Creation, Fall, Redemption
Something that I didn't think about as I read this novel was the idea of creation, fall, and redemption. It's amazing and very interesting to see how authors weave these three key points. Not only do these three points create dramatic scenes and plots, they create ways of revealing characterization and identity. Hence, Ondaatje uses specific scenes in the book to invite the reader to be in awe of the use of creation, fall, and redemption through his characters.
Creation, is the beginning and in the beginning Patrick's search for identity is created. Through learning and following the ways of his father, the reader make sense of Patrick blowing up the waterworks. Specifically, by him and his father saving the cow, the reader is able to realize that perhaps the act of saving the cow was a foreshadow of Patrick saving himself from true loss of identity? The 'creation' in this book revolves around the different encounters Patrick faces: searching for Ambrose, meeting Clara, losing Clara, meeting Alice, losing Alice, etc. Of coures, among these encounters the reader is able to find the concept of 'fall' and 'redemption'. However, it is through the creation of Patrick and these encounters that he faces, that allow fall and redemption to occur.
Fall, is the end. However, fall is also what creates redemption. Ondaatje has a way of creating 'creation, fall and redemption' to all be able to weave through the other. Hence, as aforementioned, the creation of the encounters that Patrick faces lead to specific scenes of him falling into disaster. Finding the need to search for Ambrose leads him to find Clara who he becomes so attached to that when she leaves him he finds it indispicable. He "cleans his room on Queen Street obsessively ... then he sits in the only dry corner where he has previously placed cigarettes and smokes..." (82). It's obvious that this is a scene that is created to identify the 'fall' in Patrick. Then, later when he loses Alice, another one of his lovers and sources of finding identity, he blows up the waterworks. Perhaps he feels the guilt and blame for her death. Moreover, the relationship between Alice and Patrick, to me, had much more meaning than the relationship between him and Clara. The reason for this was becaue Patrick was so into Alice and finding more about her and her mysterious 'two-sided' character. She was a very independent girl who fought for the "plight of the immigrant workers" and it was like a duty for Patrick to find out "how she leaps from her true self to her other true self" (153). Hence, after her death, it was like the end of the world and end of finding his identity which led to anger and resentment.
Redemption, is the new. Redemption is when the theme of the story places itself into the midst of all the creation and the fall. It is when Patrick is able to look beyond the tragedies that led to his fall. Redemption was when he met Alice after Clara left him. Redemption was also when Patrick saved the cow because as I said before (in creation) it was the image of him saving the cow that foreshadowed him saving himself from the loss of identity. Also, although the scene of blowing up the waterworks may be seen as a source of 'fall' it can also be seen as redemption because with anger came the mind to blow it up, but the act of blowing it up can be seen as a way to relieve the anxiety and guilt/grief. After all, Harris had only let him go after blowing it up.
However, apart from Patrick, another important scene of redemption is the scene of Clara and Alice. Them meeting the rain with their naked bodies creates a profound beginning forthe two women. Their need to lose and forget their past as well as their weakness had made this scene powerful. Nevertheless, it was also the fact that Clara and Alice had their own power in this scene apart from any presence of a man. The relationship Patrick has with Clara and Alice are crucial when he is finding his identity; it's like he tries to find it in them. That is why the redemption for Clara and Alice is so important. In my opinion, if their redemption had not occurred, Patrick's search for identity would not have been very meaningful.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
In the Skin of a Lion
The most beautiful passage ,,
I find the most beautiful passages in this book to be the ones where it talks about Patrick's past. Readers find out about Patrick and his youth through flashbacks and these flashbacks present the reader with quite a different feeling than when reading about the bridge and the dynamites, etc. Nonetheless, the particular passage I find particularly unique is from pages 21 to 22.
This passage demonstrates freedom of the workers. A metaphor that stood out to me was “This was against the night” (22). This covers the setting of this passage as nighttime. This also emphasizes the imagery and contrast of light vs. darkness, and that contrast is what makes this passage significant. “But even to the boy of eleven, deep in the woods after midnight, this was obviously benign. Something joyous. A gift.” (21).The fact the loggers were skating in the dark (when they were supposed to be ‘resting’) showed Patrick that they were pretty much bending the rules; contrary to what he had been taught or knew. The portrayal of these loggers as “they raced, swerved, fell and rolled on the ice” created desire for Patrick, something new. These phrases demonstrate the sort of freedom the workers (loggers) had, of course, on the ice. It was a time for replenishing the soul through laughter and spirit. As aforementioned, Patrick desired to join them. He found their simple and joyous play so welcoming and full of opportunities; "Their lanterns replaced with new rushes which let them go further past boundaries, speed! romance! one man waltzing with his fire. . . ." This passage, full of imagery and symbolism makes it very poetic. One can imagine just how much fun the loggers were having and it almost makes the reader want to join as much as Patrick had desired. This is what Patrick had wanted; “He longed to hold their hands and skate the length of the creek…” (21). This passage is truly one that evokes a lot of imagery. Ondaatje chooses to let this scene come alive through his style and diction and this adds to the magical freedom depicted in this passage.
The character and I
The character that I find myself identifying with most is Alice. Moreover, I do believe that pathos is exactly the element of this response. Pathos appeals to my emotions and this is how I relate to Alice; emotionally. I find connections between Alice and me when it comes to characterization. In my opinion, Ondaatje portrays Alice as a pretty ‘strong-but-weak’ character. The story depicts Alice as a vulnerable and delicate character. In the beginning of the book, the fact that the author presents to the reader Alice as a nun shows what kind of character she is. Then, when she falls off the bridge and Nicholas Temelcoff saves her, her delicacy shown evidently. Personally, however, I would have thought that anyone who was a nun was anything but feeble and delicate. After all, the reason why people become nuns is because they set their heart to one thing, one God and nothing other. Even so, Alice is reluctant to share about her past – with Clara and Patrick – as a nun and etc. This may be because she desires to let go of her past and the anxiety that was twisted around it.
On the other hand, Alice is actually multi-skinned. Meaning, there are actually two ‘sides’ to Alice. One side is her weak side, but the other is quite the contrary. It’s like she has different skins. As mentioned on page 153, Patrick describes his uncertainty with Alice; “…he can never conceive how she leaps from her true self to her other true self.” Alice as a performer also reveals the strong-willed aspect of her character because it is through her performances that Patrick finds more clues about who she really is. Likewise, for her, that was her identity that she strongly held onto and she wouldn’t be finding other ways to get rid of it, “She would not be bossed and she was self-sufficient” (137).
As for me, I couldn’t help but find pieces of me woven through Alice. There are times when I find myself as weak and delicate as the nun portrayed on the bridge but then there is also another side of me that says I have a different sort of ‘power’ within me that I am still in the need of ‘awakening’. For Alice it was for ‘the plight of the immigrant workers’. For me, it’s the race against and along with the society. Religiously, I mean, secular vs. sacred; spiritual vs. worldly. And as a Christian, it’s a choice of which ‘mask’ or ‘skin’ to disguise myself with everyday. However, is that necessary? No. Nevertheless, it happens because I am human. However, I do have what Alice has, the will power to stand up for what I believe in and be “self-sufficient”.
The end
A major theme of this book centers around the idea that with grief comes loss of identity, but with grappling, hope and transformation may arise from the individual. As Ondaatje creates characters that are unique in their own ways, almost all the characters probably have their own ‘tragic flaw’. For Patrick, his great weakness and tragic flaw was that loss of identity. Hence, he searches for this identity through the people he meets and the tragedies that happen along the way. Not to mention, he searches for ‘light’. On page 157 it reads, “And all of his life Patrick had been oblivious to it, a searcher gazing into the darkness of his own country, a blind man dressing the heroine.” Overall, all of this is revealed in the way he engages with the people who revolve around him, which in turn, creates a more meaningful life. Moreover, this part of the story shows Patrick and his way of processing his life, building a ‘temporary’ identity as he yearns to put the puzzle pieces together, if there were any. In the end, the identity that Patrick was making for himself revolved around the people around him. It was as if those people made his identity and without them he’d be lost forever into ‘darkness’. Hence, the fact that Patrick searches for identity and light is supported with the fact that without the people around him, he’d be nothing. This clearly relates with Patrick’s downfall where there were multiple scenes when the people he’d been so tied closely to had been ‘dissolved’ from him. For this reason, with the absence of the ones who make up his identity, he would obviously be prone to disaster and downfall. In his case, this was when Clara had left him. Clearly, his obsessive cleaning of his room was due to her leaving him and he just couldn’t take it. From pages 82-83, words like, “tirades, broken, befall and doomed” all describe the situation in which Patrick was left to deal with his identity, alone.
I find the most beautiful passages in this book to be the ones where it talks about Patrick's past. Readers find out about Patrick and his youth through flashbacks and these flashbacks present the reader with quite a different feeling than when reading about the bridge and the dynamites, etc. Nonetheless, the particular passage I find particularly unique is from pages 21 to 22.
This passage demonstrates freedom of the workers. A metaphor that stood out to me was “This was against the night” (22). This covers the setting of this passage as nighttime. This also emphasizes the imagery and contrast of light vs. darkness, and that contrast is what makes this passage significant. “But even to the boy of eleven, deep in the woods after midnight, this was obviously benign. Something joyous. A gift.” (21).The fact the loggers were skating in the dark (when they were supposed to be ‘resting’) showed Patrick that they were pretty much bending the rules; contrary to what he had been taught or knew. The portrayal of these loggers as “they raced, swerved, fell and rolled on the ice” created desire for Patrick, something new. These phrases demonstrate the sort of freedom the workers (loggers) had, of course, on the ice. It was a time for replenishing the soul through laughter and spirit. As aforementioned, Patrick desired to join them. He found their simple and joyous play so welcoming and full of opportunities; "Their lanterns replaced with new rushes which let them go further past boundaries, speed! romance! one man waltzing with his fire. . . ." This passage, full of imagery and symbolism makes it very poetic. One can imagine just how much fun the loggers were having and it almost makes the reader want to join as much as Patrick had desired. This is what Patrick had wanted; “He longed to hold their hands and skate the length of the creek…” (21). This passage is truly one that evokes a lot of imagery. Ondaatje chooses to let this scene come alive through his style and diction and this adds to the magical freedom depicted in this passage.
The character and I
The character that I find myself identifying with most is Alice. Moreover, I do believe that pathos is exactly the element of this response. Pathos appeals to my emotions and this is how I relate to Alice; emotionally. I find connections between Alice and me when it comes to characterization. In my opinion, Ondaatje portrays Alice as a pretty ‘strong-but-weak’ character. The story depicts Alice as a vulnerable and delicate character. In the beginning of the book, the fact that the author presents to the reader Alice as a nun shows what kind of character she is. Then, when she falls off the bridge and Nicholas Temelcoff saves her, her delicacy shown evidently. Personally, however, I would have thought that anyone who was a nun was anything but feeble and delicate. After all, the reason why people become nuns is because they set their heart to one thing, one God and nothing other. Even so, Alice is reluctant to share about her past – with Clara and Patrick – as a nun and etc. This may be because she desires to let go of her past and the anxiety that was twisted around it.
On the other hand, Alice is actually multi-skinned. Meaning, there are actually two ‘sides’ to Alice. One side is her weak side, but the other is quite the contrary. It’s like she has different skins. As mentioned on page 153, Patrick describes his uncertainty with Alice; “…he can never conceive how she leaps from her true self to her other true self.” Alice as a performer also reveals the strong-willed aspect of her character because it is through her performances that Patrick finds more clues about who she really is. Likewise, for her, that was her identity that she strongly held onto and she wouldn’t be finding other ways to get rid of it, “She would not be bossed and she was self-sufficient” (137).
As for me, I couldn’t help but find pieces of me woven through Alice. There are times when I find myself as weak and delicate as the nun portrayed on the bridge but then there is also another side of me that says I have a different sort of ‘power’ within me that I am still in the need of ‘awakening’. For Alice it was for ‘the plight of the immigrant workers’. For me, it’s the race against and along with the society. Religiously, I mean, secular vs. sacred; spiritual vs. worldly. And as a Christian, it’s a choice of which ‘mask’ or ‘skin’ to disguise myself with everyday. However, is that necessary? No. Nevertheless, it happens because I am human. However, I do have what Alice has, the will power to stand up for what I believe in and be “self-sufficient”.
The end
A major theme of this book centers around the idea that with grief comes loss of identity, but with grappling, hope and transformation may arise from the individual. As Ondaatje creates characters that are unique in their own ways, almost all the characters probably have their own ‘tragic flaw’. For Patrick, his great weakness and tragic flaw was that loss of identity. Hence, he searches for this identity through the people he meets and the tragedies that happen along the way. Not to mention, he searches for ‘light’. On page 157 it reads, “And all of his life Patrick had been oblivious to it, a searcher gazing into the darkness of his own country, a blind man dressing the heroine.” Overall, all of this is revealed in the way he engages with the people who revolve around him, which in turn, creates a more meaningful life. Moreover, this part of the story shows Patrick and his way of processing his life, building a ‘temporary’ identity as he yearns to put the puzzle pieces together, if there were any. In the end, the identity that Patrick was making for himself revolved around the people around him. It was as if those people made his identity and without them he’d be lost forever into ‘darkness’. Hence, the fact that Patrick searches for identity and light is supported with the fact that without the people around him, he’d be nothing. This clearly relates with Patrick’s downfall where there were multiple scenes when the people he’d been so tied closely to had been ‘dissolved’ from him. For this reason, with the absence of the ones who make up his identity, he would obviously be prone to disaster and downfall. In his case, this was when Clara had left him. Clearly, his obsessive cleaning of his room was due to her leaving him and he just couldn’t take it. From pages 82-83, words like, “tirades, broken, befall and doomed” all describe the situation in which Patrick was left to deal with his identity, alone.
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