Is B. Wordsworth, the character who appears in Naipaul’s short story of that name, a real poet or is he a fake, a dreamer? His name, which is presumably not the name he inherited but one he adopted for himself to fit his self-image, clearly shows how he wants others to think of him. The…
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B. Wordsworth by V. S. Naipaul – Setting
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…