THE SEEDS OF ALL EVIL: A STUDY OF IDENTITY DISORDERS IN V. S. NAIPAUL’S THE ENIGMA OF ARRIVAL
THE SEEDS OF ALL EVIL: A STUDY OF IDENTITY DISORDERS IN V. S. NAIPAUL’S THE ENIGMA OF ARRIVAL

Summary/Abstract: The present paper approaches V. S. Naipaul’s novel The Enigma of Arrival by a close analysis of the text with the goal of achieving a reordering of the elements building an individual’s identity. The whole thus created reveals the complexity of a personality confronted with identity disorders. The aim is to identify the working of the inner mechanism – the causes of disorders, their manifestations and development, and the reunderstanding of the self. // The analysis highlights the circumstances that give birth to a quest for identity, the way it is explored by the narrator and the attempt undertaken to arrive at self-knowledge. /7 This paper discusses the most important factor that explains the narrator's imbalance – i.e. history, in charge of an Indian's birth far from India. The study of the historical aspect entails a close study of the social context, which determines the character's separation from his family and community, also playing an important part in his losing the sense of stability.

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