Cultural Confluence in Naipaul's Half a Life

Abstract

Cultural Confluence is the central issue in V.S. Naipaul’s Half a Life. Willie Somerset Chandran, the protagonist of the novel, experiences mixed ideas between his Indian and other cultures. Willie’s name itself shows the mixture of the two cultural traditions viz. Western i.e. “Willie Somerset” and eastern i.e. “Chandran”. Willie experiences dilemma to adopt any particular cultures so that he is tortured psychologically. In order to fulfill his desire he travels from India to London and Africa but he gets himself a sense of loss, neither he goes to his root culture nor adopts new cultures completely because of his Creole roots, Brahman and untouchable caste. Ultimately, he comes to know that the amalgamation of cultures makes an individual fragmented. Furthermore, the first chapter tries to define the introduction of the Thesis and the writer’s background. Similarly, the required theory has been used in order to prove the hypothesis in the second chapter. There are some factors that cause cultural confluence and fragmented in self. The text has been analysed according to the theory in the third chapter that how does Willie face challenges in his life? Willie travels from India to London and Africa in order to search authentic self but he experiences fragmented in self due to the amalgamation of cultures. There is brief description of the whole Thesis in the conclusion.