Absurdity And Freedom:An Existentialist Study On A House For Mr.Biswas

V.S.Naipaul,the laureate of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Literature,is the most prestigious British Indian writer in contemporary times.Many of his works have won the Maugham Prize,the Booker Prize and other famous literary awards.Naipaul’s masterpiece A House for Mr.Biswas(1961)is known as Nobel Prize classics in literature” and “hundred great English novels of the 20 th century.” Based on the experience of Naipaul’s father,the novel tells the story of a small man’s suffering and struggling in the absurd life of Trinidad colony.In recent years,Naipaul’s works have attracted much attention from scholars at home and abroad.However,the academic researches on A House for Mr.Biswas are mostly based on postcolonial theory and spatial identity construction,and few scholars have interpreted the novel from the perspective of Existentialism.Existentialism,which originated in the 1920 s,is one of the main schools of contemporary Western philosophies and is widely used in the field of literary criticism now.Existentialism aims to expose the absurdity of the world and the nihility of human existence,and affirms that human’s free choice and action are the outlets of the existential predicament.This theory reflects the existential puzzlement of Westerners after World War II and the existentialists’ ardent concern for human existence.To analyse Mr.Biswas’ s existential predicament from the perspective of Existentialism not only provides new perspective and research idea for the interpretation of the text,but also provides philosophical instruction for readers.Based on Existentialism,this paper intends to interpret the anguish of life,the absurdity of the world and the free choices of Mr.Biswas in the social context described in A House for Mr.Biswas,and then reveal Naipaul’s thinking about human society and human nature.The paper consists of three parts: the introduction,the main body and the conclusion.The first part is an introduction of the thesis,which summarizes the author’s life,the novel A House for Mr.Biswas and its research status at home and abroad,as well as the connotation and principles of Existentialism.The second part is the main body of the paper,including three chapters.Chapter One elaborates Mr.Biswas’ s existential anxiety,his sense of nausea and loneliness,his alienation and estrangement,which reveal the existential reality that life is painful.Chapter Two explores the reasons for Mr.Biswas’ s existential predicament from three aspects: the absurdity of the world,the imbalance of interpersonal relationship and the nihility of existence.These three causes interact with each other resulting in Biswas’ s existential predicament.Chapter Three analyses the outlets of Mr.Biswas’ s existential predicament by the thought of free choice of Sartrean existentialism,which are mainly manifested in three aspects: reading,writing and painting help Mr.Biswas maintain his spiritual independence and give him spiritual consolation;Struggling and compromising with others win him sense of social existence;struggling for his own house earns him material space and dignity.Studies have shown that Mr.Biswas has found his own existential space and significance through free choices and shouldering responsibility.The conclusion of the paper points out that Naipaul reveals the hardships and helplessness of Mr.Biswas’ s life and his struggle against the absurdity and nihility of the world in A House for Mr.Biswas.And he argues that the absurdity of the world,the imbalance of interpersonal relationship and the nihility of existence are the causes of Mr.Biswas’ s existential predicament.Finally,he shows that only by making free choices can man find the outlets of existential predicament.The author of this paper also believes that the existentialist thought reflected in the novel will enlighten people to have a profound understanding of life,to treat life with a more optimistic attitude,to mould themselves and to find the existential significance.