Living Without Living: Desolation and the Hollow Self in V.S. Naipaul's Half A Life and Magic Seeds

Abstract

V.S. Naipaul (1932-2018) was one of the post colonial writers born in Trinidad on August 17,1932 in Chaguanas. He has written both fiction and non-fiction. Over fifty years he has published more than thirty books.  He was awarded Nobel Prize for literature in 2001.His own life caught between India, the Caribbean and England. He spent his writing career in a honest way to talk about people who do not belong anywhere and who try hard to build a real sense of who they are. Half a Life (2001) and Magic Seeds (2004) were written by Naipaul in which the protagonist Willie Chandran was introduced in Half a Life and his journey continues in Magic Seeds. For eighteen years, Willie lives in Africa without caring about anything. Throughout his life, he has never fully satisfied. Eventually he faces desolation and hollow self.  Willie's emptiness is not a personal weakness but a colonial upbringing which provide him no basic ground to abide on and no vivid sense of who he was or where he belonged. His displaced self makes him to feel personal alienation and desolation.