“The Mimic Men” (1967) examines a newly independent country within the Caribbean, Isabella Island, with a demoralized outlook: the previous colony has now become independent. However, the previously colonized individuals of the island are incapable of establishing order and governing their country. The colonial experience has caused the colonized to perceive themselves as inferior to the colonizers' world As a result, the natives consider their own culture, customs, traditions, religion and race inferior to that of their master and try to identify with the empire Plagiarism "? Get an original essay Since they are far from their original place of birth, their original traditions and religions have become meaningless to them and, therefore, they cannot identify with it. themselves with those distant rules and codes. However, since they are different from the master in cultural, traditional, racial and religious background, they can never effectively associate with the colonizer either. They suffer from dislocation, fragmentation and loss of identity. They become imitative men who imitate and reflect the lifestyle, values ​​and opinions of the colonizer. Since these psychological problems cannot be solved once independence is achieved, independence itself becomes a word but not a real experience. Without the colonizer, the colonized find themselves lost in their postcolonial society which fails to offer a sense of unity and national identity. Ralph Singh, the narrator of "The Mimic Men," is a forty-year-old colonial minister living in exile in London. By writing his memoirs, Singh seeks to impose order on his life, reconstruct his identity, and free himself from the paralyzing sense of dislocation and displacement. In other words, Singh is the representative of displaced and disillusioned colonial individuals, and colonization is described as a process that takes away their identity, culture, history, and sense of place. Therefore, the novel considers the relationship between the socio-political and psychological consequences of imperialism (Thieme, 113). This means that to read the novel for its politics alone is to destroy its emphasis on the psychological problems of colonial populations (King 1993: 72). In his hotel room in a London suburb Singh reconsiders his life in the hope of achieving order. , since the place where he was born is associated with chaos. As he says: “to be born on an island like Isabella, an obscure New World transplant, second-hand and barbaric, was to be born into disorder” (Naipaul, 118). Singh follows no chronological order in his writing but moves constantly back and forth, writing about his childhood and adulthood, his life in Isabella and England, his political career and marriage, and his education to shape the past and his experiences and understanding himself. Presenting different times, places and situations, he tries to put the parts together to complete the puzzle and rewrite his life. It considers notions of colonization, decolonization, history, culture, race, and politics, to write its own history and give meaning to its existence. Thus, the novel presents Singh's need to learn “what it means to be a colonial subject in a postcolonial society” (Cudjoe 1988: 99). The constant shifts between past, present and future may also reflect Singh's internal chaos; as John Thieme has suggested, this technique is suitable for presenting “social and psychological disorders” (1987: 114). Writing becomes an activity through which he can find the reasons for his failure. From what he writes we can learn, like him,how colonial experiences influenced and shaped his life and personalitywhat he says cannot be reduced to what is explicitly said. As Kelly pointed out, it is through the expression and presentation of events that he can reduce the pain of being a displaced colonial man: the act of writing his memoirs provides him with the final solution to his sense of dislocation, because through writing he is finally able to take control of the fragments of his past and shape them into a spiritual and psychological autobiography. (1989: 90) As a child, Singh responds to his sense of abandonment by dreaming of India, his homeland, and his origin. He reads books about Asian and Persian Aryans and dreams of knights seeking their leader (“The Mimic Men,” 98). He creates an ideal and heroic past that conflicts with Isabella's real life condition. For example, he goes to the beach house owned by his grandfather and one day sees the death of three children who drown in the sea while the fishermen do nothing to save them (Naipaul, 108-109). At that point he realizes that Isabella cannot be the ideal landscape he is looking for. As Thieme noted, the beach scene refers to the myth of Perseus being saved from drowning at sea by Dictys, a fisherman and hero, who presents a contrast to the passive and selfish Caribbean-African fishermen. Thus, Singh's experience on the beach makes him too aware of the distance between Isabella and his true and pure world (1987: 117). Furthermore, he is completely shocked when his father sacrifices Tamango, the racehorse, although he is aware of the symbolic meaning of such an act in Hindu tradition. As Donald A. Mackenzie explained, the purpose of sacrifice is to ensure prosperity and fertility (1985: 90-91). Although Singh idealizes his Hindu past and culture, he is actually unable to understand Hinduism and so, as Thieme explained observed, when the horse is killed, the ideal past collapses and the concrete experience shocks the child (1987: 133). In other words, this sacrifice causes Singh to see an Indian world that is at odds with the noble and ideal realm of the imagination (Hughes 1988: 74-75). Hindu rituals have lost their meaning in Isabella as people have lost their connection with India, its culture, customs and traditions. Therefore, as Bruce King said, by leaving India and going to the Caribbean islands, Indians are condemned to isolation and dislocation: “The process of losing one's Indian identity began with leaving India. That was the original sin, the fall. After that, Indian traditions could only decay into mortifying rituals or become diluted, degraded and finally lost due to external influences and intermarriage with others.” (1993: 68) Thus Singh suffers from a “genetic” dislocation which, according to Rob Nixon, relates to the condition of East Indians in the Caribbean. They crossed the kala pani, the black water, and thus lost their Indianness (1988: 4). Furthermore, Singh, as a member of an ethnic minority on the island, also experiences an “ethnic displacement” that relates to his status as an Indian in Isabella (Nixon 1988: 6). Idealizing the past, Singh wants to reconstruct history to establish his identity; however, he realizes that such a task is impossible and, therefore, becomes disappointed. Like Singh, his Chinese friend, Hok, reads books about his origin, China, and idealizes his past and is humiliated when it is discovered that he has black ancestors. Due to his psychological need for identity and fulfillment, Singh becomes a politician. He seeks to achieve order, meaning, and success as a political figure. In other words, Singh needs a real vision of himself and the world around him in order to participate in thepolitics. Singh's political career is therefore potentially a means through which he can satisfy his ego. He calls his political activity a "drama" and examines its effects on himself, but does not focus on his people, the shoe stores, gas stations and schools that are established on the island with his help. Singh's obsession with naming clearly shows his psychological need for power and ownership: “So I went on, naming, naming; and, later, I demanded that everything – every government building, every street, every agricultural project – be labeled. It suggested drama, activity. It reinforced reality. It strengthened that sense of belonging that overwhelmed me every time I returned to the island after a trip abroad...” (“The Mimic Men,” 215) By naming streets and buildings, Singh reinforces the reality of his power and his political career, and by renaming himself, he redefines his own reality. However, the irony is that by changing his name, Ranjit Kirpalsingh has effectively changed the very identity he is so desperately seeking. In attempting to define himself through his political activities, Singh realizes that he has separated himself from his people and must play a role to preserve his position. He feels incomplete because he is aware of the meaninglessness of his role as a colonial politician. For him, Isabella's politicians seek power and order without knowing the true meaning of those concepts: having no gifts to offer, they rarely know what they seek. They might say they seek power. But their definition of power is vague and unreliable… The politician is more than a man with a cause, even when that cause is nothing more than personal advancement. It is driven by some small wound, some small incompleteness. He is trying to exercise a skill that even for him is never as concrete as that of the engineer... (Naipaul, 37) Singh is well aware of the fact that the "drama" has not brought peace and order to the world. island, but has only created a dramatic illusion of order, and that the island society still suffers from social and racial unrest and economic problems. Under such conditions the government decides that nationalizing the sugar plantations, owned by an upper-class Englishman called Lord Stockwell, is the only way to solve economic problems and unite the people. As a result, Singh is sent to England to carry out negotiations. However, he fails to convince the English to help his government and is also humiliated by one of the English ministers present at the meeting. His manner clearly indicated that our game had gone on long enough and that he had more to do than assist the public relations of colonial politicians... I said, "How can I get this message back to my people?" He said, “You can bring back to your people whatever message you want.” And that was the end. (“The Mimic Men,” 224) Furthermore, Lord Stockwell refuses to talk seriously about the problems of labor and the properties of sugar; instead he treats Singh like a child and says he has nice hair. Both the minister and Lord Stockwell, representatives of the imperial power, impose their superiority on Singh reduced to a child. Thus, by refusing to regard Singh as a political figure or to recognize the importance of his task, they effectively push Singh into an inferior status and, ultimately, into a sense of dislocation and political failure. Without any help from the British, Singh is unable to find any solution to his country's problems, and so nationalization becomes a word and ultimately Singh faces his "private loss" as he cannot act without the approval or the master's help: My sense of drama failed. This was the real loss for me. For four years the drama had me, 19).