Miguel Street: Analysis of Major Characters
"Miguel Street: Analysis of Major Characters" explores the vibrant array of personalities inhabiting Miguel Street, a neighborhood in Trinidad. The narrative centers around an adult narrator reflecting on his childhood experiences, providing a thoughtful and observant perspective on the eccentric characters that populate his world. Among these figures is Hat, a charismatic gambler and philosophical figure who undergoes a transformation following his imprisonment, impacting the community significantly.
The cast includes Bogart, a would-be tailor with a penchant for impersonation, and Popo, a carpenter whose struggle for acceptance becomes evident through his relationship with his wife, Emelda. The character George represents a darker side of community life, marked by domestic violence, while his son Elias embodies hope and aspiration despite a challenging home environment. Other notable characters include B. Wordsworth, a gentle poet, and Man-man, an eccentric figure claiming messianic status. Each character in Miguel Street reflects themes of aspiration, despair, and the complex social dynamics within a close-knit community, contributing to a rich tapestry of life that resonates with imagination and critique.
Miguel Street: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: V. S. Naipaul
First published: 1959
Genre: Novel
Locale: Trinidad
Plot: Comic realism
Time: The late 1930's to the late 1940's
The narrator, an adult recounting his life as a boy living on Miguel Street with his widowed mother. He gives an observant, intelligent, and sensitive yet naïve child's view of the street's eccentric personalities, often imparting sympathy when the street denies it. An early admirer of Hat, he becomes more critical with age and leaves Trinidad at the age of eighteen to study abroad.
Hat, a keeper of cows and a gambler. In appearance and affected mannerisms, he is like a dark-brown, early-middle-aged Rex Harrison. He enjoys life and imbues simple things with mystery. A keen observer with an ironic sense of humor and sympathy for the least fortunate, he is the wise arbiter, conscience, and spokesman for the street, which changes irrevocably when Hat is imprisoned for beating his unfaithful female companion.
Bogart, a would-be tailor. Appearing languorous and bored, with small, sleepy eyes, he tries to assume the mannerisms and personality of Humphrey Bogart. He mysteriously disappears from time to time and eventually is arrested for bigamy. He left a childless marriage “feeling sad and small” and later was forced to marry a woman he made pregnant. Hat says Bogart returned to the street “to be a man among we men.”
Popo, a carpenter who eschews making objects of utility for the never-finished “thing without a name.” Supported by his wife, Emelda, he relishes life's simple pleasures and is friendly to the young narrator, who thinks him to be a philosopher. Not accepted by the street until Emelda deserts him and he becomes drunken and aggressive, Popo is arrested for theft soon after she returns. After his release from prison, he is a hero on the street but is changed temperamentally, turning to practical carpentry and driving away the narrator.
George, an unemployed resident of Miguel Street but never one of the gang. Short, fat, gray-mustached, and sadistic, he often brutally beats his children and wife, who tends cows. When his frail wife dies, possibly as a result of a beating, he sells the cows, turns his house into a brothel, and marries off his pathetic daughter Dolly. Competition kills his business, and George dies a sad, unlamented man.
Elias, George's son, a student of Titus Hoyt. Despite frequent cruel beatings, he is understanding and forgiving of his father. Thought by his neighbors to be bright and a model for other boys, he wants to be a doctor, but after a series of failures, he gradually lowers his expectations and finds work driving a scavenging cart.
Man-man, an unemployed madman who takes all day to cover the street with one chalked word and controls his dog's bowels to gain advantage and income. A self-declared new messiah who stages his own crucifixion, he is confined by the authorities after cursing those he invited to stone him.
B. Wordsworth, a gentle poet who claims to be writing one line a month on his great projected poem. He befriends the narrator, introducing him to the beauty and mystery of life and telling him a tragic story of lost love, a story he recants when near death.
Big Foot, a holder of many jobs and a well-known prankster and comedian. He is widely feared as a bully until he reveals his weakness by crying after losing a boxing match.
Morgan, who is ignored as a pyrotechnicist and unsuccessful as a self-deprecating comedian. He is given to violent rages of frustration. This small, birdlike father of ten finally gets laughs when publicly humiliated by his six-foot wife and achieves wide recognition when he burns down his own house in a spectacular fireworks display.
Titus Hoyt, the headmaster of his own school. Interested, despite their resistance, in the improvement of the neighborhood boys, he writes fraudulent letters of self-promotion to the newspaper.
Laura, the mother of eight children by seven fathers. Happy and vivacious, she grieves when her eldest daughter, Lorna, becomes pregnant and thinks it just as well when Lorna commits suicide.
Eddoes, a scavenging-cart driver who is meticulous about cleanliness and his appearance. He is proud of his job, his junk collection, and the child he rears, mistakenly convinced that she is his own.
Mrs. Hereira, a wealthy doctor's wife who gives up everything for the love of the drunken and brutal Toni. Despairing of Toni's improvement and fearing for her life, she returns to her husband.
Bhakcu, the narrator's uncle, a large man who cannot resist tinkering with (and usually damaging) motor vehicles. A Brahmin, he sings the Rmyna and beats his fat wife with an oiled cricket bat that she maintains.
Bolo, a sixty-year-old carter and barber who distrusts newspapers and feels cheated by everyone. Finally winning a sweepstakes, he tears up the ticket in disbelief and becomes a recluse.
Edward, Hat's brother, a primitive artist and worker for the United States military. Another Miguel Street eccentric, he becomes very Americanized but leaves Trinidad for Aruba or Curaçao when his formerly childless wife runs off with an American soldier and becomes pregnant.