A House for Mr. Biswas

Mr. Biswas and his young family move again. After leaving the burned down store in the Chase, they move to a new business on a sugarcane plantation named Green Vale, which is "damp and shadowed and close" (132). Seth owns the plantation, and he hires Mr. Biswas to work as a sub-overseer, whose duties involve driving and ensuring that the "impudent" (133) laborers do as they are told. Rather than a house of their own, Mr. Biswas's family must live in the same rundown barracks as the laborers which intensifies his desire to live in a "real house" (134). These laborers do not like Mr. Biswas. They are suspicious of his presence and envious of him earning twice as much as them. Mr. Biswas does not like these living arrangements, so he begins to save for a house. He hopes that owning a house will help him to lure him family back from the Tulsis. At Christmas, he purchases "a large doll's house" (138) for Savi. The doll house is destroyed by Shama, much to the annoyance of Mr. Biswas. He leaves Shama and the family, taking Savi with him. His departure shocks Shama and Savi is "dispirited and submissive" (142).