short stories to his son; Naipaul also feels that a lot of the spirit of his own earlier work is meant to be dedicated to his deceased father. One must understand the mutual concern between father and son. The common ground between these two individuals is their preoccupation with the written word
“Father and son, each saw the other as weak and vulnerable, and each felt responsibility for each other, a responsibility which in times of particular pain, was disguised by exaggerated authority on the one side, exaggerated respect on
17 the other. Vidia discloses his brief experience, as a patron, in the cinema. (The Adventure of Gurudeva, P.374)”
But there is more to it than he wishes to divulge. As a boy, among boys, he frequented the Rivolto cinema (after converted to Galleria Shopping Gallery). He would buy his ticket and stand outside, waiting for the music of the soundtrack to begin, waiting for the lights to turn off. It was mainly through films in the cinema that Naipaul got insights into the outside world. Films were complements to his books. He mentions various films, actors and actresses in the Trinidad section of The Middle Passage. On the screen he saw, among other things, American and British men and women in their native country. Even here, Naipaul, like many of Swift's characters, reveals his hypersensitivity to dirt and an obsession for cleanliness. But Naipaul paid reverence to the British.
Naipaul knew what was required of him but, instead, he interviewed the young prostitutes who were predominantly Indian girls. It was what he had come to the club to do. Just after this encounter, he felt disgusted. As a boy, Naipaul liked swimming in the sea at Carenage and Blue Basin. The boys in Naipaul Street sometimes organized a walking race in which Naipaul participated with the finishing line ending at Carenage Beach. He was among a group of cyclists who made frequent excursions to bathing places.
Naipaul never had to be forced to do schoolwork at home. Read and learn became a mantra in Naipaul's childhood; he never had to be urged by the whip.
On the contrary, Naipaul's mother would complain about his long hours of
18 studying throughout the night and into the emerging morning. The light of the naked electric bulb disturbed her sleep.
His neighbor, an old woman now, has an image of Naipaul fixed in her mind. It is the only image of him she possesses. In a personal interview with this neighbor (whose name has been withheld on request), she says: "All the time Vidoo only reading book. He hardly playing, he hardly going out." She opened her hands and studies her palms. "Vidoo only reading book" (January 21, 1980).
The fact that Naipaul was a serious "book-beater" is verified by many of his schoolmates. His mother remembers very little of his childhood outside the ritual of studying at home and school. In a personal interview with her on January 20, 1980, she describes his childhood as "a school's life." Kamla, Anand's sister in A House for Mr. Biswas, claims astounding scholastic achievements for her brother: "My brother read more books than all of you put together".
At an early age, Naipaul was discovering with wonder the things that could be contained within a book. He became an avid reader, collecting a store of books in his household. But his marvel and reverence for books went beyond what the printed words expressed. Like Ganesh Ramsumair, he would relish the smell and feel of it even before reading it.
19 C.
Theoretical Framework
Those theories and those reviews of the studies are needed here because it will help in answering the problem formulation in the previous chapter, such as theory on character and characterization, theory on adolescence, and also review of Naipaul‟s adolescence. The theory of character and characterization is suitable to answer the first question. By applying this theory, the writer will be able to describe the characterization of the narrator as the person who reflected by the author.
Theory on adolescence will help the writer to determine which experiences happen during his adolescence, and which experiences are irrelevant. This theory is also making the writer know the characterization of the author and make it easy to write. Review on Naipaul‟s adolescence also helps the writer to see the background and the life of the author. Those reviews on Naipaul‟s adolescence help the wri ter to compare the novel and Naipaul‟s biography to answer the second problem formulation.
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study The object of this study is a novel entitled Miguel Street. The novel was
written by a famous author V.S Naipaul. Naipaul often gets many awards from his writing. Some of his works of literature were awarded from many qualifications.
For example Miguel Street won Somerset Maugham Award in 1961. “The setting of the novel was in Wartime, Port Of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Miguel Street was Naipaul's first book, although it wasn't published first. This is a semi- autobiographical novel; Naipaul set his up in the Miguel Street by the main character (Sonny) as the narrator in the Miguel Street. This novel is the true experience of the Naipaul when was an adolescence, and his view about modernism that influences his town.”