Reflection
My composition, “Longing for Purpose'', explores the theme of Encountering Otherness
through conveying the thoughts and behaviour of the main character being excluded from
society. This can be shown through the relationship of his brother, the abuse of society and
the internal conflict that happens within his mind.
I also took the idea of contrasting reality and fiction from “Anil’s Ghost” and implemented it
with the brothers being yin and yang. The idea that I wanted to bring out was to elaborate
on the conflict between brothers, so I wrote about how each brother desired to be the other
but would risk losing what they had before, as well as showing their completely different
views and ideologies.
A key issue I ran into whilst composing the narrative was the expressing the idea of Otherness
through thoughts and emotions, but also wanted to express it through an anecdote, or a
folktale. In the end, I decided on a monologue which would be best to incorporate it into
third person.
The theme of otherness permeates throughout “Anil’s Ghost”. It played an influential role in
making the story feel real, and it’s something I wanted to incorporate in my story. To amplify
the concept of otherness in my story, I used the concept from the quote, “Where did the
secret war begin between him and his brother? It had begun with the desire to be the other,
even with the impossibility of emulating him. … And he loved his lack of responsibility, loved
never being at the centre, while perceptive of what went on there.” to create the purpose of
the narrative. This was the desire to become the other, hence resolving into a conflict of
decisions, as mentioned in the monologue, “Desperately wishing to be in the same position as
my brother, the prestige, love, praise, needed. But at what cost?” which references the free
spirit he would cast aside if he decided to pursue that path that his brother took in order to
prove himself.
Here I focused on truncated sentences to show the state of his mind as the conflict between
decisions makes Seong question the fabric of reality as it begins to drive him mad, whilst
searching for a solution.
“Anil's Ghost” also explores the concept of decision making and contrasting as Anil questions
many things, such as the corruption of the government and the reliability of Sarath. But it
also conveys the message that solving Otherness does not always have a perfect ending.
“Anil’s Ghost” also references the motif of identity as Anil takes on her brother's name to
better assert her identity. She is unsure whether she belongs to the east or the west, and the
identity crisis often affects her thinking and plays a pivotal role in the plot. In the composition
Seong questions his identity in the beginning of the monologue, “Because I know ever since I
was born, I felt something different within me.”, due to him being different from his brother
and hence must change his identity in order to be accepted into society. “If I pursue this path,
my freedom, the unique identity that I possess will be stripped from me with no return. Would
I become different?” then questions if this is the correct thing to do. Both texts hence, relate
the similarities between Seong’s and Anil’s mental state.
Aiden Lee
Literature is excellent for writers to express their thoughts in their writing, and hopefully I
was able to accomplish this in “Longing for Purpose” just as how Ondaatje did in “Anil’s
Ghost”. If someone finishes reading my piece understanding the ideas conveyed, then it is
well-written.
Aiden Lee