Bend River Essay, Research Paper

A New Country

In Bend of the River by V. J. naipul each character has a different personal history and a reason for leaving their homeland. Different circumstances and promises have made their journey to Africa, something to remember. The place they settle and start their families up might be called home forever. In hopes of finding a better life to settle into they realize life in Africa isn t as

Salim the main character and the narrator moves to Africa to make a better living for himself and he buys a business. As he accepts the deal, he knows he s going into a place where it s different than India. The food, language, lifestyle will completely have to change from what he was use to in India. As he arrives in Africa, all there is destruction and he is nervous of the Africans and doesn’t take anyone for granted. Salim as he adjusts to a new place he will call home now, fits into the neighborhood slowly. As life in India he has to deal with the hot weather and heavy downpours of rain. Salim wasn’t a rich man in India, so he didn’t live in an expensive house back home. Over here in Africa now, he still is living in a flat but in a condition worse off that has water problems and the electricity would go on and off. Just like in India there were no roads just basically paths, but the difference was Salim knew what path led where, in Africa he doesn t. Because he was a stranger to the environment Salim still lived in fear. Anyone who moves into a new environment filled with trouble and danger would be scared for their lives, especially when they had come to that country for the better. As Salim gets comfortable living in Africa, Salim meets his old friend Indar. Indar takes him into the domain, which is a high tech place where the elite lived. The domain was the futuristic place of Africa. As he has his ups and downs, he starts traveling to other countries, but he ends up coming back after they rip him off in London and wants to travel back to Africa where he finds he has lost his business there too.

Nazruddin is a character we are introduced to as the perfect idealistic person. In everything we do, somehow someway we aren t going to be perfect in what we do, but for Nazruddin everything is perfect. Nazruddin is a rich businessman who has traveled to other parts of the country, and all you hear is good news about his travels. Even though he might have failed in parts of his journeys, he will only bring the good out in it. Nazruddin probably wants to keep his perfect ego and his accomplishments higher than anyone else does so he tries to make everything look good, and so we wouldn t think of him as a failure. Nazruddin who is a rich man lives in a palace in India wouldnt be able to survive living in Africa s flats.

Indar who was Salim friend in India, who was also rich. Indar was a person who bragged sometimes of his money and his lifestyle. Salim always had thought Indar would go to study abroad in London, which he did. When he went to London he still kept pace living the high spending lifestyle there. When he goes to Africa and meets up with Salim there, Salim is surprised by his arrival. He gets surprised because Salim always thought of Indar as a high class person who would amount to something big. He knew that he would never be able to compete to Indar s standards, no matter how much money and successful his business was in Africa. Indar s status though leads Salim into he domain. A person with so much expectations from others and himself, like Indar no one would expect him in a place like Africa. As Indar is back in India, he remains the same everywhere he goes he refuses to stay in low places and always wants the best everywhere he goes. As Nazruddin, he is a traveler to as he goes to New York and he refuses to stay in a hotel that isnt high class when he starts to run out of money.

Nazruddin s daughter Kareisha was just like Indar was born rich. Just like Indar everyone had high hopes for her. As she lives up to everyone expectations she becomes a pharmacist. She was born in India, and she started to travel and and as expected she married Salim. Marrying Salim might be a surprise to everyone especially when she was a pharmacist and rich while Salim was still trying to get his business going. When they are both in London they get engaged, something if they still lived in India wouldn t happen because of the different classes of each other. Now they are living toghter and all their problems they will solve toghter. Being rich and famous didnt mean nothing in Africa as everyone learned they hard way.