B. Wordsworth

by V. S. Naipaul

B. Wordsworth: Dialect 1 key example

Dialect
Explanation and Analysis—Trinidadian Dialect:

Naipaul writes some of the dialogue in “B. Wordsworth” in dialect, meaning that he changes the spelling, grammar, and general style of his writing in order to capture the way that Trinidadian people in the mid-20th century would speak to each other. In particular, Naipaul juxtaposes the narrator and his mother’s shared dialect with the formal way that their English neighbor B. Wordsworth speaks.