1. The water hyacinth is a claustrophobic plant, and it is represented as such in 'A Bend in the River'. The hyacinth is invasive: It will cover bodies of water entirely, block sunlight from reaching plants, kill animals, etc. In "A Bend In The River", the water hyacinths are a symbol of birth, gradual disintegration, and inevitable death.
The first time Naipul introduces us to the hyacinth, he outlines its progessively ominous effects on the area: "Always, sailing up from the south, from beyond the bend in the river, were clumps of water hyacinths, dark floating islands on the dark river, bobbing over the rapids. It was as if rain and river were tearing away bush from the heart of the continent and floating it down to the ocean, incalculable miles away. But the water hyancinth was the fruit of the river alone". The hyacinths have an air of "the new" to the locals, but they are looked upon as an enemy. There is certainly an interior sense of foreboding to match the physical manifestations.
Later on, the hyacinths become a way to muddle and clot a vision of older times. Father Huismans is killed, and his killers decide to make a show of their conquest. The narrator remarks: "His death need never have been discovered;he could have easily have been buried somewhere in the bush. But the people who killed him wanted the fact to be known. His body was put in a dugout, and the dugout drifted down the main river until it caught against the bank in a tangle of water hyacinths.He was buried quickly, with the minimum of ceremony". Salim believes that Father Huismans purity and naivete played a role in his demise,
The narrator later sates that "little was said about the way he died", and he laments for the loss of a man he feels was a wealth of knowledge. However, in keeping with the "topography of the void" that characterizes Naipual's writing, the narrator quickly states that we cannot remain in a "questioning mood for long". The river must keep flowing, and the hyacinths cannot be stopped from encroaching further. This echoes the kind of pragmatic attitude that Naipaul exhibits from the very first line.
Water hyacinths are mentioned twice at the very end of the novel, when Salim returns and is now a runaway on a steamer bound for nowhere. When Salim first notices the progress of the town, he admires the steamers and their easily flowing transit. They are a nice contrast to the dugouts. However, by the conclusion of the novel, the hyacinths have overtaken the river, and the steamer is pathetic(made even more so by the first class cabin). Naipaul writes:
"In this light the silhouettes of the dugouts and the people in them were blurred,not sharp. But these dugouts,when we came to them, had no produce to sell. They were desperate only to be tied up to the steamer. They were in flight from the riverbanks. They jammed and jostled against the sides of the steamer and the barge, and many were swamped. Water hyacinths pushed up the narrow space between the steamer and the barge. We went on. Darkness fell."
And later....
"At the time what we saw was the steamer searchlight, playing on the riverbank, playing on the passenger barge, which had snapped loose and was drifting at an angle through the water hyacinths at the edge of the river. The searchlight lit up the barge passengers, who,behind bars and wire guards, as yet scarcely seemed to understand that they were adrift."
Like many of the characters, these barge passengers don't seem to find their identity, or even notice that it is missing. The hyacinths have become too pervasive.
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