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Mrs Tulsi
Mrs Tulsi’s younger son, whom she coddles intensely and Mr Biswas takes to calling “the younger god.” He and Mr Biswas get into many arguments early in the book; eventually, Mr Biswas spits and throws his food on Owad, which leads to his banishment from Hanuman House. Owad goes to school in Port of Spain, where he spends his weeks with Mrs Tulsi and actually becomes close friends with Mr Biswas, whose job he respects. Eventually, Owas moves to England for medical school; the whole family assembles for his going-away ceremony and then again for his homecoming, upon which he has become a chubby, refined, communist and “the new head of the family.” He wins the unconditional admiration of everyone in the family, including Mr Biswas and Anand. However, after a string of disastrous arguments with them both, he leaves on a trip to Tobago and is scarcely heard from again.
Owad Quotes in A House for Mr Biswas
The A House for Mr Biswas quotes below are all either spoken by Owad or refer to Owad. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 2, Chapter 5
Quotes
[Mr Biswas] turned the long room into an office. In this room, where the lotuses still bloomed on the wall, he had lived with Shama. Through the Demerara window he had tried to spit on Owad and flung the plateful of food on him. In this room he had been beaten by Govind, had kicked Bell’s Standard Elocutionist and given it the dent on the cover. Here, claimed by no one, he had reflected on the unreality of his life, and had wished to make a mark on the wall as proof of his existence. Now he needed no such proof. Relationships had been created where none existed; he stood at their centre. In that very unreality had lain freedom. Now he was encumbered, and it was at Hanuman House that he tried to forget the encumbrance: the children, the scattered furniture, the dark tenement room, and Shama, as helpless as he was and now, what he had longed for, dependent on him.
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Part 2, Chapter 6
Quotes
“You are not really a bureaucrat. You are a journalist, a writer, a man of letters.”
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“Communism, like charity, should begin at home.”
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Owad Quotes in A House for Mr Biswas
The A House for Mr Biswas quotes below are all either spoken by Owad or refer to Owad. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 2, Chapter 5
Quotes
[Mr Biswas] turned the long room into an office. In this room, where the lotuses still bloomed on the wall, he had lived with Shama. Through the Demerara window he had tried to spit on Owad and flung the plateful of food on him. In this room he had been beaten by Govind, had kicked Bell’s Standard Elocutionist and given it the dent on the cover. Here, claimed by no one, he had reflected on the unreality of his life, and had wished to make a mark on the wall as proof of his existence. Now he needed no such proof. Relationships had been created where none existed; he stood at their centre. In that very unreality had lain freedom. Now he was encumbered, and it was at Hanuman House that he tried to forget the encumbrance: the children, the scattered furniture, the dark tenement room, and Shama, as helpless as he was and now, what he had longed for, dependent on him.
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Part 2, Chapter 6
Quotes
“You are not really a bureaucrat. You are a journalist, a writer, a man of letters.”
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“Communism, like charity, should begin at home.”
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