NOTE: We'll include Chapter 4 again in our reading/questions since we didn't really get to discuss it on Monday (and also, in case someone is behind in their reading!).
Answer two of the following:
Q1: As the hero of our tale, Ganesh undertakes the most heroic task of all: to become a writer of books. What obstacles does Ganesh face on his path? Why is writing a book all that more difficult in a postcolonial country than, say, in England or America (where it's hard enough!)?
Q2: In Chapter Four, Naipaul writes, “It was their first beating, a formal affair done without anger on Ganesh’s part or resentment on Leela’s; and although it formed part of the marriage ceremony itself, it meant much to both of them. It meant that they had grown up and become independent.” What do you make of this scene and others like it? Is this simply part of the "Indian” culture of Trinidad? Are we supposed to shrug our shoulders and keep reading...or is supposed to be more disturbing than the narrator lets on?
Q3: Ritual and tradition plays a big role in these chapters, yet we also see that "East Indians" aren't quite the same as their compatriots back in India. Do you feel that Ganesh is more of an "West Indian" (of Trinidad) or an "East Indian" (of India, but living in Trinidad)? How do we see this?
Q4: In Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place (a non-fiction work about the Caribbean island of Antigua), she writes that “people in a small place cannot give an exact account, a complete account of events…The people in a small place can have no interest in the exact, or in completeness, for that would demand a careful weighing, careful consideration, careful judging, careful questioning.” Though Naipaul seems to come to the same conclusion about Ganesh and his neighbors, he typically resorts to humor to do so. Do you ever feel that Naipaul is mocking or outright making fun of these "small people" and their "small island"? Are we supposed to find them, as people in the metropolis would, as "ridiculous and unlikely?"
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