In V. S. Naipaul's Miguel Street, the character of Man-Man is a deeply eccentric man with particular fixations and quirky personality traits. Running for city council, pretending to be a dog, and thinking that he is God's prophet are some of the interesting deeds that have made Man-Man a well-known fixture on Miguel Street, along with other colorful individuals such as Hat and Bogart, to just name a few.

The narrator tells us that Man-Man

was hypnotized by the word, particularly the written word, and he would spend a whole day writing a single word.

One day, the narrator meets Man-Man at the corner of Miguel Street, and Man-Man asks him where he is going. When the narrator explains that he is going to school, Man-Man looks at him "solemnly" and mocks him about it. It is here when Man-Man suddenly takes out a stick of chalk that he has in his pocket and starts to write a big letter S, followed by C,H,O, and then many more O's, on the other streets, until he completes the word "SCHOOL" when the narrator returns from school.

However, this is not the only instance, that Man-Man would do something like this. As someone who is "hypnotized" by words, the narrator explains that anyone can trigger Man-Man to write a word if he picks up that word during conversation and starts to get fixated on it:

If you told Man-man you were going to the cricket, he would write CRICK and then concentrate on the E’S until he saw you again.

Therefore, Man-Man is always fascinated with writing single words on the pavement and taking over entire streets, which he would fill with separate letters, until he sees the person that inspired the writing of the word for a second time.