The Arrival Of Spiritual Home

V. S. Naipaul is an English migrant writer who is renowned for his excellentwriting skills and direct prose style in the literary world. The Enigma of Arrival(1987) is one of his most famous novels. It is considered as one of his mostrepresentative works and wins the Nobel Prize for Literature in2001. In thisautobiographical work, Naipaul demonstrates his writing process. It tells hisexperience in pursuing the discourse power through the first person narration. Thispaper intends to discuss Naipaul’s cultural identity in analyzing his living and writingexperience by interpreting the text with the identity theory and concludes therealization of Diaspora identity.As a postcolonial writer, Naipaul had experienced confusion and pursuit onidentity. The absence of belonging in Trinidad and the predicament in Englandimpelled him to be trapped in the cultural dislocation, which produced him theconfusion and reflection on his cultural identity. He strived to fulfill the synthesis ofman and writer and in the meantime he acquired a new understanding of Trinidadand India. Then he reached the reconcilement with the two countries and arrived atthe center of Empire. For Naipaul, the Diaspora had turned to be normality instead ofpain. Finally he could observe the postcolonial world with the arrival of the newidentity.This paper consists of five parts. The first part introduces Naipaul, his worksand the critical reception of him. The second part probes into Naipaul’s confusion onhis cultural identity by introducing the identity theory and analyzing his culturaldislocation. The third part focuses on Naipaul’s pursuit of identity. The fourth partfurther discusses the realization of Naipaul’s Diaspora identity by applying theDiaspora theory. The fifth part is the conclusion of this paper. It summarizesNaipaul’s pursuit on cultural identity and introduces other approaches in analyzingThe Enigma of Arrival.