Introduction
P. Lal in his essay Myth and the Indian Writer in English says: “…no Indian writer, in English or any other Indian languages — should commit pen to paper until he has spent ten years of his adult life carefully pondering the Indian Classics, learning the Indian tradition, and absorbing the Indian myth.” (p.18) No other writer with Indian diaspora as his background observes this stipulation more than V.S. Naipaul. A Bend in the River is a brief analysis of Naipaul’s treatment of myth and its various aspects and acts as a pointer in that direction. Though it seems the present novel is Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness revisited, still the readers can find Naipaul’s conceptual similarities also with Virgil’s Aeneid and William Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Material and Method
John J. White in his stimulating book Mythology in the Modern Novel classifies mythological fiction into four types: 1. “the complete re-narration of a classical myth, 2. a juxtaposition of sections narrating a myth and others concerning with the contemporary world. 3. a novel, set in the modern world, which contain a pattern of references to mythology running through the work, and 4. a novel in which a mythological motif prefigures a part of the narrative, but without running consistently through the whole narrative.”
Intertextuality, it seems, has come to stay as a feasible method of influencing not only literature but also other works of art.
Theory
Much like Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, A Bend in the River is a novel which represents insanity, “compulsive-obsessive behaviour” at a higher level. Salim, Naipaul’s narrator in the present novel gives a clear picture of the African dweller’s past, present and future.
Discussion
Conrad’s Influence on A Bend in the River
Like Mobutu, Conrad’s president of Heart of Darkness had similar kind of thought, as he practices human-sacrifice. In Naipaul’s work Raymond, Indar and Ferdinand did the same for their president. The Big man planned to build the Domain in the model of Europe in Africa, and it is the key to the problem.
The Condition of the Native
These poor Africans worked day and night for Kurtz and his community rather than their own. In the Heart of Darkness the Africans were treated the way the common people of A Bend in the River suffered, starved and served their president.
The African Scenic Beauty
The African scenic beauty exhibited by both the authors in their respective work is at par. Naipaul’s present novel shows a greater influence of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness while discussing the scenic beauty of the Congo culture.
European Buddha — Marlow
Marlow of Heart of Darkness is described as a “European Buddha without a lotus” by C.P. Sarvan. Marlow, the most important character of Conrad is also compared with the mythical Ulysses and the Ancient Mariner by Curreli.
Gold and Ivory
Gold and ivory business re-entered the African market during Mobutu, as the president, and it was going back to old days of Africa where butchering, slaughtering and sacrificing of animals and human beings were practiced. Joseph Conrad deals mostly with gold and ivory in Heart of Darkness, in fact that is the central ideology of the novel around which the characters and the plot revolve.
Marlow, Kurtz — Salim, Mahesh
Gold and ivory have the same significance in both the novels may it be A Bend in the River or Heart of Darkness. Similar, is the mind-set of the non-native people in the novel i.e. greedy, selfish and determined.
Influence of Virgil’s Aeneid
V.S. Naipaul’s intertextual engagements are not only found with Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, but conceptual similarities are also found with Virgil’s Aeneid and William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Similarly, Aeneas fell in love with and deserted Dido, the Carthage with the wish of god, as gods had sent him to her court, forced her to fall in love with him, and made him leave her.
Influence of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest
The racial imagination what is mentioned earlier is borrowed by Naipaul from Conrad, is actually an age old idea reflected in The Tempest by William Shakespeare with the help of “Caliban — the devil” of his play. “Ferdinand” of Naipaul’s A Bend in the River smacks of a pre-figuration borrowed from The Tempest of Shakespeare.
Conclusion
A Bend in the River seems to be an amalgamation of modernity and tradition with the influence of the age old concepts, characters, and authors. Starting from Virgil, Milton, Shakespeare to Conrad; Naipaul has picked up the best of all times and proved the mythical and the traditional work to be the favourite of all times through his creative work. Ignorance of the reader about these references in no way reduces the impact of these works so as to make them create the impression of organic wholes.
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