A House for Mr Biswas

by

V. S. Naipaul

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on A House for Mr Biswas makes teaching easy.
A fictional estate near Arwacas where Mr Biswas oversees estate workers for Seth and builds his first house.

Green Vale Quotes in A House for Mr Biswas

The A House for Mr Biswas quotes below are all either spoken by Green Vale or refer to Green Vale. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Independence vs. Belonging Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 5 Quotes

There was no need to ask where Jagdat was going. He was going to his family. He too, then, lived a divided life.

Related Characters: Mr Biswas, Tara, Ajodha, Jagdat, Rabidat
Related Symbols: Houses
Page Number: 241
Explanation and Analysis:

The darkness filled his head. All his life had been good until now. And he had never known. He had spoiled it all by worry and fear. About a rotting house, the threats of illiterate labourers.

Now he would never more be able to go among people.

He surrendered to the darkness.

Related Characters: Mr Biswas
Page Number: 255
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 2 Quotes

Mr Biswas had never thought of Tulsi property as belonging to any particular person. Everything, the land at Green Vale, the shop at The Chase, belonged simply to the House. But the lorries were Seth’s.

Related Characters: Mr Biswas, Mrs Tulsi, Seth
Related Symbols: Houses
Page Number: 374
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 3 Quotes

He had found a site such as he always wanted, isolated, unused, and full of possibilities. It was some way from the estate house, on a low hill buried in bush and well back from the road. The house was begun and, unblessed, completed in less than a month.

Related Characters: Mr Biswas
Related Symbols: Houses
Page Number: 406-7
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire A House for Mr Biswas LitChart as a printable PDF.
A House for Mr Biswas PDF

Green Vale Term Timeline in A House for Mr Biswas

The timeline below shows where the term Green Vale appears in A House for Mr Biswas. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 5: Green Vale
Independence vs. Belonging Theme Icon
Education, Work, and Language Theme Icon
Mr Biswas never forgot the huge trees in Green Vale , which hid the estate from the surrounding plains. In the estate’s barracks, twelve families... (full context)
Independence vs. Belonging Theme Icon
Education, Work, and Language Theme Icon
Gender and Family Theme Icon
...house and spent most of her time at Hanuman House, which was very close to Green Vale . Mr Biswas began cooking for himself and taking walks, but often he just lay... (full context)
Independence vs. Belonging Theme Icon
Social Status and Hierarchy Theme Icon
Gender and Family Theme Icon
In Green Vale , there were no Christmas celebrations whatsoever, besides eating and drinking and the unfortunate eventual... (full context)
Independence vs. Belonging Theme Icon
Education, Work, and Language Theme Icon
Gender and Family Theme Icon
Colonialism, Oppression, and Escape Theme Icon
Mr Biswas began to cycle toward Green Vale , with Savi balanced on the crossbar, until “a Negro policeman” stopped them on the... (full context)
Independence vs. Belonging Theme Icon
Shama asked how Savi acted during her week at Green Vale and was delighted to hear that she threw away the food from the old woman.... (full context)
Independence vs. Belonging Theme Icon
When he returned to Green Vale , Mr Biswas encountered Mr Maclean, who promised that the iron would be easy to... (full context)
Independence vs. Belonging Theme Icon
Gender and Family Theme Icon
...past alike by merely looking at them. Afraid of deceiving his children, he returned to Green Vale . (full context)
Independence vs. Belonging Theme Icon
Gender and Family Theme Icon
...throughout the night. In the first, black threads chased him from the Tulsi Store to Green Vale —the same threads of asphalt that fell down from the house’s roof, and he could... (full context)
Independence vs. Belonging Theme Icon
Gender and Family Theme Icon
Shama brought the children to Green Vale that Christmas; Mr Biswas dreaded their arrival, hoped that an accident would stop them and... (full context)
Part 2, Chapter 1: “Amazing Scenes”
Independence vs. Belonging Theme Icon
Social Status and Hierarchy Theme Icon
Education, Work, and Language Theme Icon
Having returned to his old disposition from Green Vale , Mr Biswas realized that he did not fear people but felt “regret, envy, despair.”... (full context)
Part 2, Chapter 3: The Shorthills Adventure
Independence vs. Belonging Theme Icon
Social Status and Hierarchy Theme Icon
Gender and Family Theme Icon
...In less than a month, he had exactly the house he wanted to build in Green Vale : two bedrooms, a drawingroom, and a verandah, mounted on cement pillars, with a corrugated... (full context)