Trinidad in the 1930s and 1940s Trinidad, where the story is set, and where Naipaul lived until he was eighteen, was colonized by Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and Spanish control continued until 1797, when the island was captured by Great Britain, which then assumed control. In the 1840s, the British began recruiting…
B. Wordsworth by V. S. Naipaul – Literary Devices
Dialect Of the three characters given dialogue in the story, two of them speak a local dialect that might be called non-standard English. When B. Wordsworth first comes to the narrator’s house, the boy calls to his mother, ‘‘Ma, it have a man outside here. He say he want to watch the bees.’’ In the…
B. Wordsworth by V. S. Naipaul – Themes
Friendship The young boy and B. Wordsworth form an unusual but genuine friendship. Each one contributes something to it. The boy finds B. Wordsworth a very interesting character. He has probably never met anyone quite like him. He listens to the poet’s fanciful words without cynicism or judgment, and he learns a lot from him….
B. Wordsworth by V. S. Naipaul – Characters
The Narrator The unnamed narrator is a young boy who is being raised by his mother in a house on Miguel Street. His father is dead. (This is revealed in ‘‘Love, Love, Love, Alone,’’ one of the other stories in Miguel Street). The boy’s age is not given, but he is no younger than eight…
B. Wordsworth by V. S. Naipaul – Summary
B. Wordsworth’’ is set in Miguel Street, a poor area in Port of Spain, Trinidad, during the early 1940s. It is narrated by an unnamed young boy who lives there with his family. He is used to seeing beggars come to the house seeking food. But one afternoon someone rather different turns up. After the…
Aunty Misery as Folktale – Essay
Ortiz Cofer’s ‘‘Aunty Misery’’ is a retold Puerto Rican folktale that appears to explain the existence of misery in the world. The story also asserts the value of death. While the tale is Puerto Rican in origin, there is nothing in its content that indicates this. The themes in the story are universal, transcending not…
Aunty Misery – Setting
Puerto Rican Folktales Puerto Rican culture is a mixture of Taino (native inhabitants of the Caribbean Islands), Spanish, and African influences. As such, the folktales from this country reflect this mixed heritage. Few purely Taino myths have survived, as the islands (including Puerto Rico) were colonized by Spain in the fifteenth century. (Christopher Columbus ‘‘discovered’’…
Aunty Misery – Literary Devices
Personification Simply put, personification is a literary device that grants personality to inanimate objects or natural phenomena. This is also known as anthropomorphizing, or granting human qualities to nonhuman objects. Personification occurs in the story predominantly through Death’s appearance as a tired old man. Death, a natural phenomenon, is literally personified, transformed into a character…
Aunty Misery – Themes
Death The main theme in ‘‘Aunty Misery’’ is the importance of death in the world. This significance is shown not only in the consequences of Death’s entrapment in the pear tree but also textually. Indeed, death is personified and becomes a character that drives the climax and denouement (end) of the story. He is also…
Aunty Misery – Characters
Aunty Misery Aunty Misery is the main character of the story; the eponymous hero, or more accurately, antihero. Regardless of her lack of endearing charms, the story revolves around her. Notably, Aunty Misery is not an actual name, but a nickname, one that describes the character and her attributes. In fact, the nickname serves to…