Essay Questions

Naipul’s emphasis on man and nature in The Enigma of Arrival is implicit. Show how he achieves this in the book.

The narrator’s attachment to nature as well as his environment in The Enigma of Arrival is deeply presented, particularly through his vivid descriptions that articulately bring out his relationship with nature. In the first chapter of the book, the writer describes his experience with nature as he explores England. All of Naipul’s ideologies bring out the complex social tangle that humans are indulged in as animals.

The Enigma of Arrival is essentially about the nature of arrival. Is this assertion correct? Explain.

A central theme of the book is the nature of arrival as it brings out the relations between journeying and arrivals. The title, derived from a classical painting by Giorgio Chirico of a scene in the Mediterranean characterized by walls and gateways and figures telling the story of the nature of the mystery of arrival. Whilst the writer had initially thought of the story as a leap out of the darkness of a novel that he was writing set in Africa, he realizes later that it is primarily about his own journey as a writer. The assertion is thus correct.