“One Out of Many” by V.S. Naipaul Essay

Read One Out of Many by V.S. Naipaul (in the Anthology, A World of Difference, pp. 261-94). debate the ways in which the author explores the concept of granting immunity in the story.One Out of Many, a curt story by the famous Trinidad-born British writer V. S. Naipaul, runner published in his anthology In a Free State in 1973, is a story which concerns a young Indian homophile from Bombay who starts a spic-and-span life and struggles with his own personal identity in the city of Washington D.C. through floor structure within the short story Naipaul seems to question the meaning of freedom, and what constitutes freedom on some(prenominal) a societal, and personal level.In order to fully explore the floor of freedom within the bandage and the narrative of One Out of Many, it is worth plot to mention a few of its key elements, and how they concur into a wider policy-making, and social context. There argon a number of important events that happen to the primary(prenominal) protagonist, Santosh, that cooperate to shape his own sense of self identity and thus bring him to question the freedom which he has in his own life. The number one of these events is Santoshs emigration to Washington D.C. with his employer, which causes Santosh to leave his wife and two children behind. even up at this early point in the story Santosh is divided.Was there a job for me in Bombay? Santosh questions himself, presentation a reluctance to stay on in his native city without the security that has been provided for him by his traffic and his employer. Sometime into his stay in Washington D.C., Santosh seems to gain a greater sense of self-identity (which will be looked at in more depth later), and a sexual encounter with a hubshi wo part at the time of the race riots in Washington D.C. leads him to abandon the life he has with his employer and to become a more independent citizen.This leads our protagonist on to what could be seen as one of his most important realis ations in damage of his own sense of personal freedom within a wider context. Having met an Indian restaurant owner named Priya, Santosh discovers that a lot of his fellow employees within the restaurant areindeed Mexicans who wear turbans in order to cast pip a faade of being Indian men. Their talk amid the biryanis and the pillaus was all of papers and spurt cards, notes Santosh, They were always about to get green cards or they had been cheated out of green cards or they had just got green cards. It is this talk of legal and wrong citizenship that leads Santosh to question his own freedom within US society, and at last make a very important decision that will bring him a certain bar of freedom. Naipaul uses first person narrative in force(p)ly in order to bring the reader closer to the main protagonist, Santosh. Through this first person narrative the reader gains an sagacity into Santoshs naivety within his new surroundings in Washington D.C., and his initial acknowled ges within it.At times, therefore, it could be said that it is necessary for Naipaul to confront Santosh as a rather simplistic character in order to show just how modest Santosh knows of the USA and the cultural differences between it and his native Bombay. Naipaul manages to achieve a much more, it could be said, personal experience for the reader through these means, with the reader also also being able to feel the same slant out of water feeling that is portrayed throughout Santoshs travels and the adventure which unravels before him. Naipaul really emphasises the theme of freedom when Santosh seems to speak directly to the reader, and this is no more evident than when Santosh, upon realising his living space is a cupboard, says, I understood I was a prisoner. I accepted this and adjusted I was even calm.He is a prisoner not just of circumstance, but of his place on the class ladder. Later, upon leaving the termination of the cupboard and going on his adventure, he pursues what some would call the American Dream, and it is effective how Naipaul seems to allow the reader to question themselves with regards to just how free Santosh becomes. Another example of this effective use of first person narrative is when Santosh describes his guilt and desire for repentance directly after what he sees as a shameful sexual encounter with a hubshi cleaning woman. Incidentally, this is a key event in Santoshs eventual(prenominal) pursuit of freedom.Throughout the story Santosh seems to gain a greater sense of identity, and a stronger perception himself. On his flight to Washington D.C. Santosh, thrust into an environment which is entirely alien to any aspect of his lifein Bombay (which is described thoroughly and affectionately at the beginning of the story), Santosh immediately begins to note the reactions that people have to him. He especially notices an airline girl, and notes that she didnt like me at all. The girl then return key to ignore Santosh, and this f irst cultural encounter with Western people who look down upon his somewhat gaudy appearance teaches him to question the way he comes across to others. This is reflected throughout the story in Santoshs assorted mentions of mirrors, and his own reflection within them.It is later on when Santosh has his first walk through the streets of Washington D.C. that he himself finds himself looking down on other people the hubshi people, or African Americans, whom he has never encountered in his own life until then. Even though Santosh himself has been looked down upon by many people on his transit west, for example the aforementioned girl on the plane, he still percieves the hubshi people to be below him, an mental picture which was held very widely at the time the short story is set. Meanwhile, Santosh seems to constantly fight an internal difference between his old spiritual identity, and the more materialistic, consumerist American way of life. By writing in the first person, the a uthor really outs this point across as the reader is given a deep insight into the inner turmoil that Santosh experiences as a result of his own culture shock. A key hap in the short story which makes Santosh think about the differences in these two cultures is when a wealthy man comes to dinner, and seems to insult his employer by describing an incident in which he paid a servant to cut off a statues head within a temple in India.Santoshs disagreement with this sacreligious, illegal act is heightened by the readers existing knowledge of Santoshs own spirituality, which is derived from a preceding(prenominal) incident in which Santosh described praying to ornamental Eastern statues which have been erected in his employers apartment. From a political point of view, it could be said that it is somewhat crucial that Santosh arrives in Washington D.C. during the civil rights movement in the US, shortly before the race riots of the 1960s, which occur sometime into the story, with Santo sh describing the city on fire. Even though Santosh is looked down upon by many people he encounters on his journey west, for example the air stewardess on the plane there, he still percieves the hubshi people he finds inWashington D.C. as below him. This is highlighted by many of Santoshs statements throughout the short story, and indeed when he questions if his punishment for having sex with the hubshi wetnurse may be being reincarnated as a hubshi himself. It could be argued that the character Santoshs lack of freedom in his own life is shown by Naipaul by the number of things that happen to him in his life that are out of his accountant.However, this seems to be altered towards the end of the story with Santoshs final decision to marry the hubshi woman who has sought him out in order to gain legal US citizenship. This piece of advice is ultimately suggested to Santosh by Priya, who has seen Santosh living with anxiety in the knowledge that he is an illegal immigrant and could be deported. On a stringently societal level therefore, Santosh has gained a superficial form of freedom through his marriage to the hubshi maid. The power that the short story has, as a medium, to convey many ideas and concepts within a relatively short narrative space is, it could be said, proven by the many concepts and themes that V.S. Naipaul explores within the story. All of these themes seem to relate spinal column to the concept of freedom. In the first few paragraphs of the story alone, Santosh brings up many of the ideas that are explored throughout his channelize of setting and his struggles brought on by it. He describes the respectable people as opposed to riff raff, and then, while observing the workings of fate, mentions the importance of his employer. This could be seen as a metaphor for the question that the altogether story centres around, and that is, how much freedom does the character Santosh have, and how much of his life is ultimately in his own control?