Naipaul's style is highly organized. His chapters begin with a statement of sorts, or a piece of his history that he feels needs to be addressed; usually something unimportant. Chapter 2 is emblematic of this. As Naipaul's description of why he is not yet married unfolds, we learn of his ties to race, religion and the growing unrest not only of the narrator but also of Africa. And as these pieces of the metaphoric puzzle come together we breeze through the explanation of why he isn't married and move on to the next thing. His narrative voice, especially in this chapter, is like a ball rolling down a hill: we are constantly moving forward with the story but we need to see it whole.
Yet it is not this simple, as the "ball rolls" the tone and syntax changes constantly. The best example of this is on page 9 with the two paragraphs beginning "But at night..." and "What a journey..." They both address more spiritual things like ancestry and such, but the tone of "you felt the land taking you back to something that was familiar," is incredibly different from the more serial style of the next paragraph. Naipaul shifts from concreteness to a quicker staccato style, which emphasizes the state His Africa is in. Both he and his place are coming feeling the tension of tradition and rebellion, highlighted through the style of Naipaul's narrative.
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