A Bend in the River

A Bend in The River is a book published by V.S. Naipaul in 1979. The novel is set in Zaire during the rule of Mobutu Sese Seka in the late 1960s and early 1970. The country nor its president are ever mentioned but domainy commentators carry that it is in fact Zaire.This period was one of great social and political upheaval in Zaire, ulterior kn knowledge as the Democratic Republic of Congo. in that respect were armed coups, political machinations, guerilla rebellions, urban riots, country-bred massacres and widespread social reforms. Against this backdrop, the transformation of Salim is presented. External sources are one in saying that Salim transformed from a propertied and upright man into a poor scoundrel because of the environment he was thrust in. I am in agreement with this.The tall lilac-coloured flower had appeared unless a few years before, and in the local language there was no word for it. The plenty still called it the naked as a jaybird thing or the new thing in the river, and to them it was another enemy. Its rubbery vines and leaves formed thick tangles of vegetation that adhered to the river banks and clogged up waterways. It grew fast, fast-paced than men could destroy it with the tools they had. The channels to the villages had to be constantly cleared.Night and day the water hyacinth floated up from the south, seeding itself as it travelled. This except from the book can be taken as a simple botanical statement, until now in the subtle mind of Naipaul this simple botanical fact suggests a broader truth in sexual congress to the carriage of Salim. It will be a foreshadowing of the creeping corruption that will rend Salims soul.In the beginning of the novel, Salim is an Arab-African of Indian descent who comes from a lapsed Muslim family that has resided in eastern Africa for generations. However, Salim sees no succeeding(a) for himself or for his culture along the east African coast. He as well has a bit of an unfavorable posit ion complex, in chapter two he says he left English language school when he was 16 not because he was not smart enough to graduate but because no one in his family went to school beyond 16.He decides to travel to the interior of the Continent. However, because of the chaos prevalent in those days his trip takes a full week and Salim paid bribes to many people to facilitate his travels. Family friend Nazruddin had sold him sundries and supply origin which he discovers is a mess. and travels to the interior of the African Continent to start a new life.At this stage he still has high hopes and aspirations for a better life. He eventually arrives along a town at a town along the curvature of the river, this is likely based on the river Kisangani, there he is united by his servant Metty and he establishes his business. Salim quickly gains a regular customer in Zabeth the merchant.Zabeth is an authentic African who is in touch with the tribal ways, she uses charms and potions to defend from evil yet is easily able to enter the new-fangled globe. By comparison her son Ferdinand is a through and through modern African who is in the movement of being educated in the modern ways. Since Zabeth is his friend Salim takes an interest in watching over the male child as he grows up.Clearly in the beginning of the novel, Salim is a man of some property and he is also an upright and moral person despite his lack of faith in his religion.However Salim is trapped in a rather miserable environment, the post colonial environment he resides in is a no-mans land. There are European Intellectual advisers, mercenaries, profiteers and other Third World flotsam and jetsam who populate the land.These people and the environment of rebellions and repression will slowly degrade Salim as he loses his properties and his integrity in the mounting chaos. By the end of the novel Salims transformation is complete when he notes in page 36-7 that even Natives incur become exiles in their own country, so can become exiles in their own country when life itself is lived at the whims of the ruler.This descent from propertied upright man to improvished scoundrel happens gradually. It begins for our man living along the bend of the river with Bigburgers. This is the name of the place where the prominent members of the local society meet. It is also the name of a large ground beef which Salim, descendant of fastidious Indian immigrants, describes the Bigburger as smooth white lips of bread over mangled disconsolate tongues of meat Here is where Salim goes regularly and strikes acquaintances with the locals.In the beginning the town is admirable in its simplicity. The Villagers descend from the bush to share monkey meat to the steamer passengers. Then they turn around and use it to buy pots, cloths and razor blades from the discloses. The shop owners can then go to Bigburgers for their meals. Salim for his part moves his sundry and supplies store and converts it into a dry -goods store, he bought the place low-priced because the revolution depressed real estate values. Lucky for him he catches on to the economic boom that occurs briefly after he arrived.Soon the jingoistic Big Mans misrule takes its toll on his prosperity. render Huisman, a Belgian priest who taught at the school where Ferdinand studies is depressed at his relative wealth compared to the modern Africans who must eat caterpillars just to sate their hunger.He decides to leave but dies before he can go. In chapter 6 the town becomes a thriving marketplace. However the lack of urban planning, since the Big man has unattended the town, leads to squatters who have no homes and just throw their garbage out the door creating a big agglomerate of garbage making the town stink.In chapter nine Indar talks about his life to Salim, Indar reveals how in the past he too was idealistic and appreciated nature in all its beauty. His visit to London permuted him greatly, he became London-centric in a sense believing that all other life was false and London was the true life.Indar was so in love with London that he wanted to stay there for good. However, he had a change of heart and after graduating from college he already had a cynical view of life. He now thinks only of himself and cares little for the greater world around him. Little do we know that Indar is a foreshadowing of Salims fate.By chapter 13 things are really going bad for Salim as well. He is now intimately tortuous with a woman named Yvette who in the past was seduced by Raymond. Before, he derided Mahesh as a half man because of his devotion to his wife.Now he is doing exactly the same thing with Yvette seeing the world based on how it would impact their relationship. After the Youth Guard is disbanded in chapter 14, things get even worse. The police are harassing everyone thinking them to be rebels, supposedly, in fact they are merely trying to extort money from everyone they suspect still has any.The wor ld is what it is men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it. Reads the first censure of page one. It summarizes, Naipauls rather cynical world view and the thesis of his book. In the end Salim casts interrogation upon the validity and legitimacy of the historical documents from which he draws his identity.Despite all the turmoil he sees around him his friend Raymond, a historian, can be seeing painting a rosy picture of the events. He asks himself if it were possible that his own past had been manipulated too?This crisis is the last straw that breaks the camels back. With his present in ruins and his future bleak, Salim finds that his past is also a sham. This is too much to bear, following his trip to Europe and seeing that even Europe is not the heaven it was made up to be Salim returns having lost all hope in the world.