Cultural Ambivalence in V.S. Naipaul’s the Mystic Masseur

Abstract

Ambivalence is the central issue in V.S. Naipaul's The Mystic Masseur. Ganesh, who is protagonist of the novel, feels mixed ideas between his own Indian culture and colonizer's culture. Ganesh, an Indian Diaspora lives in the Trinidad where colonizer's culture is the root culture. He feels dilemma to adopt any particular language as well as profession so that he is tortured psychologically. Psychologically, he is tortured means his mind is not constant to choose his profession easily. His emotional feelings create various sorts of fluctuations in his life. That is why he neglects colonizer's culture to save his own Indian root culture. To fulfill his desire, he changes many occupations. As for example: From masseur to teacher, from teacher to writer and writer to politician. Why has he created such desires? In the beginning stage of life, he thinks that if he adopts the occupation related to Indian culture, he will save his own native culture in Trinidad. But ultimately, he comes to know that he can hardly succeed in his ambition without the acceptance of local politics. He is entrapped in the colonial governance so that he can solve the problems of Diasporas of Trinidad. He becomes such an ambitious figure that he ignores his promise and mimics but adopted the living of standard of colonizers.