CHARACTER TRANSFORMATION AND JOURNEY MOTIF: A STUDY OF V.

S
NAIPAULS A HOUSE FOR
MR BISWAS AND A BEND IN THE RIVER

ABSTRACT
Slave trade and colonialism left Trinidadians and Congolese like many third world
countries frustrated. The new societies that developed faced difficult challenges in the
struggle to rebuild their destroyed values. This research examines physical and psychological
transformation that Naipauls characters in A House for Mr Biswas and A Bend in the River
undergo as they journey across national and international settings in search for better living
conditions. It equally examines how socio-cultural, political and economic changes in
Trinidad and Congo cause transformation in characters. This work is based on the hypothesis
that Naipauls characters in A House for Mr Biswas and A Bend in the River undergo physical
and psychological transformation as they journey from one setting to the other trying to better
their living conditions. Critical theories like New Historicism and Psychoanalysis will help
reach the conclusion that even though Naipauls A House for Mr Biswas and A Bend in the
River are set in different continents, their characters share similar socio-cultural, economic
and political problems. It is as a result of these problems that characters journey from one
setting to the other and in the process are transformed physically and psychologically.