Final answer:
The claim that V.S. Naipaul's "The Night Watchman's Occurrence Book" starts with a night watchman being fired for alcohol consumption is false. Naipaul's themes are more focused on isolation and societal alienation.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that V.S. Naipaul's "The Night Watchman's Occurrence Book" begins with the first night watchman getting fired for drinking on the job is false. This detail does not align with the contents of Naipaul's work. Instead, his writing often explores themes of isolation and alienation, as is evident in descriptions of night scenes in literature where characters are depicted as alienated from each other and from society, such as the empty coffee tureens on the back counter indicating the late or early hour in Hopper's painting "Nighthawks".
In different settings, workers were often promised alcohol as part of their wages, exemplifying the historical context rather than the action within a particular story.