A free country has two meanings: freedom is not only the psychological state of modern people who are unstable, homeless and increasingly alienated from the familiar environment, but also the disorderly social state of African countries after political independence.
The retired colonel's words and deeds are a racist theory with "European superiority theory" as its core content. This stubborn colonialist believes that even a few educated Africans can't continue to maintain their status as "civilized" civilized people without the control of whites; When Africans do something wrong, they should be punished. His satirical comment "This is Africa" summarizes his prejudice that the black African continent and African blacks have always been just a wilderness, a foolish state that only deserves to be domesticated by foreign higher races.
"Every time the colonists say that the colonized people are weak people, the implication is that the weak need protection. The concept of protection came into being. Colonists are not allowed to participate in management, and important matters are decided by colonialists, completely for the sake of colonialists. In order to avoid people's anxiety, they always let everyone know that the colonized people are unruly, stubborn, thieving and even tyrannical. He must enforce police rules and strict laws and regulations. " Naipaul clearly presented the colonel to readers as a stubborn European racist and an old-fashioned colonialist.
For the vast majority of Africans, independence has not brought about fundamental changes. The so-called independence should be questioned. Although the colonial system has collapsed, the political, economic, social structure, hierarchical order and cultural sequelae left by the suzerain in Africa have left these countries still mired in turmoil and war and can only act as dolls of the suzerain. Bobby's atrocities during his travels and conflicts between different tribes in Africa show that the so-called free political order has disappeared and been replaced by a greater degree of laissez-faire.
For the two white protagonists in the novel, Africa, a free country, means economic freedom and sexual freedom. At the beginning of independence, the former colonial countries were in a hurry. For Bobby and Linda's husband, there are obviously more opportunities to become rich and successful than in Britain. Gay Bobby was arrested for homosexual acts in Britain. Here, he can play with African boys unscrupulously with some small favors and power. As the wife of colonial Martin, Linda had an affair not only with the colonel, but also with an American named Carter, and even with the colonel's indigenous foreman.
In Naipaul's works, freedom is not only the psychological state of modern people who are unstable, homeless, disoriented and increasingly alienated from the familiar environment, but also the disorderly social state of African countries after political independence. In the story of a "free country", the king and the president are just two opposing factions. Good and evil are simply indistinguishable here, and everything has changed beyond recognition. With the support of white people, the president sent troops to search for the king and carried out a genocide of the king's tribe. The civil war brought great disasters to the local people: many lives were lost, the village was burned down, and the survival became a disaster, even the white Bobby was not spared. The cold brushwork interwoven with fairy tales and realism makes readers deeply feel that the ancient myths and values in Africa are gone forever, and there are only hatred, doubt, depression, violence and slavery everywhere. Westerners seem to be outsiders, but in fact they are behind the scenes. Colonial invasion destroyed tribal loyalty and traditional beliefs with ancient traditions. Colonial invasion broke an old world and created a world that even western Renye Fang felt unreasonable.
In literary creation, Naipaul always keeps a considerable distance from large-scale social conflicts or violence and does not directly describe it. It is his brushwork that describes the living environment and psychological state of individual life more deeply, because this is the root cause of current social contradictions and conflicts.
symbolism
Symbol in literature and art refers to the expression of thoughts, feelings and concepts that are close, similar or related to it through specific concrete images. Symbolism is widely used in works, so simple language is endowed with magical meaning, which deepens the theme of the novel, inspires people and stimulates readers' infinite imagination.
In the work, two Englishmen witnessed riots, coups and killings between tribes. The author skillfully uses the meaning to begin his symbolic narrative: "In this African country, there is a president and a king", which symbolizes the universality of the story and implies that this situation is applicable to many newly independent third world countries. The chaos brought about by the struggle actually symbolizes the chaos and disorder of the third world countries, which are still controlled by the western world after the disintegration of the colonial system.
The characters Bobby, Linda and General in the story represent white liberalism, apartheid and colonialism respectively. Bobby hopes to establish cooperative and friendly relations with African residents. But when the African child laborer at the gas station accidentally scratched his car, his white racial superiority was exposed. At this time, the car, as a product of western civilization, is a symbol of identity.
The purpose of his trip to Africa is to seek sexual satisfaction, which actually symbolizes that white liberals who pursue equality on the surface still have the sense of ownership of colonists in their hearts. Linda, on the other hand, shows her sense of racial superiority naked. Sunglasses and deodorant are the symbols of her pursuit of apartheid. The university has entered the year of burial. Poor health, personal decline and dirty hotels all symbolize the collapse of British colonial rule. After the end of colonialism, Africa did not find a suitable way out. All African cities are described in the book as follows: "There is a colonial atmosphere, and everyone there is homeless." The "free country" here actually refers to the political turmoil, tribal killings and social chaos in African countries after colonial retreat.
Word symbol
Many characters and events in Naipaul's novels not only have their own characteristics, but also have certain symbolic significance. With the help of these external things, the author implies a wide and universal meaning. In this way, these external things have certain functional significance. Narratology defines this functional meaning as "symbol". Symbolism refers to the implicit expression of feelings through images.
Bushes: The recurring bushes in the novel have extremely obvious symbolic significance and are synonymous with "barbarism" and "ignorance". In Naipaul's eyes, Africa is a jungle with tribes killing each other, political dictatorship, ignorant and backward people and primitive barbarism. Not only that, the jungle also covers up all kinds of evils such as theft, killing, oppression, corruption and racism.
Narrative perspective
Narrative perspective, referred to as perspective or viewpoint, refers to the position or state of the narrator or character in the work corresponding to the events in the narrative text, or from what angle the narrator or character observes the story. As a narrative framework, the artistic mode of novels has its own structure, which tells readers through certain construction that the same story is often unrecognizable because of different ways of telling, and among many restrictive factors, the determination of narrative perspective plays a decisive role. In the whole novel writing skills, the viewpoint (the relationship between the narrator and his story) plays a decisive role.
In the novella Free Country, when telling what two British whites, Bobby and Linda, saw and heard after attending a "community development seminar" in the capital, they mainly adopted a zero perspective to unify the narrative voice and narrative vision with the narrator. It has certain authority and objectivity. "Not only that, but also organically combine it with the third-person external perspective.
On the muddy road to Nanfu, Bobby and Linda met a group of defeated soldiers of the former king and became prisoners. The novel describes: "Then they saw the prisoner. They are sitting on the ground, some people look depressed, and most people are naked. They are black people from the king's tribe, slim, with small skeletons and extremely dark skin. They wear clothes to cover themselves and build roads. But the dignity they once had as free men was taken away. They were all beaten with blood, reddish brown. One or two people seem to be dying. " In the text, firstly, we show what we saw at that time from the perspective of the third person Bobby and Linda, and then describe the experiences of these prisoners from a zero perspective, so that the narrator can gain considerable freedom at a new level and have a broader narrative vision through the narrative strategy of changing perspectives, thus showing the real situation in post-colonial Africa more flexibly and freely.
In the novel, this multi-perspective choice fully reflects the role of narrative perspective: "narrative perspective is not added as an accessory to convey the plot to readers." On the contrary, in most modern narrative works, it is the narrative perspective that creates interest, conflict, suspense and even the plot itself. "