The Mimic Men Summary DOCX

Title	The Mimic Men Summary
Author	Haytham Yousri
Pages	4
File Size	19.4 KB
File Type	DOCX
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The Mimic Men Summary 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....