The Mimic Men by V. S. Naipaul

First published: 1967

Type of work: Psychological realism

Time of work: The 1930’s, 1940’s, and 1960’s

Locale: The Caribbean and London

Principal Characters:

• Ralph Singh, the protagonist, a colonial minister from the island of Isabella
• Sandra, Singh’s English wife
• Cecil, Singh’s mother’s brother, roughly his own age, whose family owns the Bella Bella Bottling Works
• Ethelbert Browne, a friend of Singh and founder of a political movement
• The Deschampneufs, a famous old French family on Isabella

The Novel

In The Mimic Men, V. S. Naipaul, employing the confessional narrative method, follows the career of Ralph Singh, a colonial official exiled from the small Caribbean island of Isabella.

The story is divided into three parts, the first of which begins with Singh, already disgraced in exile, sitting in his room at a London boardinghouse. At forty, he reflects upon the events of his career, contemplating “the shipwreck which all my life I had sought to avoid.” Chronologically, Singh’s remembrances are untidy, beginning as they do with his years as a young man in London. Before his public, Singh deliberately takes on the role of an affluent colonial dandy; inwardly, he is anxious and aimless. Following many frivolous affairs, he meets and marries Sandra, a woman disappointed owing to her humble origins and her failure to win a university scholarship. Singh returns to Isabella with Sandra, using his inheritance to build Kripalville, a posh suburb. Success and riches do not prevent the resurrection of old anxieties about life on an obscure island composed of the sons of slaves. Both Singh and Sandra sense the shapelessness of Isabellan society and experience “a feeling of having been flung off the world.”

The second part of the novel, which describes Singh’s childhood, exposes the source of the aimlessness which torments his family. At home, Singh lives under the shadow of a disaffected father, whose career as a schoolteacher leaves him unfulfilled. His father also recognizes that, as an Asian, he is detached from his country of origin, condemned, in a sense, to being “shipwrecked” on a tiny Caribbean island. Eventually, Singh’s father seeks out the island’s lowly, disenchanted black workers and leads them away from the miseries of the city to the pristine reaches of the Isabellan forests. His messianic message makes him famous, even in England. The movement, however, soon fades; the blacks filter back to the city, while their Asian deliverer, yellow-robed, remains in the forest as a Hindu holy man.

It is at school that Singh meets Ethelbert Browne, a black student on scholarship. Their strained and nervous friendship is important to the story, for later, Browne will draw Singh into the unpredictable world of Isabellan politics.

At the beginning of part 3, Singh, divorced and unhappy, joins Browne; together they are the new men who challenge the government. Editing a paper called The Socialist, Browne organizes a political movement of the dispossessed which ultimately sweeps the election. Browne is elevated to the status of folk-leader, with suggestions of a cult of personality, and Singh is given an important position in government. After four years, however, Singh dramatically falls from power when his negotiations to nationalize the sugarcane industry end in failure. At forty years of age, Singh is forced into exile to live out his days in private reflection.

The Characters

In an age when so many politicians write their memoirs, Ralph Singh, as a character, comes to life easily from Naipaul’s imagination. The chief difference is that most political figures write to defend their policies—which can make for tiresome reading—whereas Singh writes, not to defend, but to understand himself. A desire for self-knowledge motivates him, and such a private, personal struggle, rare as it is, is poignant.

The youthful Singh is burdened by secrets. At school, he discards his first name, Ranjit, in favor of Ralph, ostensibly in order to integrate himself into his surroundings. Linguistically, by word magic, the boy seeks to bridge a chasm separating races and cultures. It is a child’s response to a profound problem. Despite his efforts, Singh experiences recurring dreams, imagining himself an Asian horseman, riding onto a snowy, forbidding, endless landscape, which suggest a longing for his ancestral home. The dramatic tension between where he is and where he ought to be remains with him throughout his life, poisoning his childhood, his marriage, and his career.

Singh’s family has endured its own problems. His father’s failure is all the more painful to him since his wife’s family is so rich, owning the Bella Bella Bottling Works. Perhaps rejection of conventional life is rooted in the shame of his own failure. Having failed again in his efforts to lead a movement against human indignity, Singh’s father is interned for six years during the war and released only to be assassinated.

Of all Singh’s friends, Ethelbert Browne is the most intriguing. Browne, named after an Anglo-Saxon king, is viewed by family and friends early in his life as a comedian. He dances and sings (“Oh, I’m a happy little nigger”), but the comic face disguises the humiliation Browne feels. Following a period in London, Browne returns to Isabella to begin his fateful quest for power.

Critical Context

The Mimic Men, one of Naipaul’s most respected novels, received the W. H. Smith Award in 1968. Naipaul’s earlier novels are comedies. In them, Naipaul exposes the ridiculous aspects of Trinidadian life. The Mimic Men departs from this tradition and represents a serious, critical investigation of a colonial society in transition—a direction which he has followed in many subsequent works, both fiction and nonfiction. The pessimism of his conclusions regarding the emerging nations has earned for him many critics, not least the politicians of the countries he observes. Yet the power of his language and insight have made V. S. Naipaul one of the keenest interpreters of the Third World.

Bibliography

Hamner, Robert D. Critical Perspectives on V. S. Naipaul, 1977.

Morris, Robert K. Paradoxes of Order: Some Perspectives on the Fiction of V. S. Naipaul, 1975.

Rai, Sudha. V. S. Naipaul: A Study in Expatriate Sensibility, 1982.