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The Exploration of a Sense of Belonging: An Explanation of Naipaul’s Novel Half a Life & Magic Seeds

Received: 5 September 2014     Accepted: 18 September 2014     Published: 30 September 2014
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Abstract

V. S. Naipaul is a Trinidad-born Nobel Prize-winning British writer known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad. This famous post-colonial writer, V. S. Naipaul, has been paying close attention to the social reality and life in post-colonial society. In 2001, his novel Half a Life won the booker prize; It tells the story about Willie Chandran’s first 18 years’ life. However, it is not a complete story; it is a precursor to Naipaul’s novel Magic Seeds. In 2004, Naipaul completed the story by his novel Magic Seeds. Seeking for a sense of belonging is the theme throughout the whole process in this two books. In his last novel Magic Seeds, this theme has got a full explanation. Through an interpretation of these two books about Willie’s life, this paper aims to explore the protagonist---Willie’s life process in seeking his sense of belonging and the reason for its missing. Willie is only one of the representatives among the diasporas who try their best to claim for their identity and a sense of belonging. So at the same time, it aims to reveal the theme and relate to the contemporary situation to interpret the realistic significance of the importance of a sense of belonging. Literature is the reflection of our society, its development and change, however subtle it is, this is also true of Naipaul’s two famous novels. They shed lots of light on our daily life and heart.

Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 2, Issue 5)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijla.20140205.16
Page(s) 187-191
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

V. S. Naipaul, Half a Life, Magic Seeds, A Sense of Belonging, Missing, Realistic Significance

References
[1] Gao Z. C. A Probe into Naipaul’s Thought of Novel[J]. Journal of Hainan Normal University(Social Science), 2005 (6): 94.
[2] Homi Bhabha. The Location of Culture[J]. Routledge, 2004.
[3] Kong C. The Growing Experience of Naipaul[J]. Foreign Literature Review, 2000 (2): 163.
[4] Liu W. Y. The Wheel of Desting of Naipaul’s Works---On the Circle Structure and its Ethic Meaning in his Half a Life and Magic Seeds[J]. Journal of Lianyungang Teachers College, 2012 (1): 46-49.
[5] Maslow, A. H. A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review[J], 1943(4): 370-96.
[6] Mei X. Y. Cultural Rootless---A Case Study of Naipaul’s Immigrant Culture[D]. Northwest University, 2003.
[7] Naipaul, V. S., Half a Life[M]. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
[8] Naipaul, V. S., Magic Seeds[M]. US: Alfred. A. Knopf.2005.
[9] Pan F. The Pursuit of Ego---An Explanation of Naipaul’s Magic Seeds[J]. English and American Literary Studies, 2009 (10): 130-136.
[10] Spinoza, Ethics[M]. Translation by Parkinson. Everyman Classics. 1989.
[11] Said, E, Representations of the Intellectual [M]. Vintage.1994.
[12] Said E. Intellectuals in the post-Colonial World[M]. Salmagundi, 1986: 44-46.
[13] Wang S. L. An Analysis of V.S. Naipaul’s Magic Seeds from the Perspective of Spatial Theory[J]. Foreign Language and Literature, 2010 (4): 7-9.
[14] Wang Y. R. The Pursuit of Belongingness——On Naipaul’s Novel Magic Seeds[J]. Journal of Language and Literature Studies, 2013 (10): 29-31.
[15] Wang D. Theme of Diaspora in V.S. Naipaul’s Half a Life and Magic Seeds[D]. Harbin Normal University, 2013: 50.
[16] Xu Z. Q. The Half-life Journey of an “Outsider”——On Naipaul’s Novel Magic Seeds[J]. Read, 2008 (7):97-101.
[17] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Said
[18] http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
[19] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._S._Naipaul
[20] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_a_Life_(novel)
[21] http://news.sohu.com/04/03/news146930304.shtml
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Yurong Wang, Li Lin. (2014). The Exploration of a Sense of Belonging: An Explanation of Naipaul’s Novel Half a Life & Magic Seeds. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 2(5), 187-191. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20140205.16

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    ACS Style

    Yurong Wang; Li Lin. The Exploration of a Sense of Belonging: An Explanation of Naipaul’s Novel Half a Life & Magic Seeds. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2014, 2(5), 187-191. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20140205.16

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    AMA Style

    Yurong Wang, Li Lin. The Exploration of a Sense of Belonging: An Explanation of Naipaul’s Novel Half a Life & Magic Seeds. Int J Lit Arts. 2014;2(5):187-191. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20140205.16

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijla.20140205.16,
      author = {Yurong Wang and Li Lin},
      title = {The Exploration of a Sense of Belonging: An Explanation of Naipaul’s Novel Half a Life & Magic Seeds},
      journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
      volume = {2},
      number = {5},
      pages = {187-191},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20140205.16},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20140205.16},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20140205.16},
      abstract = {V. S. Naipaul is a Trinidad-born Nobel Prize-winning British writer known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad. This famous post-colonial writer, V. S. Naipaul, has been paying close attention to the social reality and life in post-colonial society. In 2001, his novel Half a Life won the booker prize; It tells the story about Willie Chandran’s first 18 years’ life. However, it is not a complete story; it is a precursor to Naipaul’s novel Magic Seeds. In 2004, Naipaul completed the story by his novel Magic Seeds. Seeking for a sense of belonging is the theme throughout the whole process in this two books. In his last novel Magic Seeds, this theme has got a full explanation. Through an interpretation of these two books about Willie’s life, this paper aims to explore the protagonist---Willie’s life process in seeking his sense of belonging and the reason for its missing. Willie is only one of the representatives among the diasporas who try their best to claim for their identity and a sense of belonging. So at the same time, it aims to reveal the theme and relate to the contemporary situation to interpret the realistic significance of the importance of a sense of belonging. Literature is the reflection of our society, its development and change, however subtle it is, this is also true of Naipaul’s two famous novels. They shed lots of light on our daily life and heart.},
     year = {2014}
    }
    

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    VL  - 2
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Author Information
  • Department of English, College of Foreign Languages, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, China

  • Department of English, College of Foreign Languages, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, China

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