The Effacement of Willie’s mother in V.S. Naipaul’s Half a Life:Images of a Foreclosed Mother

• Main Authors: HONG, SIANG-MEI, 洪湘媚
• Other Authors: OHLANDER, STEPHEN
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/29yb8b

碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 104 === This thesis aims to discuss the character, Willie’s mother, who is “foreclosed” in V.S. Naipaul’s Half a Life. Being a woman who grew up in a Third World country, India, as an untouchable, Willie’s mother suffers racial, social, economics, and religious repression. She is the protagonist’s mother and represents the lowest caste of Indian culture. But readers have no way to trace her name because she is never named. It seems that Willie’s mother emerges only on call, when she is needed and never becomes a fully-developed character in her own right. Once her novelistic functions are fulfilled, that is, she disappears from the novel. Thus, we hypothesize that there is a possibility of ransoming Willie’s mother’s voices. Or, readers can hear her voices and understand her feelings and suffering through the main narrator Willie because Willie could be interpreted as a mirror of his mother. That is to say, Willie inherited his mother’s appearance and has to endure suffering just as his mother; thus, he must go to a missionary school to receive an education instead of a local public school. In short, although Willie wants to cut off the relationship with his mother and decides not to go back to India; still he cannot erase his innate dark skin or ignore his negative self-image based on traits inherited from his mother. This thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter one introduces Naipaul’s background and glances at Naipaul’s other novels to supply readers with a general to Naipaul and his works. Then, I expresses terms which are used in the thesis to portray Willie’s mother’s novelistic functions. Chapter Two concentrates on Willie’s mother who seems to enjoy no privilege of talking about “sex” unlike Willie’s father, and is perceived as an unattractive woman by her husband. Chapter Three discusses Willie’s mother’s black skin in terms of caste, race, and foreclosure. I explore how this noticeably black skin is a mark which labels her as of a much lower social class, in fact the lowest. Chapter Four illustrates how Willie’s mother takes up the fight against her multiple oppressions. Chapter Five sums up the main points of this thesis and concludes with a look at positive ways to face bondage under a formal, rigid social structure.