In The Skin of a Lion “Caravaggio” Alice, Jamie, Michelle, Tiffany, Liam Main Themes ✦ Identity ✦ Past experiences and its impact on self ✦ Transformation and Growth ✦ Migrant experience ✦ Strength and power Conceptual Statements ✦ Although the migrant experience is disdained with inferiority, the richness of connection and community within is more powerful than more superficially dominant classes. ✦ The notion of transformation often assimilates with identity where characters undertake metamorphosis from being the voiceless and powerless whom then gain the ability to claim an identity for themselves as individuals. ✦ Identity is composed of particular characteristics and experiences inherited and built upon throughout an individual’s life. Through the perspective of Caravaggio we can observe how an individual’s characteristics manifest and are displayed in their interactions with the world. ✦ The importance of human experience reflects on our place and purpose within society and how we interact and forge relationships with those in our past, present, and future and how community can be created through perseverance and POA · The continuous use of the collective pronoun “they” in reference to the prisoners rather than their names in the beginning of the chapter strips the characters of their individuality. · This is shortly followed by the accumulation “The prisoners Buck and Lewis and Caravaggio…”, this furthering the collective label of prisoner defining them and thus removing their identity and individuals · The blue tin roof demonstrates the inhibiting nature of the prison for growth of the individual as conveyed in “As if they could climb up further, beyond the tin, into that ocean above the roof.” The metaphor of the sky being an ocean additionally connotes exploration and opportunity that is however prevented and constrained. · Caravaggio painting himself to camouflage into the blue roof illustrates the initiation of his transformation into an individual. However, the imagery of him camouflaged into the roof with paint contradicts his instigation of claim of individuality, where he is invisible, lacking any form of identity. Further on, when it is said “He had slept out three nights now. The last of the blue paint at this wrist”, this is symbolic of his inconspicuousness in spite of his transformation, indicative of him being voiceless and powerless, inescapably a part of his persona. · Caravaggio’s escape acts as a catalyst for his transformation from a marginalized collective of prisoners to an individual, where he asserts with high modality language “I’m Caravaggio – the painter.”, this emphasizing his identification of himself and his transformation. Points of analysis ✦ “familiar nightmare” – juxtaposition of familiarity and the connotation of nightmare- negative, frightening, unwanted, whereas familiar- safe, common, wanted ✦ “Patrick breaks intro a square dance call…his father’s language emerging from somewhere in his past” -past affecting future/present and affecting the way Patrick reacts to situations (in which case it is Caravaggio being beaten up) ✦ “The animal form the nightmare bares its teeth. Its mouth rips open the boot. Water is released….water creature”- imagery and personification of actions= creature harming him. Repetition of the nightmare issues. Water is symbolic of blood but it detaches Caravaggio from the human (blood) which is reinforced when he thinks “He needs more than anything to get on his knees and lap up water form a saucer.” P.O.A ✦ “What allies with Caravaggio is only the singer….Caravaggio needs to listen within the silence” unconventional pairings and relationships affecting how one reacts to situations. The contrast between two people and how they impact on each other. ✦ Motif of dark/light (chiaroscuro) throughout the flashback scene “still blindfolded, his hands out” represents vulnerability within the darkness which then contradicts his nature of stealing which is aided by the cover of dark, “he had trained as a thief in unlit rooms”. “Patrick screams into the limestone darkness for help.”- again, help/comfort being in the darkness. “In daylight he moved slowly”- reinforces the notion of ability/comfort in dark and lack of stimulation/lack of comfort in light. “the shadow of a tree luckily falling across him” ^ P.O.A ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ “Took shits on desks whenever they broke into office buildings” ✦ Rebellion, defiance of power ✦ Lower class experience – critique of capitalism “Punch cards of the workers… Italian, some Portuguese… he felt safer” ✦ Motif of naming, classifying – identity ✦ Caravaggio affiliates with the workers, migrant experience “stepped back into the world of order” ✦ Metaphor, multifaceted nature of the world – different layers of social structure ✦ Personal growth, changing worlds, transformation “He had to get her attention without terrifying her. He started humming along with her” ✦ Music as universal language, connecting people from different cultures ✦ Longing for connection, community with the migrants P.O.A ✦ ✦ ✦ “There was darkness again and he yearned for light” ✦ Chiaroscuro – wanted knowledge, understanding, connection and experience of the migrant workers community ✦ Wanted to see and know her “he enjoyed the company after so much solitude” ✦ Sense of community inside the migrant experience, workers, Caravaggio previously didn’t experience in the Capitalist society ✦ Personal growth – new relationships, connections “Her lamp remained still at his foot. So he reached back… shone it on her” ✦ Light – knowledge, identify Personal growth, deepening of connection, knowledge and instigating relationship P.O.A ✦ ✦ ✦ “Moth like on the edge of burning kerosene” ✦ Moth motif ✦ Transformation ✦ Caravaggio’s intimate observation of Anne’s writing has caused a transformation of his perception of her “The houses in Toronto he had helped build or paint or break into were unmarked” ✦ Accumulation ✦ Identity, migrant experience ✦ He is sad that he has left no trace on the places his skills have been used. Anonymity of migrants. P.O.A ✦ ✦ ✦ “He was one of those who have a fury or sadness of only being described as someone else” ✦ Authorial intrusion ✦ Identity ✦ Caravaggio hates being mistaken as someone else, revealing how he has a strong sense of identity, yet as a migrant among a lot of strangers this happened often “A tarrer of roads, a house builder, a painter, a thief- yet he was invisible to all around him” ✦ Accumulation, irony ✦ Identity, migrant experience ✦ Accumulation of professions that Caravaggio has had in his life. Due to the fact that they are all difficult jobs links to the idea of the harsh migrant experience. These professions also define him as they make up a significant part of his past. Also the notion that despite all these jobs and experience he is still invisible, just another person in a sea of migrants. Also the irony that he puts negative connotations in being invisible when he is a thief, wants fame. P.O.A Individuals derive their identity not exclusively from the content of their character but also from the persons, places, practices and objects they surround themselves with, a shift in any of these elements leading to a shift in identity. ✦ “He had, when there was light earlier, been looking up at the tongue and groove, theorizing how one removed such floors.” Caravaggio’s profession as a thief envelops all facets of his life, shaping his identity. ✦ “… the lover was the sound of lake water” Personification of the lake water as a ‘lover’ suggests a deep emotional connection for Anne, the lake is something that defines her. ✦ “… glass and crockery and thin china plates tumbling down from shelf to shelf losing their order, their shades of blue and red merging…” The fragmentation and merging of the objects is symbolic, the chaotic process a metaphor for the fragmentation and merging of identity occurring between Caravaggio and Giannetta as they are locked in passionate love. P.O.A ✦ “… pearl embedded in her flesh.” She is so connected to objects around her that they have physically become embedded within her flesh, physically shaping her. ✦ “A kitchen being fucked” Personification reflects an intimate connection the location. ✦ “… jewels of every colour he has stolen for her… Photographs of her relatives in old silver frames. A clock encased in glass which turns its gold… A wedding ring he can pull off her finger with his teeth” Accumulation of material possessions, indicative of the importance of these objects to the way Caravaggio sees Giannetta.
