Characters

The story “Paradise” by Matthew Kneale includes several characters: Neville, Thakali, the old man in the army jacket, Thakali’s wife and son, and the villagers. In this part of the study guide, we will focus on Neville and the old man as they are the most important characters.

Neville

Neville is the protagonist of the story, whose perspective is used by the narrator to convey the story.

Neville’s outer characterisation tells us that he is an English writer of travel guidebooks (l. 180), and that his wife left him (ll. 42-44). During the events of the story, he is visiting a village in Nepal.

Inner characterisation

Neville’s inner characterisation is conveyed through his attitude towards society in Nepal and Western society, through his actions and his thoughts. 

Neville is a man who is highly disappointed by the Western society which he finds depraved and decadent: “Where people wallowed in their greed. Where teenagers goaded and attacked old people for pleasure. Where children were not safe from molesters. Where wives left their husbands without warning and conscience. As had Neville’s own wife.” (ll. 40-43). This suggests that Neville’s bitterness may partly be due to the fact that his wife left him, and he doesn’t understand why.

Although he travels and acts as a tourist himself to write his books, Neville despises Western tourists who travel to the developing world because he believes they make locals change and become greedy: “ ‘Your village is something special. So calm and beautiful. If tourists come everything will change. I’ve seen it. People greedy. Children shouting, ‘one pen, one rupee’.’ ”(ll. 135-137)

When he arrives to the small village in Nepal he is impressed by the local people’s hospitality and kindness and has an idealised perspective on the landscape and the rural community: “Neville felt a kind of awe of these people. They were like saints. The warmth they had shown him—a complete stranger—had been remarkable…”  (ll. 36-38)

Even if he realises that the local people have a hard life because of the cold climate, he does not realise that they are so friendly to him because they know who he is. This is because he claims he is a tourist, lying to them without suspecting that they already know his identity, and possibl...