"Miguel Street"

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes V.S. Naipaul's work, "Miguel Street", and the tone of the mood set in the story. The paper relates that the book at first seems like a sentimental and affectionate remembrance of the early life of the narrator, but in reality, it is rift with an undercurrent of dissatisfaction within the author/narrator (Naipul), not with himself, but with the environment that he grows up in. In a sense, the author seems to be saying, that the rich and ethnic environment portrayed in the book is actually limited and cut off, and ultimately hopeless.

From the Paper:

"This tone of mood shift is important to overall attitudes which Naipaul is expressing, because the lightness of the mood seems to always be brought down with an underlying sense of the boundaries or limits of the environment that the characters are in. These ethnic and rich recreations are demonstrative of his skills as a writer, but they do not imply a greater love or affection for the place, as is commonly associated with remembrances of childhood that are powerful environmental recreations. The recreation is powerful and rich, but it does not seem to be a labor of love, and the mood shifts are indicative of a sense of desperation within the author over the subject that he is described, the environment that he lived in as a child. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Naipaul, V.S. Miguel Street. 2002. Originally published 1960.

More papers on "Miguel Street":

• Analytical Essay # 28458 : "Miguel Street" by V. S. Naipaul"
• Book Review # 98733 : "The Code of the Street"
• Analytical Essay # 31766 : "Colonialism in Literature"

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