Running in the Family: Family Tree & Timeline
Vere
Evan
Lalla
Willie
Gratien
Died when kids
young
Mother
Keyts?
Palm Lodge dairy
Dickie
Philip
Uncle
Ondaatje
Built Rock Hill
in Kegalle
Aelian
Next to Doris
marry 1950
Zillah
Noel
Gratien
Doris
Gratien
Mervyn
Maureen
Ondaatje
Burnt furniture
Wendy
Christopher
Janet
Gillian
Michael
Jennifer
Susan
Timeline:
There are very few specific dates in the memoir which reinforces the impression that it is more of a
gesture than a portrait – this is not a historical document.
1928
Mervyn goes to Cambridge and pretends to study
1930 / 31
Mervyn’s parents discover that he has not been studying and come to England to
confront him, Mervyn’s engagement to Kaye Roseleap
1931
Mervyn’s engagement to Doris is called off and then reinstated
April 11th 1932 Doris and Mervyn Marry
Mid 30’s
1938
1942
1943
Mervyn starts drinking heavily
Lalla’s dairy closes and she starts visiting others
Philip Ondaatje dies – funeral argument about how much to pay the coffin bearers
Aelian Ondaatje dies – liver problems
Mervyn’s last train ride (Michael is born?)
Mid 40’s
Lalla runs a boarding house during the war
1946
Probable date of divorce between Mervyn and Doris – she stayed with him for 14 years
Doris works in the Mount Lavinia Hotel and then the Grand Oriental
Eventually she moves to England (possibly 1947 in V.C. de Silva’s account, p.195)
Late 40’s
Mervyn returns to Rock Hill and runs a chicken farm
Aug 15th 1947 Lalla dies
1950
Mervyn marries again
1954
Michael moves to England (?) – he goes at age 11 which would be 1954 if born in 1943
1971
Insurgence
Running in the Family: Chapter Notes – A Fine Romance
The Courtship – Flaming Youth
The Courtship (p. 31 – 35)
 Introduction to Mervyn Ondaatje and Doris Gratiaen, the parents of Michael Ondaatje
 Mervyn Ondaatje “attends” Cambridge university while secretly living off of the money from his
parents
 To please his furious parents he becomes engaged to the well-off Kaye Roseleap
 This surge of “good behaviour” is interrupted by the sudden engagement to Doris Gratiaen, the sister
of his friend Noel
 As his sister Stephy writes to the Roseleaps, Mervyn becomes frustrated and lonely in Kegalle while
his fiancée is in Colombo
 Doris writes to break off the engagement
 After drunken suicide threats, the problem is patched up the next day and are to marry a year later
April 11, 1932 (p. 36)
 The brief retelling of memories from the wedding of Mervyn and Doris
 Driving to Kegalle they stop the car to give the Bishop a lift and he ends up driving them there
(despite his terrible driving skills)
Honeymoon (p. 37 – 38)
 A list, separated into three paragraphs, of world events coinciding with the wedding and honeymoon
of Mervyn and Doris
 The events deal primarily with natural disasters, deaths, and other unfortunate incidents, but once or
twice mention issues of marriage or love among the other depressing events
Historical Relations (p. 39 – 41)
 1920s in Ceylon – the retelling of some of the stories from the era of the author’s grandparents
 Specifically stories from times spent in Nuwara Eliya, with the “constant parties, horse racing, the All
Ceylon Tennis Tournament, and serious golf”
The War Between Men and Women (p. 42 – 43)
 Lalla (Ondaatje’s grandmother) takes a bus home and is subjected to a stranger trying to fondle her
breast, not realising that Lalla in fact had no left breast but only a sponge
Flaming Youth (p. 44 – 47)
 The chapter focuses predominantly on the life and exploits of Francis de Saram, a friend of both
Mervyn Ondaatje and Noel Gratiaen
 The reporting of the youth of these three and their friends centers around their parties
 Not only were they fond of sneaking onto boats for the cheap liquor, but Francis had developed the
“perfect place for parties” at the rubber estate he worked at
 Their youth was dancing and drinking until Francis lost his life in 1935 to alcoholis
Motifs:
Letters
Letters are found throughout the memoir but often Ondaatje weaves them into the narrative structure,
allowing them to tell parts of the story, the fragmented, constructed and multi-vocal effect that this creates
is one way in which the post-modern nature of this text is revealed to the reader. In this chapter, the
letters represent news and its communication. The news is sometimes celebratory, e.g. “writing home a
month later, [Mervyn] told his parents the good news that he had been accepted at Queen’s college” (31)
or “after several modest letters about his successful academic career” (31). On other occasions this news
brings disruption, e.g “It was Stephy who wrote, setting off a chain reaction in the mails, one letter going
to Phyllis whose holiday plans were terminated” (33), “Doris Gratiaen wrote to break off the engagement”
(35). These letters are all related to Mervyn, and because of the various effects created by the news
contained in them, the audience is able to see how that reflects on his personality. Mervyn is described as
often “trying to solve one problem by creating another” (33), and this is demonstrated through the motif of
letters.
Engagements
Engagements are a common feature only in this chapter, but they introduce the beginning of what is to be
a recurring theme throughout the novel. The constant engagements, being started and stopped (and, in
the case of Doris, started again) introduces a sense of fragility or instability about marriage; this is
perhaps reflective of the fact that Ondaatje’s parents ultimately separated or it is perhaps indicative of the
ephemeral, transient nature of magical and almost mythical impression of life that Ondaatje creates of life
in the 1920’s and 1930’s in Ceylon. The presentation of these engagements – “becoming briefly engaged
to a Russian countess” (32), “went out at dinnertime for a few hours and came back to announce that he
had become engaged to Kaye Roseleap” (32), “came home one evening to announce that he was
engaged to a Doris Gratiaen” (33) – suggest to the audience a randomness about becoming engaged,
which is strange to them because marriage seems like something not to be taken lightly. When Mervyn
purchases “a huge emerald engagement ring which he charged to his father’s account” (34), he comes
across as reckless and unaware of consequences, suggesting that his approach to marriage (as
everything else) is impulsive rather than well planned out, again revealing something not only about his
character but also of the times of which he is symbolic. Finally, when Doris writes “to break off the
engagement” (35) yet “the next day the problems were solved and the engagement was established once
more” (35), marriage is seen as something volatile but with easy fixes. All of these ideas put forward are
contrary to how the reader may perceive marriage to be, i.e. a lifelong commitment to another person that
should not be taken lightly. The recurring engagements thus are significant in their development of the
impression that the Ceylon of the 1920’s and 30’s was a world unlike our own.
Alcohol
At the start of the novel Ondaatje also foreshadows the destructive role that alcohol will eventually have
on his father. Alcohol is Mervyn’s drug of choice and therefore crops up in the story whenever he is not
doing as he should, e.g. “being able to offer [his parents] only champagne at eleven in the morning” (32)
when they arrive to confront him about his life at Cambridge; or when he was misbehaving with his friends
when “he would roll into the barracks, step out in his dress suit, inspect the guard, leap back into the car
full of laughing and drunken friends and depart” (34-35) and again when he was doing something that is
important, but that he may be fearful of “By the time they got to Colombo my father was very drunk and
Aelian was slightly drunk” (35). This foreshadows not only Mervyn’s alcoholism but the drunken and
exaggerated feel to many of the stories involving his father adds to theme of postmodernism that runs
through Ondaatje’s memoir. Alcohol also figures prominently in the chapter entitled ‘Flaming Youth’ which
centers around Francis de Saram, a close friend of the narrator’s father and Noel. He “had the most
extreme case of alcoholism in my father’s generation” (44) and “lived on gin, tonic-water, and canned
meat” (46). One of the aspects alcohol is that it plays a key role in creating the energy and life of the
people at the parties they attended, in a sense this is the fuel that made their youths flame. However,
Ondaatje also explores the downsides of alcohol as we know that Francis de Saram drank himself into an
early grave.
Cars/Driving
Driving in ‘The Courtship’ is mostly conducted by Mervyn (or with Mervyn in the vehicle), and
subsequently it expresses how repressed he feels in the home he lives in with his parents and how he
yearns to be free. To stay with his friends and his fiancée, “He would drive down from his parents’ home
in Kegalle to Colombo” (34) because he “had nothing to do in Kegalle” (34). There is one story in which
“he was given the car and asked to go and buy some fish [..] Two days later his parents got a telegram
from Trincomalee, miles away” (35) – in this the reader can see just how repressed he is in Kegalle
because he takes advantage of even the most flimsy of pretexts to flee his home. The fact that when he
drives to Colombo to rescue his relationship with Doris but arrives “very drunk” (35) suggests that both
driving and drinking are seen as escape mechanisms for Mervyn, and add to his character development.
In contrast in ‘April 11th 1932’ driving is related to the Bishop of Colombo and the wedding of Mervyn and
Doris. The anonymous narrator remarks that on their trip to Kegalle they saw a car in the ditch and “it was
the Bishop of Colombo who everyone knew was a terrible driver” (36). The people in the car are forced to
give him a ride to the wedding, but because of space constraints the bishop ends up driving them all, and
the narrator says, “We were all so squashed and terrified for the rest of the trip!” (36) Driving is significant
here because adds to the humourous tone of the memoir, following on from the drunken journey to
Columbo in ‘The Courtship’ which Aelian and Mervyn undertake which results in Aelian’s farcical attempt
to hide all of the guns in the headquarters of the Ceylon Light Infantry in order to prevent Mervyn from
killing himself. In later chapters, such as ‘The War Between Men and Women’, we see that Lalla takes a
bus because “she did not own a car” (42). Perhaps, given that cars for Mervyn were always linked to
freedom and escapism, the fact that Lalla does not have this opportunity might suggest something about
the power she has in society as a women, and as the title suggests, the war between men and women in
the Ceylonese society.
Death
Death makes its first appearance as a motif in the ‘Honeymoon’ chapter where there are a series of
contextual references to the events around the time around of Mervyn and Doris’s honeymoon.,
Ondaatje’s decision to include headlines such as “Lindberg’s Baby Found – A Corpse!” (37), “The 13th
President of the French Republic was shot to death by a Russian” (37), and “In America, women were still
trying to steal the body of Valentino from his grave” (37) is perhaps an allusion to the unhappy marriage
that is to come between Mervyn and Doris. Death continues as a motif in the ‘Historical Relations’ chapter
where it helps to glamorize and romanticize the past. These deaths were regarded as “casual tragedies”
(40); ranging from when “Jessica almost died after being shot” (40) to “poor Wilfred Batholomeusz who
had large teeth was killed while out hunting’” (40) and when “T.W. Roberts was bitten in the leg by a dog
[…] Later the dog was discovered to be rabid, but as T.W. had left for England nobody bothered to tell
him” (41). The ironic understatement with which these deaths, especially the last, are discussed
enhances the sense of humour running through the memoir at this point creating the impression that life
in Ceylon at this time was carefree and light-hearted. Interestingly, however, death also seems to invoke
a revitalization of people, as shown when Ondaatje writes, “Both my grandmothers lived cautiously, at
least until their husbands died” (41). Here the motif may be being used by Ondaatje to convey the postcolonial theme that colonized countries can only blossom once the colonizers have left, in the same way
that the grandmothers could not be free until after the deaths of the strict colonial / patriarchal figures
symbolized by the grandfathers, Philip Ondaatje in particular
Rumours & Gossip
Rumours appear explicitly as a motif in the ‘Honeymoon’ chapter: “there were upsetting rumours that
ladies were going to play at Wimbledon in shorts” (37) and “It was rumoured that pythons were
decreasing in Africa” (37). The somewhat arbitrary nature of these facts suggests something about the
arbitrary nature of the information that Ondaatje was able to uncover in his search for the truth … and
perhaps also the arbitrary nature of the events that make the news, especially given the relatively
superficial nature of both facts. The concern over the shorts at Wimbledon perhaps also creates the
impression that people in this time period were afforded the luxury of being shallow and flippant about
real problems, once again hinting that Ceylon in the 1920’s and 1930’s was a place where real-world
responsibilities were suspended. The glamorization continues in the combination of death with the sports
being played; “Jessica almost died after being shot by an unknown assailant while playing croquet” (40).
The casual presentation of this suggests to the reader that any danger to the lives of the characters was
something so natural that it was not greeted with any surprise, and it is this indifferent attitude that gives
off the idea that these times were carefree and relaxed.
Sport
This motif appears principally in the ‘Historical Relations’ chapter where it is used to glamorize the 1920s
and 30s in Ceylon – the era of the grandparents. Ondaatje uses the elite status of the sports portrayed to
convey the allure of the times, e.g. the “All Ceylon Tennis Tournament, and serious golf” (39) or the fact
that “Each morning the men departed for the club to play a game of billiards” (40). The motif of sport also
suggests a unity among the wealthy Ceylonese community of which the Ondaatjes were a part as most of
the sports involved were played or watched as a group. There is a enclosed or protected (almost
incestuous) nature of this group is suggested by their resistance to foreign influence for when “they had to
play champions from other nations” in tennis (40), the played in the lowlands rather than the highlands
where “the excessive heat could be guaranteed to destroy the visitors” (40 thus creating the impression
that this community was united against all foreign influence.
Nature
Nature in the novel is included to highlight setting and this is particularly evident in the chapter ‘Historical
Relations’. When Ondaatje writes, “The gardens were full of cypress, rhododendrons, fox-gloves, arumlilies and sweet pea” (40), he does so to compare the flowers to the setting around him. The flowers are
symbolic of purity and beauty, and so in their inclusion Ondaatje suggests to the reader that the era of his
grandparents was also one of purity and beauty. The description of nature thus adds to the thematic
development of the romanticisation of the past.
Dancing
The motif of dancing occurs most noticeably in the chapter entitled ‘Flaming Youth’, where there is “‘a
lovely flat rock in front of the bungalow where we danced to imported songs such as ‘Moonlit Bay’ or ‘A
Fine Romance’’” (46). Dancing helps to create the impression of the past as a place of magic, beauty and
wonder where reality was suspended. Even the idea of reaching perfection appears, in the line “for the
most part it was the tango that was perfected on that rock at Gasanawa” (46). This is significant because
it represents the continuing embellishment of Ondaatje’s family’s history and the world in which they lived
as her paints an idealized and romanticized impression of their past. The motif of dancing is also present
in the references to Isadora Duncan (33) and the radical dances that Doris and her friend practiced in
private. The references to Isadora Duncan’s expressionistic dancing style and the fact that the dance was
reported as being ‘a very beautiful dance’ (34) help to reinforce the sense of the magical and mythical that
runs through many of this chapters. Although dancing, too, has its unpleasant side effects when the girls
discover that the gold paint they used to paint themselves with has left them with a rash. Ondaatje also
makes the point that there is something special about native Sri Lankan dance when he notifies us on
p.40 of Charlie Chaplin’s presence in Colombo to study Kandyan Dance.
Heat
Partly as an attempt to give the reader a feel for Sri Lanka and partly as an attempt to differentiate Sri
Lanka from the markedly cold Canada from which he has journeyed, Ondaatje continually stresses the
heat of Ceylon. Frequent references to the ‘hot months of April and May’ (39), the ‘lowland heat’ (39) and
‘sweat’ (39) are examples of this. Interestingly this motif not only creates the impression of Sri Lanka as
somewhere very hot but it also further implies that Ondaatje does not in fact belong there as he is no
longer accustomed to this heat. This motif, then, perhaps underlines the ambiguous position that
Ondaatje occupies in his ‘homeland’ as both a local and a foreigner. He has obvious ties to the place but
we get the impression that he left too early and has been away too long to really reconnect with this
country. Perhaps this in turn implies that Ondaatje’s quest to better understand his identity is always
going to be to some extent a failure and this is may also be reflected in the fact that he can never quite
find the information that he is looking for regarding his parents and their life together. In some ways
Ondaatje is tantalizingly close to everything he wants to obtain: he is in the country of his birth and he has
access to a wealth of people who knew his parents and their stories of the past … and yet the
understanding of his parents that he craves along with the opportunity to ‘rediscover his roots’ and the
ability to gain a better understanding of his identity as Dutch-Sinhalese expatriate that he is in search of,
remain consistently beyond his grasp. Often we get the picture of Ondaatje sitting on the edge of a circle
of story tellers laughing along with the anecdotes but never able to fully, quite ‘get it.’ Heat is also used to
differentiate the lives of the ‘Gasanawa group’ from the rest of the Sinhalese population when they are
able to retreat to Nuwara Eliya where they need to light ‘log fires’ (40) because of the cold. The sense of
luxury and indulgence this creates clearly re-emphasises the impression that Ondaatjes’ parents moved
in a very elite social circle with lives far more fortunate than those lived by most of the rest of the island.
Weapons
Weapons also appear sporadically as a motif and we learn that ‘rifles were packed into trunks’ for the
journey to Nuwara Eliya (39) and that everyone ‘borrowed guns when going on vacation’ (40). The lack of
concern with which these weapons appear to have been used once again reinforces the sense of
irresponsibility (or perhaps carefree abandon) of Ceylon in the 1920’s and 30’s and this is emphasized by
the fact that Aunt Christie volunteered to have an ‘Apple shot off her head by a total stranger in the circus
profession’ (41) and the near fatal shooting of Jessic Cantley which is described as little more than a
‘casual tragedy’ (40).
Animals
Animals are also used by Ondaatje to create a sense of the exotic about Ceylon, for example we learn
that Wilfred Batholomuesz looked like a ‘wild boar’ and there are other references to ‘carts pulled by bulls’
(40), a rabid dog (40) and ‘snakes’ (41). At other times animals are used to reinforce the sense that the
Gasanawa group are an elite crowd as they attend the horse races on p.39.
Symbols:
Photograph of the “Irish adventure”
The image of the photograph “No one knew about this Irish adventure except an aunt who was sent a
photograph of him posing slyly in uniform” (32) sticks with the reader as it displays Mervyn’s irreverent
behaviour from his times while ‘attending university’. This is significant as it is the introduction to Mervyn
and his adventures.
Fish
The fish that Mervyn is instructed to go and buy (“Don’t forget the fish!” (35)) is symbolic of the authority in
Mervyn’s life that he must eventually deal with but chooses to avoid while he can. This exposes more of
his reckless personality and reveals how he is not only uncaring about the consequences of his actions
but also seemingly ignorant of them, an important development in his character.
Lalla’s Left Breast
In the ‘War Between Men and Women’ Lalla’s left breast can be seen as a symbol representing the
strength of women. While the oblivious man on the bus continues to fondle Lalla she “smiled to herself”
(42), knowing that “her left breast had been removed five years earlier” (43). Lalla, representing women in
this context, is seen to have a secret strength that she does not exert over the men in the society
‘A Fine Romance’
A good example of inter-textuality (where references to a second text enrich the experience of the first)
not only does this song give its name to the title of this collection of chapters, but it also aids in the
development of Doris Gratiaen’s character and her relationship with her husband. “‘A Fine Romance’ was
always my mother’s favourite song” (46), remarks Ondaatje which sounds romantic but a look at the lyrics
paints quite a different picture: “We should be like a couple of hot tomatoes/ but you’re as cold as
yesterday’s mashed potatoes” (46). The song is meant to be about romance, yet a sense of poignancy
and nostalgia is created when they realise that the song is about a love that has lost its spark. This not
only re-emphasises the fragile and temporary nature of love but also creates the impression that the
almost-magical world of life in the 20’s and 30’s was coming to an end. It’s position in the chapter
‘Flaming Youth’ which ends with the death of Francis de Saram (perhaps the most extreme embodiment
of the carelessness of the times) reinforces the sense that this mythical era is drawing to a close. Indeed
perhaps the marriage of Ondaatje’s parents can be taken as the best symbol of the ultimately doomed
innocence of this period in history as reality and responsibility could not be suspended forever and their
marriage, like the idealized and carefree past it represents, could not last forever.
Themes:
The Fragility/Instability of Marriage
As revealed through the motif of engagements, marriage is seemingly fleeting and of little value which
contrasts with the world of the reader where it is intended to be concrete and lifelong,. Many of Mervyn’s
engagements are brief, and the one that does turn into marriage is broken and patched up again in short
periods of time. Not only does this theme foreshadow the eventual failure of the marriage of Doris and
Mervyn, but it also says reveals something about the magical or semi-mythical times impression that
Ondaatje was trying to create of life in Ceylong in the 1920’s and 1930’s – there is a sense that, as he
says later, people ‘did not have to grow up’ until the 1930’s and so the marriages, love-making and
generally reckless behaviour of the characters that populate the stories posses a child-like naivete and
innocence that makes them seem attractive. This in turn creates a sense of poignancy at points in the
memoir as it becomes clear that, eventually, this innocence was lost and the world is perhaps a sadder
place for this.
The contrast between Francis de Saram and H– in ‘Flaming Youth’ also represents the temporary and
fleeting nature of love and relationships. Ondaatje writes, “While he crawled around on his hands and
knees, H– consoled Francis’ wife as well as he could “and took as much as he could get”” (44). The way
the characters are so cavalier with love and with marriage shows that it does not seem to be taken
seriously within that community. At the close of the chapter, upon the death of Francis, it is also noted
that “what seemed to follow was a rash of marriages” (47) which again suggests that the generation of
Ondaatje’s parents treated love with an element of negligence, and this may in turn foreshadow the
eventual disintegration of the marriage of Doris and Mervyn.
Post-Colonialism and the Contrast Between the East and West
In ‘The Courtship’ the West is glamorized by Ondaatje in his descriptions of Mervyn’s his university
experiences of “high living” (32) in comparison to the East, where he “had nothing to do” (34) and was
“bored and frantic” (35). The West’s increased sophistication seems to be alluring to Mervyn’s generation
perhaps because of the freedom it provides as the audience understands that he feels extremely
repressed while living with his parents in the East. The other notable mention of West is Isadora Duncan’s
influence on the dancing of Doris Gratiaen and Dorothy Clementi-Smith. There is no mention of any
Eastern dancers influencing the girls, and reading this text from a post-colonial perspective we can see
how the dominant cultural influences were colonial and that the ‘voice’ of ‘local’ or traditional influences
cannot be heard above the din of Western culture. In contrast in ‘Honeymoon’ the West and the East are
presented as equally troubled through the use of headlines outlining unfortunate events from both the
West (death of child/President, theft of dead bodies) and the East (monsoons, hunger strikes, fighting in
Manchuria), perhaps implying that, despite their perceived differences, these parts of the world have
more in common than we might initially think. It is important to notice that where the East is mentioned, it
is almost always with reference to Western figures of influence (e.g. Charlie Chaplin), and through this
Ondaatje may be suggesting that the West still has an element of control or power over the East because
of its influence.
This trend away from the West is continued in ‘Historical Relations’ where there is a clear preference for
Eastern values and Eastern people to the Westerners. Ondaatje writes, “There was a large social gap
between this circle and the Europeans and English who were never part of the Ceylonese community.
The English were seen as transients, snobs and racists, and were quite separate from those who had
intermarried” (41), and in doing so he promotes the Easterners in the community. This is significant
because it shows that the generation of Ondaatje’s grandparents was more interested in Eastern
principles (ones that were more community- and family- oriented) as opposed to the generation of
Ondaatje’s parents, who craved the free and idealistic West. The contrasting attitudes to the West may
represent something of the confusion of the Ceylonese themselves … having been colonized by many
different nations that have subsequently inter-married and married with the local Sinhalese and Tamil
population it is perhaps not surprising that it is no longer clear where their loyalties should lie. This may
perhaps be another feature used to make this group of people seem so unique.
Post-Modernism, intertextuality and the impossibility of obtaining objective truth
The idea that this text (and all texts) are constructions which can only give us a version of the truth is
reinforced in the chapter ‘April 11th 1932’ when the unnamed narrator begins, “I remember the wedding…”
(36) but continues to only talk about their trip to Kegalle and how scared they ended up being as a result
of the bishop’s driving. The fact that the narrator remains unnamed adds an air of unreliability to the piece
and the fact that we are not given any concrete details about the wedding itself suggests not only how
different people will give vastly differing accounts of the salient points of an event but also something of
the frustration that Ondaatje felt when trying to piece together the history of his parents’ past. The
presentation of the facts in the ‘Honeymoon’ chapter is given instead of any detail about the actual
honeymoon of Ondaatje’s parents. This is ironic because while the memoir is meant to be exploring the
relationships of the family, we are given only a list of synchronous but unrelated events. This perhaps
suggests the moments of fruitlessness in Ondaatje’s search for details about his parents’ past where he
couldn’t actually find out anything that he wanted and was instead confronted by a barrage of useless and
almost irrelevant facts . This sense that Ondaatje is unable to get to the truth he is seeking in turn
reinforces the sense of postmodernism that runs through the memoir, a feeling that is emphasized in
particular by the fact that the details we received about Wimbledon and pythons remain only rumours.
Romanticisation of the Past
‘Historical Relations’ is the first chapter where we really see the development of the world of Ondaatje’s
grandparents and their generation. Descriptions such as “They danced in large living rooms to the music
of a Bijou-Moutrie piano while the log fires crackled in every room” (40) and “on quiet evenings [they] read
books on the moonlit porch” (40), are clearly idealised. Notably his focus is solely on the wealthy
Ceylonese community of which his grandparents were a part and hence a sense of prosperity and
community pervade the work. His romanticisation of the past is his way of portraying the golden days of
both Ceylon and his grandparents. ‘Flaming Youth’ is also a key chapter in which Ondaatje romanticizes
the past. However, in putting forward the idea that everything was full of life and energy – “People’s
memories about Gasanawa, even today, are mythic” (46) – Ondaatje contrasts it with the end of the era
and the depression following with “The waste of youth. Burned purposelessness.” (47) This theme,
developed so strongly in the era of the grandparents, has continued into the next generation with stronger
passion and intensity only to be suddenly extinguished. The contrast between the mythic past and
depressing present may be used by Ondaatje to further romanticize the past as, like a burnt out candle,
there was a brilliance to it that we can no longer regain.
“The War Between Men and Women”
The conflict between men and women in the Ceylonese community is most evident in the chapter of the
same title. While other passengers on the bus look upon Lalla with a degree of disgust, she has very little
reaction and seems to take comfort in the fact that she knows more than the man realises. This strength
displayed in Lalla suggests a deeper, hidden strength in women everywhere another example of which
can be seen particularly in the character of Doris. Reading this text from a feminist perspective reveals a
considerable degree of strength, fortitude, resilience and common sense among the women that many of
the men lack, an insight perhaps afford to Ondaatje as a result of the break up of his parents’ marriage
and the time he spent living with his mother after the divorce.
Characters:
Mervyn Ondaatje
Mervyn and the exploits of his youth are the main focus of this section, where we are introduced to him,
his family, and his irreverent personality. His audacious nature is displayed right from the start of the
chapter, where his choice to live the secret high-life is only the start of his escapades. He comes across
as reckless, becoming “briefly engaged to a Russian countess” (32), joining the army fighting in Ireland
during a summer holiday and announcing after only “a few hours” that he “had become engaged to Kaye
Roseleap” (34). While these actions may be depicted by Onddatje at times as the exploits of a lovable
rogue and their apparent lack of malice may lend them a sort of naïve charm, it is clear that Mervyn’s
recklessness often borders on selfishness and this perhaps also foreshadows his later more destructive
behaviour and the effect this has on his relationship with Doris in the rest of the memoir. A clear example
of Mervyn’s reckless and selfish side can be see when only “two weeks after he arrived in Ceylon, [he]
came home one evening to announce that he was engaged to a Doris Gratiaen” (33) and was not even
planning to write to his old fiancée so instead has his sister do the deed for him. This sense of selfishness
is reinforced by the anecdote in ‘Flaming Youth’ where a diary entry from an unknown writer tells us that
one night Mervyn burst into someone’s bedroom telling him that there was a party in Gasanawa that he
had to get dressed for, as a result “Vernon went off to find his clothes and returned to find Mervyn asleep
in his bed. He couldn’t be moved. You see he just needed a place to sleep.” (45)
Mervyn’s impulsiveness is also demonstrated when he buys Doris the emerald engagement ring. Instead
of considering how he would pay for the ring, he simply buys it and charges it to his father’s account.
Mervyn’s “father refused to pay and my father [Mervyn] threatened to shoot himself.” (34) This idea of
wanting to commit suicide is brought up again when Doris breaks off the engagement.
Doris Gratiaen
While not featured as prominently as her husband, Doris Gratiaen is nonetheless highly significant.
Despite the fact that Mervyn seems so self-centered in his relationships, not even bothering to break off
old ones when he comes across the new, it is Doris herself who “wrote to break off [their] engagement”
(35) an action which suggests an both an element of control in their relationship and how strong-minded
Doris is, perhaps this once again foreshadows the fact that she will eventually leave Mervyn for good. In
addition, Doris’s attempt to imitate the modern and impressionist dance style of Isadora Duncan
reinforces the magical and mythical impression created of the times in which she was living although the
fact that the day after her performance she was “covered in a terrible red rash” may in turn suggest that a
price will ultimately have to be portrayed for the idyllic life that these characters currently appear to be
living.
Noel Gratiaen
He seems to be included in this chapter as a supporting figure of Mervyn; his exploits have the same
rashness and impulsiveness about them and he is one to go “one step further” (33). Ondaatje reinforces
the sense of wild and carefree nature of the times by suggesting that Mervyn’s impulsive and reckless
behaviour is actually commonplace at the time.
Philip Ondaatje
Philip is a figure opposite to that of Noel. His seriousness and his fury about Mervyn’s actions, which at
one point even “erupted” into argument with his son, serve to contrast with Mervyn’s character and
therefore throw Mervyn’s excesses into even sharper relief. Mervyn’s inability or unwillingness to follow
his parents’ guidance my also represent his character’s lack of respect for authority.
Lalla Gratiaen
Lalla is a woman who “blossomed” (41) especially after the death of her husband, and was known to
“persuade all those she met into chaos” (41). This description portrays her as a character with strength
and influence as well as one who is also exuberantly irreverent. After her encounter with the man on the
bus who groped her, Lalla “smiled to herself” (42) indicating her nonchalance and her confidence as she
does not appear to feel the need to react. Instead she enjoys with a secret satisfaction the fact that she
has ‘got one over’ on the man and the reader respects her for that, perhaps echoing Ondaatje’s own
subsequent closeness to her. Indeed, it is Lalla, Ondaatje’s maternal grandmother, who best sums up the
mood that Ondaatje creates of the 1920’s, saying the twenties were “so whimsical, so busy – that we
were always tired” (41). The grandparents lived extravagant lives in extravagant times which in turn led to
the extravagant lives of their children in times where the same luxuries could not be afforded, hence
leading to the tragedies of some of the central figures in Ondaatje’s life.
Francis de Saram
Francis is described in ‘Flaming Youth’ as the “first to drink himself into the grave” (44). He is included to
provide a foil to Mervyn’s character as Francis is more outlandish and over the top than even he, showing
how Mervyn is not the worst of the characters of his generation. Francis is a romanticized symbol of the
energy of the “flaming youth” of his generation; his light burned perhaps brightest of all, but at the same
time was quickly extinguished.
The Community
The characters presented throughout this section are numerous and are often not named individually.
Instead, In ‘Historical Relations’ Ondaatje chooses to talk about “the era of grandparents” (41) and by
delegating a single sentence or two to each character no character stands out as more important than the
others. Instead they come together as a group to suggest the ‘whimsical’ tone of the times and the sense
that a tightly knit community existed among the wealthy Ceylonese. However, the reader is bombarded
with a series of names, making the book more personal while at the same time created a sense of
randomness and disconnection. This is particularly evident in lists such as when “people like the van
Langenbergs, the Vernon Dickmans, the Henry de Mels and the Philip Ondaatjes were there” (40) or in
“They were all there. Piggford of the police, Paynter the painter, the Finnellis who were Baptist
missionaries” (41). The importance of surrounding yourself with people was very apparent in Nuwara
Eliya in the 1920s, and as such we see both why all the characters are so close to each other and this
irony in turn highlights in the distance that would later exist between Ondaatje’s mother and father.
Narrative Style
‘The Courtship’ is written in a third person narrative voice where Ondaatje retells stories from the youth of
his parents. We can already begin to see the limitations on the narrator’s knowledge in the line, “I am not
sure how long [Mervyn] had known my mother before the engagement” (33) and this foreshadows the
difficult that Ondaatje faced when trying to piece together information about his parents’ past and
reinforces the post-modern nature of the text as a reconstruction of the past rather than a record.
In contrast ‘April 11th 1932’ is told completely from the perspective of an unnamed character and his or
her memory of the wedding. This reinforces the fact that Ondaatje is writing this memoir in the present in
an attempt to reconstruct the past by gathering anecdotes from those around him and the sense that this
is a picture of the past pieced together from disparate sources of information is enhanced by the inclusion
of fragments from other texts, memories or anecdotes, for example the diary entry in ‘Flaming Youth’
which tells of Mervyn stealing Vernon’s bed for the night. The recounting of these memories also makes
the memoir more personal while reinforcing the potentially post-modern sense of unreliability that
pervades the text.
The story about a Bishop who is a terrible driver, driving a car full of terrified guests to a wedding at which
he is going to officiate after just having crashed his car is also a good example of Ondaatje’s use of
humour, which is present throughout the text. The playful feel that this creates helps reinforce the sense
of whimsicality of 1920’s / 30’s Ceylon and serves to cast some of Mervyn’s outrageous escapades in a
more flattering light. Overall the use of humour (also often noticeable in the punning or witty titles to each
chapter) creates a sense of fond indulgence towards these characters and the time in which they lived
which perhaps in turn reflects Ondaatje’s fondness for the characters that he is resurrecting and this
period of history that he was never able to experience.
The ‘Honeymoon’ chapter comprises of a list of events that were at the time very current. There is an
irony here in that the newspaper style feel of the headlines suggest a sense of objectivity while
simultaneously preventing the reader / Ondaatje from learning about the actual truth that he is interested
in, that is the details of his parents’ wedding and honeymoon.
There is a non-chronological structure to this section as we jump back and forth between Ondaatje’s
account of the relationship between his father and mother and his attempts to recreate the earlier ‘era of
the grandparents’ as well as the more recent story about Lalla on the bus. Most stories serve to develop
the sense of Mervyn’s character or the world in which he lived although some seem tangential, e.g. ‘April
11th 1932’ and ‘Honeymoon’. The fact that these sections do not directly explore the relationship between
Doris and Mervyn reinforces the sense we get that in his attempts to write this memoir Ondaatje was
confronted by a paucity of information and that as a result information had to be extracted from
haphazardly from various sources from all over the island. It also helps to reinforce the impression
created that this memoir is a ‘gesture’ rather than a factually faithful ‘portrait’ of the events that happened.
There is a broad pattern of alternation between longer chapters filled with many events and shorter
chapters in which only one story is examined in detail, perhaps reflecting the balance between providing
information and creating a ‘feel’ for the Ceylon in the 20’s and 30’s through the use of specific and
colourful anecdotes.
Another notable aspect of his narrative style is the level of precision and attention to detail that Ondaatje
provides about some of the most frivolous things, for example the fact that Francis de Saram was holding
a fish when he died (47). Ondaatje’s inclusion of precise but arbitrary and almost irrelevant details helps
to create the personal and anecdotal feel of the memoir, as if Ondaatje is on a personal journey of
discovery about a past that is specific to him and his family and as such it does not matter if a fact is
‘really important’ as long as it has some value to him. In addition, the arbitrary nature of some of the
details may also convey something of the unpredictability of memory reflecting the way in which we
sometimes remember things of negligible significance.
Relation of this Section to the Whole:
The opening chapters of the memoir describe Ondaatje’s reasons for writing the text and his experiences
upon first returning to Ceylon. This section, in contrast, begins to explore the history of his family and here
begins the unraveling of the past, hence the heavy emphasis on his father with some background on his
mother.
Chapters such as ‘Historical Relations’ introduce the reader to the times and events of his grandparents,
and in doing so effectively create an impression of the carefree and almost ‘mythical’ youth that his
parents would have experienced while chapters such as ‘The War Between Men and Women’ explore the
character of Lalla in greater detail. Lalla seems to be particularly significant for Ondaatje as she seems to
be the most iconic representation of the Ceylonese world of the 20’s and 30’s that he was trying to
recreate.
This section ends, however, with the death of Francis de Saram and the ‘rash of marriages’ that followed
which seems to be indicative of the end of this almost mythical period of time and perhaps foreshadows
the eventual divorce between Doris and Mervyn.
Running in the Family: Chapter Notes – A Fine Romance
The Babylon Stakes – Kegalle (i)
The Babylon Stakes (p.48 – 52)
 Horse-racing described as a major form of entertainment in Ceylon
 Betting and gambling were large parts of the people’s lives as much of their work and daily lives
revolved around it (i.e. his mother closed down her shop for a month during the horseracing season)
 Owning a horse was something that many people sought after (his grandmother owned a horse
called Dickman Delight)
 Betting and attending horse-races was a very social activity, young couples would attend the races
and bet large sums on horses then go out together to dance, drink and fall in love without a thought
towards the consequences then would proceed to drive drunkenly back to town, ending the night by
crashing their cars
Tropical Gossip (p.53 – 54)
 Reiterating the idea that marriages were not always considered serious unions as they were often
“rainbowed over” by love affairs
 Repeating the idea that his father’s generation was wild and free from the 1920’s until the second war
as “nobody really had to grow up” and so Ondaatje’s father’s generation spent their youths forming
“complex relationships”
 Suggests that the truth about his father’s generation’s love affairs is lost in history and exaggerated
through gossip and Ondaatje conveys his desperation at this point to find someone to tell him directly
what happened during this time without influences of gossip and rumours.
Kegalle (i) (p.55 – 60)
 Descriptions of Ondaatje’s paternal grandfather (Philip) who built the family home at ‘Rock Hill’ are
given. He is portrayed as a strict and aloof man who was often compared to his brother Aelian who
most people preferred due to his generosity and light-hearted manner. Both men were lawyers, but
Philip was more successful.
 Many Ondaatjes’ liked liquor, had diabetes and hot-tempers, this is a series of things that ‘run in the
family’
 Philip Ondaatje’s funeral at which there is a “loud argument”
 Mervyn Ondaatje returns to ‘Rock Hill’ and gave away and sold much of the land when he needed
money, he lived simply and remarried to a woman with whom he had children with
 His father struggled with a drinking problem, and would go months without drinking but would then
drink straight for 3-4 days without sleeping, eating or talking to anyone. His father’s unhappiness is
reflected in his change of the lyrics to “My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean” to be a song about alcohol
and liquor rather than about a girl
Motifs:
Nature
At times these are a symbol of the past and of Ondaatje’s connection with Sri Lanka, for example when
he says that the only thing that remained intact in his childhood garden was the “mangosteen tree, which
[he] practically lived in as a child during its season of fruit” which “was full and strong” (59). The nostalgia
here is significant and the fact that only this remains not only suggests the decline and deterioration of
Philip Ondaatje after his divorce but it also hints at the tenuousness of Ondaatje’s connection with his
past and the land of his birth. Another tree that remained in the home was the “kitul tree; which the
polecat used to love” (59), the tree and the polecat are perhaps a symbol of the exotic nature of
Ondaatje’s youth. This tree, linked with the more morose memories of his father’s alcoholic rages,
introduces a melancholy feel to the scene as we Ondaatje recounts his fathers last drunken years.
Animals
Horses appear as symbols of escapism when they are associated with racing and the socially elite circles
in which the Ondaatjes moved. The concern with horse racing also conveys the frivolous (or carefree)
nature of the times as “Racing concerned everyone” (49) and the government believed that by gambling
and betting it would supply more money for the economy. In fact “Even during the war the August races
were not to be postponed” (49), which shows how the world of the rich in Sri Lanka was pleasantly
insulated from real world affairs.
Alcohol
Alcohol is seen as a symbol of the “flaming youth”, their exuberance, their lack of consideration of
consequences and it is such another form of escapism, hence people drink to forget their sorrows when
they have lost at the races. Indeed, alcohol is mentioned fourteen times throughout the section
suggesting its importance to the people of the time. Ondaatje even states that “most Ondaatjes liked
liquor, sometimes to excess” but most were hidden drunks and did it in secret as it was frowned upon.
The most frequently named form of alcohol is Champagne which, with its connotations of exclusivity and
celebration, suggests not only the wealth and elite social status of the ‘Gasanawa group’ but also helps to
reinforce the impression that, for these people at least, Ceylon in the 1920’s and 30’s was a whirlwind of
social engagements and parties. It is possible that Ondaatje is also using the motif champagne to
celebrate this irresponsibility.
Themes:
The Fragility / Instability of Love and Marriage
During the section, ‘Flaming Youth’ the idea of a wasted youth is introduced and is carried on in Babylon
Stakes and Tropical Gossip. The idea of the fleeting, spontaneous and transient nature of relationships is
explored as it states: “They could have almost drowned or fallen in love […] during any one of those
evenings” (52). It is also stated that “love affairs rainbowed over marriages and lasted forever - so it often
seemed that marriage was the greater infidelity” (53). The idea that a love affair is deemed a truer form of
love than a marriage shows the limited worth and value placed on marriage and the idea of matrimony.
“Nothing is said of the closeness between two people: how they grew in the shade of each other’s
presence” (54), this also reflects the idea that affairs and spontaneous love were more common than the
idea of a marriage with equal affection.
Post-Colonialism and the Contrast Between the East and West
In this section, the influences of the West are shown as the grandfather, Philip, attempts to Westernize
his family. He is described as being a very strong-willed man who had strict guidelines for his family. He
“had a weakness for pretending to be ‘English’ and, in his starched collars and grey suits, was determined
in his customs” (56) and also “would visit England, buy crystal, learn the latest dances” (56) and this
shows how ‘Bampa’ idolised Western culture and is therefore, in some ways, a symbol of colonialism as
he attempts to enforce obedience to an alien set of rules among his family. The idea that Philip Ondaatje
oppressed his family is reinforced once he dies when the adults revert back to being almost childish as
his “mother and Uncle Aelian retired in a fit of giggles” and his “grandmother got into a loud argument”.
The Romanticisation of the Past
Ondaatje creates the impression of the idyllic lifestyle of the ‘Gasanawa group’ whose lives seemed to
revolve around the relaxed routine of swimming, breakfasting, sleeping till noon, attending the races,
dining and then repeating the whole again. The differences in the young and the adults are used to
accentuate this sense of an idyllic past. While the young are described with an air of irresponsibility and
chaotic joyfulness, the grandfather is described as being tough and strict and inspiring terror in his family.
The uncle, Aelian was also described as being a “very generous man” who helped his neighbors and
friends when they needed it and the celebration of both the young and the generous uncle in contrast to
the strictness of Philip Ondaatje helps to cast a generation that could have been viewed as selfish and
irresponsible into an even more flattering light.
Characters:
Lalla Gratiaen
Lalla is remembered for her over-extravagant dress and her intensity: “one hand on her hip, one hand on
her hat, and a blue jacaranda blossom pinned to the shoulder ... looking off into the drama of the onehundred-yard stretch with the intensity of one preparing for the coming of the Magi” (p.49). She owned a
horse named ‘Dickman Delight’ and, in a typically comic twist, she failed to bet on her horse the only time
that it actually one due to a misprint on a telegram that read “Rain over Columbo” rather than “Raid over
Columbo” (50). Overall Lalla is described using irony and humor in this section and continues to display a
lack of regard for or awareness of other people, for example by wearing a large hat “with no consideration
for anyone behind her” (49).
Philip Ondaatje
This chapter focuses mainly on Michael’s paternal grandfather Philip who “built the family home, ‘Rock
Hill” (55) using his great wealth. He is spends so much time in Rock Hill that he “ignored everybody in
Kegalle social circles” and is characterized by others as a “snob” due to his wealth. However he is
considered a “very loving man” in the family, being the protector, “good father” and “patriarch”. In this
sense he is a very colonial figure and his love is very much based on “constant tradition” and keeping the
family in line with it. This can be seen in the “strict meals” that Michael’s brother “remembers painfully”
(56). It is possibly because of his strictness that the “whole family lived in terror of him” and his wife “could
not blossom till after his death”, which can perhaps again be interpreted in a post-colonial light as it is only
once the colonizing forces have gone that the colonized can really fully express themselves and enjoy
their freedom. Hence, perhaps the fact that, at his funeral, his son is “nowhere in sight”, Doris Gratien and
great uncle spent the time giggling under a tree (57).
Mervyn Ondaatje
Mervyn returns to Rock Hill alone and, after losing several jobs, eventually “took up farming” (58). A stark
difference can be seen between his way of living when he was young and his life after the divorce when
he lived “quite simply” having abandoned many of his earlier friends. He marries again but he is plagued
with an alcohol addiction that threatens his relationship; he would “threaten to kill her” when she “had
hidden a bottle” (58). It becomes clear that Mervyn slowly deteriorates after his days of carefree living and
becomes irreversibly controlled by alcohol and in this way perhaps Mervyn Ondaatje is a symbol that also
represents the decline of the whimsically vibrant, exuberant and innocent life of Ceylon in the 1920’s and
30’s. Part of what makes this period of time so attractive is that it was a honeymoon period into which
reality, for the time being at least, was unable to intrude. The inability for the honeymoon to continue
forever is echoed in Philip Ondaatje’s gradual descent into alcoholism.
Noel Gratiaen
Although mentioned only briefly in the ‘Tropical Gossip’ chapter, Noel’s return as QC to ‘argue for the
lives of friends from his youth who had tried to overthrow the government.’ (53) is another indication that
the idyllic world of the 1920’s and 1930’s could not last forever … and indeed the allusion to the
attempted revolution of 1971 implies that an unpleasant future was awaiting those who survived the
excesses of the 30’s.
Narrative style:
This section is more structured than the first part of ‘A Fine Romance’ and there is less insertion of
seemingly random facts, although the long run-on sentences in ‘The Babylon Stakes’ do create a sense
of effusive excitement about the past. The lack of dialogue throughout the section shows a very detached
recount that may seem third hand and contain the factual qualities of history books. However, having
already been alerted to the constructed nature of the text, the reader may see this as an opportunity for
bias and a selective choice of events.
Quotations are often used as sub-titles that encapsulate the feel of the chapter, for example the sub-title
for The Babylon Stakes reads “The Wall Street crash had a terrible effect...” because it interfered with
horse racing. It reflects the dominance of horse racing in people’s lives and shows the degree to which
they were insulated from the problems of the rest of the world.
The chapter “Tropical Gossip” is narrated with more uncertainty and is a good example of Post-Modern
self-awareness as there is a reflective feel as the narrator questions the values of rumour and truth.
Ondaatje also continues his use of humour throughout this section, most noticeably perhaps in the subtitle to this chapter which depicts a couple being discovered in the throes of an affair.
Relation of this Section to the Whole:
Ondaatje continues to explore the idea that history is a reconstruction of the past rather than a record.
What is important to the characters in the memoir, i.e. whether horses won or lost or to whom they
belong, is not intrinsically important. However, the focus on these details implies their importance to the
people narrating this history of the Ondaatje family and Ceylon in the inter-war years. At times, e.g. at the
end of ‘Tropical Gossip’, we see Ondaatje become aware of the unreliability of his sources of information
and this sense of self awareness is another key post-modern trait of the text.
The idea of the “flaming youth” also continues with elaborate details on the frivolity of the roaring twenties
in Ceylon and a life without regard for consequences.
Running in the Family: Chapter Notes – Don’t Talk to me About Matisse, Part 1
Tabula Asiae – Sweet Like a Crow
Tabula Asiae (p. 63 – 64)
 The narrator talks about the “false maps” on his brother’s wall in Toronto, these maps are old portraits
of Ceylon and the word “portrait” suggests the maps are artistic representations and not records as
they were created by “sightings, glances from trading vessels, the theories of sextant”
 At the end of the chapter the narrator shifts his focus from the island of Ceylon to his family’s history
and the arrival of his first ancestor in Ceylon, describing how his family name was given to this
ancestor as a reward for curing a king’s daughter.
St. Thomas’ Church (p. 65 – 68)
 Ondaatje travels to a local church to further investigate his family history where he discovers the
Ondaatje name is engraved on the church’s floor.
 Ondaatje briefly introduces the four eccentric Ondaatje brothers of the late 1800s Simon, William,
Matthew and Philip who could not talk to each other without arguing thus continuing this chronicle of a
quirky family and their history
Monsoon Notebook (i) (p. 69 – 71)
 This is a notebook style series of seemingly random entries recording Ondaatjes actions, thoughts
and reflections such as his “obsessional sarong buying”
 The setting of the notebook in the monsoon season where rainstorms that flood streets for an hour
and suddenly evaporate and where walking for five seconds in the rain would leave you thoroughly
soaked, gives this section a disjointed but quintessentially exotic, Sri Lankan feel.
Tongue (p. 72 – 75)
 Ondaatje walks along the beach with a group of children who left Canada when they come across a
body of a kabaragoya which is akind of sub-aquatic monitor that looks like a crocodile and can kill you
with a whip from his tail.
 This prompts the recollection of the anecdote about Ondaatje’s Uncle Noel who was forced to eat
thalagoya tongue even though he got very sick and almost died. Not only does this give us an insight
into the traditions and myths of Ceylon but also a further insight into the character of Lalla who
embraced these practices as it was she who forced her son Noel to eat the tongue.
Sweet Like a Crow (p. 76 – 77)
 This poem is essentially a list of different unpleasant aural images that may be intended (given the
initial quotation which describes Sinhalese music as the worst in the world) to describe Ceylonese
music, speech, culture or even the island itself.
 The poem concludes, however, on the melodic noise of ankle bracelets heard in sleep which
suggests that perhaps, despite its unusual sound (unusual at least from the perspective of the
Western colonial powers), there is something charming and graceful about Ceylonese music and
perhaps therefore, Ceylon in general.
Motifs:
Rumours
In ‘Tabula Asiae’ the author once again discusses rumors and myths however this time we see a parallel
between the history of Ceylon constructed by the European colonisers and Ondaatje’s own attempt to
reconstruct the history of his family. The rumors create a sense of mysteriousness around Ceylon in lines
such as “mythic shapes” and “the shapes differ so much they seem to be translations”
Marriages
Marriages briefly reappear as a motif in the ‘St. Thomas Church’ chapter where the number of marriages
appears to reflect the complexity of the search for reliable information about the past. The shocking age
of Philip Ondaatje’s first wife who married at 15 and died at 25 suggests a time very different to our own
where our views of right and wrong may not have applied. This perhaps further reinforces how difficult it
will be to obtain an accurate picture of the history of this country or family when our cultural views colour
and shape even the simplest information that we learn about the past.
Water Imagery
The ‘Monsoon Notebook (i) chapter is rich with water imagery including “wet sand”, the “curl of a wave”,
the “rainstorms that flood”, the “sweat falls [that] in the path”, the “steam after the rains”, the “gleaming
with underwater phosphorus” and the “thunderstorm we walked through” that left them “thoroughly
soaked.” This imagery seems to be used to emphasise the exotic power of the rain in Ceylon and hence
its difference to the rain in Canada.
Sensory imagery
In ‘Monsoon Notebook’ there is also a succession of rich sensory images such as the “eighteen ways of
describing the smell of a durian” and as a result Ondaatje decides to “smell things for the whole day, it
was so rich I had to select senses” which once again reinforces the exotic intensity of Sri Lanka.
Mythology
“mythic shapes,” “cherubs,” “slipper-footed elephants,” “conch,” “satyrs,” These symbols give the reader
an image of Classical grandeur. Especially because these images are drawn on the sides of the maps
and around the drawing of the island, it seems as though these are the inhabitants of Ceylon and as such
they impart a sense of exotic mysticism to the island.
Symbols:
Topography and Map Making (Cartography)
Topography is especially evident in Tabula Asiae. Ceylon is introduced as an ever changing, wondrous
island. Diction such as “translations,” (which suggests that it can be interpreted in another way) “theories,”
(which suggests that it is only a hypothesis) and “imagined” (which suggests that it has no basis in fact)
shows the inability of the European travelers to grasp Ceylon, implying that it is a beautiful, unattainable
thing. On page 64, Ondaatje writes that the maps reveal “rumours” of topography. These rumors referring
to “the routes for invasion and trade.” At the end of the section Ceylon is directly referred to as a “rumor”
on the map again adding to the mysteriousness of the island.
Sarongs
The line “fifteen-cent sandals and the obsessional sarong buying” echoes Kegalle (i) (56), where
Michael’s grandfather “became a real part o the landscape around him” “when dressed in sarong and
vest”, as opposed to his typically English clothes. It seems as though his obsessional sarong buying also
makes him one with the land as he can “witness everything” and be a part of so many of these wild
experiences.
The engraved name
In ‘St. Thomas Church’ the church, although described as “a pale dirty blue” that was “once beautiful” has
nonetheless “stood here for over three hundred years, in the palm of monsoons, through seasonal
droughts and invasions from other countries.” This is perhaps a metaphor for the author’s family legacy.
Ondaatje’s emotional exclamation upon seeing his family name engraved on the floor reveals the
importance of this search for personal identity to Ondaatje, an idea accentuated by the poetic hyperbole
when Ondaatje says that seeing the stone “in some strange way removes vanity, eliminates the personal.
It makes your own story a lyric.” Here we can again see the romanticisation of the past.
Thalagoya tongue
The thalagoya ‘has a rasping tongue that ‘catches’ and hooks objects’ ‘if a child is given a thalagoya
tongue to eat he will become brilliantly articulate, will always speak beautifully and in his speech be able
to ‘catch’ and collect wonderful, humorous information.” “the tongue should be sliced off and eaten as
soon as possible after the animal dies.’ These are traditional, local practices. The fact that eating it makes
you very sick shows the western colonial ideas that Asia was a wild place of savages that needed to be
tamed and modernized. It also shows Lalla’s determination to adhere to the local cultural practices as she
forces here son, Noel, to eat one.
The crow
The crow in ‘Sweet like a Crow’ appears to be a symbol for Sri Lanka or at least Sri Lankan music (and
culture). It appears unattractive, unusual, different and coarse at first but this difference is the source of its
beauty and so Ondaatje may be trying to imply that Sri Lanka similarly repays the visitor who is willing to
forget their original preconceptions of what is melodic, or beautiful, or artistic, or normal and embrace the
cultural standards and mores of this new land. Hence, perhaps, the juxtaposition of the title.
Themes:
Post-Colonialism and the Contrast Between the East and West
Throughout ‘Tabula Asiae’ Sri Lanka is associated with richly fantastical imagery, for example it is
described on the map as having a “blue-combed ocean busy with dolphin and sea-horse, cherub and
compass” or “naive mountains, drawings of cassowary and boar who leap without perspective across
imagined ‘desertum’ and plain.” The mythical imagery of “slipper footed elephants”, the “white queen” and
the “Moorish king” paints a picture of Ceylon as some kind of exotic paradise … and while there are
elements of truth in this they are also mixed up with “rumors of topography” and “routes for invasion and
trade” which suggests the ultimately exploitative intentions of the Western map makers, such as the
Portugese, the Dutch and the English who eventually colonized the island. Ondaatje may also be
mocking the superficial and exaggeratedly stereotypical ideas of the colonizers.
Ceylon is also frequently associated with feminine imagery. It is described as being “a pendant off the ear
of India” and the “wife of many marriages, courted by invaders who stepped ashore and claimed
everything with the power of their sword of bible or language” which suggests a submissive and inferior
role in its relationship with these foreign powers. In this way the post-colonial theme overlaps with some
of the points about gender roles that have been made elsewhere. There is also mimicry implied in the line
“this pendant, once its shape stood still, became a mirror. It pretended to reflect each European power till
newer ships arrived and spilled their nationalities” which ambiguously suggests both a submission to the
colonizing powers in the act of ‘mimicry’ but also that the country does retain a sense of hidden power at
times which is hinted at when in the word “pretended.”
The title of the chapter, ‘Tabula Asiae,’ could also be a reference to the board game Tabula which is very
similar to modern backgammon. Tentatively it might be argued that the movement of the pieces may echo
how the possession of Sri Lanka went back and forth between the different European powers and the
dice rolls may reflect the way in which Sri Lankans didn’t have control over their own country. Their fate
was controlled by chance and luck and the vicissitudes of fate.
The poem ‘Sweet Like a Crow’ can also be read from a post-colonial perspective. The initial quotation
from Paul Bowles which says that ‘The Sinhalese are beyond a doubt one of the least musical people in
the world. It would be quite impossible to have less sense of pitch, line, or rhythm.’ shows how Western
critics fail to see the beauty in Ceylonese music. However, from a perspective other than the Western
there may be something charming about the discordant nature of Ceylonese music (perhaps like the
strident voice of a child) and this is reflected in the title of the poem as in general, crows are not
considered to have melodious voices but here, after continued exposure, they are described as sweet.
The Search for Personal Identity
Interestingly Ondaatje does take advantage of the ‘Tabula Asiae’ chapter to explore the original identity of
the Ceylonese people and the closest he comes is hinting at the inextricably intertwined nature of the
Ceylonese and the invades when he states that some of these colonizers stayed and were rewarded with
land, wives and new titles. This suggests that Ondaatje does not know the true nature of the Ceylonese
identity and as a result we sense that neither Ceylon nor Ondaatje really know who they are. In the end
even his family name is only a “parody of the ruling language.” In a sense both are mirrors, reflecting the
different influences that have shaped them but with no content of their own.
Post-Modernism, intertextuality and the impossibility of obtaining objective truth
The “sightings” and “glances” that were used to construct the maps on Ondaatje’s brother’s wall in
‘Tabula Asiae’ make it clear that these maps are something subjective and therefore unreliable. This is
reinforced when Ondaatje says the shapes of the maps “differ so much they seem to be translations”
which creates the idea that the explorers who created these maps never quite managed to obtain a clear
image of Ceylon. Instead of recording the truth, these explorers created in Ceylon the image of what they
expected of an exotic ‘Spice Island’, we can see this echoed in the chapter title ‘Tabula Asiae’ with it’s
implication that Sri Lanka (and Asia in general) was a blank slate (or blank text) that the Europeans could
write on as they wished and in so doing they created the perfect (although misleading) image of a wild
and exotic paradise. We can also see this idea when Ondaatje describes Ceylon as a ‘mirror’ reflecting
what each subsequent colonial power wanted to see there. Ondaatje eventually admits that these
translations did in the end “grow from mythic shapes into eventual accuracy,” however the fact that we
can see Ondaatje echoing the actions of the early explorers in his creation of an almost ‘mythical’ picture
of Ceylon in the 1920’s & 30’s perhaps just suggests that the subject of the mythologizing has changed
while the act itself remains the same: we are still unable to get to the truth, although it is a different truth
that we are now unable to access.
In ‘Tabula Asiae’ the Post-colonial and Post-modern themes that run throughout the memoir are clearly
overlapping: the presumption that Sri Lanka was a ‘blank slate’ reveals the arrogance of the European
colonizers but the idea that a country, a history, a people are a ‘text’ that can be written in a variety of
ways each of which might reveal a different kind of truth is clearly a post-modern ideal. Similarly the
changing names of Ceylon (Serendip, Ratnapida, Taprobane, Zeloan, Zeilan, Seyllan, Ceilon, Sri Lanka)
shows that there is nothing special in what a country is called. The country could be called by any name
but would still be the same and so the name, ultimately, tells us nothing abut the country reflecting the
fundamental post-modern idea of the unreliability of language.
In addition, Ondaatje uses documents from the past combined with details that he couldn’t have found in
those documents which makes it clear that at least part of the story is invented / reconstructed …
reinforcing the post-modern idea that this text is a creation of the author, that it is just one kind of view on
the world and that there is nothing special or privileged about this view and another one could be equally
valid.
Romanticisation of the Past
In ‘Tabula Asiae’ the different names of Ceylon, “Serendip, Ratnapida, Taprobane, Zeloan, Zeilan,
Seyllan, Ceilon, and [finally] Ceylon” contribute to the mythical or magical mood of the memoir and his
sense of the romantic is reinforced by the appearance of cherubs and satyrs on the maps. Again we can
draw a parallel between the way in which the colonizers romanticised Ceylon and the way in which
Ondaatje is romanticizing his family’s own past. Perhaps this reflects the way in which Ondaatje has
decided to create an inaccurate but alluring image of Ceylon in the 1920’s and 1930’s in an attempt to
capture some of the magic implied in the ancient, mythical allure of Ceylon.
Narrative Style
The most interesting and noticeable use of a distinct narrative style is in ‘Monsoon Notebook’, which is
written in a disjointed and almost random fashion. The effect suggests that Ondaatje has recorded bits
and pieces of information in his own notebook, hence the seemingly inexplicable juxtaposition of “reading
torn 100 year old newspaper clippings” and “watched leopards”. This hint at the process through which
Ondaatje has constructed the memoir is an obviously postmodern element of the text and the fact that we
are given an insight into the initial (selective) process of taking notes and the (implied but again selective)
secondary process of deciding which notes to expand on and include in the final memoir once again
reinforces the constructed nature of this text.
The poetic style of ‘Sweet Like a Crow’ is representative of the disjointed structure of the majority of
Ondaatje’s poems in this memoir. There is no regular rhyme scheme or regular rhythm pattern and this
may be Ondaatje’s challenge to the dominant Western conception of what poetry is supposed to look like.
From a post-colonial perspective Ondaatje’s avoidance of traditional poetic structures may represent an
intentional challenge to the cultural dominance of Western art forms and an attempt to reassert the value
of traditional, non-Western art forms.
Ondaatje often writes in first person and yet hardly mentions himself at times. This perhaps suggests a
detachment or distance between the author and his experiences possibly implying his inability to fully
reconnect with his Ceylonese heritage. Alternatively it may reflect the post-modern idea that although the
text seems like a factual description of what is going on it is inevitably (even if only subtly) a description
from the perspective of somebody and so therefore the illusion of objectivity is revealed for what it is: little
more than a subjective account pretending to have more universal validity than it actually does. Post
modernists might point out that we can never have a truly valid, objective and neutral account of the world
as the world always has to be seen from someone’s perspective and this will always, unavoidably colour
that view and make it unreliable.
Relation of this Section to the Whole
This section begins by reinforcing the post-colonial feel that has been established throughout the memoir
so far but eventually it focuses more on the attempts by Ondaatje to re-construct this history of his family.
As such the emphasis in these chapter is more on Ondaatje’s personal journey rather than what he finds
out about his past. Revelations about the relationship between Mervyn and Doris are put on hold which
creates a form of tension as the reader knows that the couple divorce but we are unsure why and
Ondaatje may have structured his novel to switch back to the present at this point so that he can delay
the revelation of details of the break up for as long as possible.
Additionally this section continues to romanticize the past and draws parallels between the colonial
romanticisaton of the blank slate of ‘Tabula Asiae’ and Ondaatje’s romanticisation of his family history and
life in Ceylon in the 1920’s and 30’s.
Running in the Family: Chapter Notes – Don’t Talk to me About Matisse, Part 2
Karapothas – Kegalle (ii)
The Karapothas (78-86)
 The chapter begins with quotations from Edward Lear, D.H. Lawrence, and Leonard Woolf, all of
whom are English and all of whom show little patience with Ceylon. Lawrence describes Ceylon as an
“experience-but heavens, not a permanence” while Leonard Woolf claims “all jungles are evil.”
Ondaatje also recounts the tale of how Lawrence threw his watch into the lake in a fit of temper when
it refused to work in the heat
 The “Karapothas” are beetles with white spots on them - Ondaatje’s niece calls foreigners this
because like the beetles, they “never grew ancient here,” but just admired the landscape, disliked the
natives, and left. [colonialism]
 Ondaatje refers to Ceylon as “a paradise to be sacked” and indeed this the chapter where he takes
his most obvious post-colonial stance, for example in lines like “Every conceivable thing was collected
and shipped back to Europe”
 This is contrasted with the descriptions of the island’s ‘intricate arts and customs’ and the passage
exploring the beauty of the local Sinhalese alphabet.
High Flowers(87-89)
 This poem is about men collecting toddy (an alcoholic beverage taken from coconut palms) from the
trees while the women work below in the shadows of their houses. It is a scene of village life that
seems to romanticize the idyllic simplicity of life in the past.
 It also appears to celebrate the subtlety and quiet gentility of life in Ceylon
To Colombo (90-91)
 This poem describes the scenery as Ondaatje and his family journey back from Sigiriya, an ancient
fortress with pictures of beautiful women and poems written about their beauty painted on to the
walls, to Colombo
 The poem is extremely descriptive but irregularly structured which may be a challenge to the Western
tradition of writing tightly structured poems but it also creates the impression of a stream of
consciousness as Ondaatje’s relates the sights and thoughts he is experience as these flit through his
mind which in turn suggests something of the rich vibrancy and chaotic unpredictability of Ceylon.
 There is much natural and light imagery that evokes a sense of Ceylon’s beautiful simplicity
Women Like You (92-94)
 This poem describes the beautiful women who are carved into the rock at Sigirya and the responses
of some of the men who came to the rock to write poems to these women.
 The fact that the original poems were written in the 5th Century but have been preserved and can still
influence Ondaatje today reinforces the sense of a connection with the past that is the focus for the
novel and perhaps also the inspiration for the title ‘Running in the Family’ where family would be
broadened out to suggest a larger connection between the individual and the culture that they come
from.
The Cinnamon Peeler’s Wife (95-97)
 In the first part of the poem, the persona talks about wanting to leave a mark – his mark – on his wife.
He imagines the fact that he is a cinnamon peeler and his wife will carry the smell of his hands even
when he is not around her.
 The second part of the poem, as indicated by the break in the poem, reveals the fact that the
persona’s wife also wants him to leave a mark on her, as seen with her desire to let him touch her –
to let his smell linger on her body.
Kegalle (ii) (98-101)


The first section of this chapter talks about incidents in Ondaatje’s childhood where snakes would
sneak into his family home in Rock Hill and frighten everyone. His father and his stepmother would
then solve the issue by blasting the snakes into pieces.
The second part of the chapter talks about the “last incident at Rock Hill” that took place in the time of
the Insurgence. It mentions the young rebels that were against the government going around the
Kegalle, ransacking people’s home for food and weapons. They arrived at Rock Hill and asked for
weapons, but respected the house due to their respect for Ondaatje’s father. The tale ends with the
rebels deciding to play a game of cricket with Susan all afternoon.
Motifs, Symbols & Imagery:
Personal Identity
The concept of identity has come up a few times throughout this section. This is initially apparent with the
Cinnamon Peeler, where the man desires to give his wife his smell / an identity, but was reluctant to do
so. Her subsequent realization that without the smell she does not belong to anyone / that she has no
identity perhaps echoes Ondaatje’s feelings that without a real understanding of his past or his history he
doesn’t really know where he ‘belongs’ or who he is.
The smell of the Cinnamon Peeler may also symbolize the identity of Ceylon itself. The native cultures
have been “disguised… over smoking tar” and “buried… in saffron”, which suggests the different cultures
of the colonizers that came and went (96) and have attempted to make Ceylon into something else,
something in their own image. However, the diction ‘buried’ and ‘disguised’ suggests that these features
of Ceylon were permanent and remained present no matter how much the colonizers tried to hide them.
In this case the desire of the Cinnamon Peeler’s wife to have an identity, to have a smell, a scent, reflects
the Ceylonese desire to have something that distinguishes them for who they are.
This idea is perhaps accentuated in the chapter Kegalle (ii), where the insurgency by the young rebels
can also be seen as a call for identity. The people in Ceylon are finally having a say in who and what
governs them, which shows that they are creating an identity for themselves.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a recurring motif suggestive of the romanticization of Ceylon. In the chapter ‘The
Karapothas’, readers learn about the richness of natural resources and spices available in Ceylon, which
is described as floating in “a perfumed sea”. It is the cinnamon and exotic spices found in Ceylon that
makes the place so attractive to the Western foreigners who wish to rob Ceylon of all its rich natural
resources. The story about captains spilling cinnamon on the decks of their ships and asking their
passengers to ‘smell Ceylon’ is also a clear indication that the idea of Ceylon as an exotic spice island is
really myth created by the Europeans who wished to see in the country all the sense of the mysterious
East that they wanted to believe it represents.
Karapothas
Literally, these are ‘beetles with white spots’ but, more importantly, Ondaatje’s niece uses this term to
refer to the foreigners who ‘never [grew] ancient’ in Ceylon. Beetles are often seen as flying pests, some
even damage crops, and so by relating the foreigners to the karapothas, Ondaatje is suggesting that the
foreigners are pests and, in the same way that beetles destroy crops, foreigners use up all the resources
of Ceylon for their own needs and destroy the fruits of the local people.
Poisons
The poisons described in Karapothas give Ceylon a mystical sense. They suggest that Ceylon is more
lethal than it looks and that the colonialists have underestimated it. Normally poison connotes something
deadly and hidden, which may suggest that the complex culture, the people, the knowledge of local
Ceylon is very much like poison: hidden and powerful.
Knives
Knives appear in the journey ‘To Colombo’ and ‘High Flowers’ where they suggest the primitive lifestyle of
the villages of Ceylon. The image of a knife is also contrasted with the bullets and the gunfire, which
suggests the technological under-development of Sri Lanka … or perhaps it’s more honest simplicity.
Indeed, Ondaatje seems to celebrate this idea by emphasizing the majestic movements of the knife and
perhaps, he is trying to say that the colonialists are cruel and unrefined with their easy use if gunfire and
that they lack the grace and elegance and honesty that the closer contact of a knife would bring. The fact
that the knife was passed down through the generations also suggests the legacy behind the culture: it is
a culture where the son inherits from the father and this creates a sense of a communal society and, once
again, the idea that things run in families. As a result, it is only by understanding your past / your parents
that you can understand yourself.
Matisse
Paintings are usually viewed as a form of high art, especially in Western culture where they are symbolic
of the ‘ civilized’ manners of the foreigners. Yet, painters like “Matisse” and the painting of the “ nude
women” are contrasted with the gunfire white-washing the primitive mud-huts in Ceylon. In Lakdasa’s
poem, painters are used as an ironic tool to show that even though the English believe that they come
from a more refined culture (often believing that their mission was to bring civilization to the rest of the
world) they are actually savages. The image of the nude woman behind a sheet of blood may also serve
to characterize the lust (both sexual and for blood, given the crimson sheet on which she lies) driving the
colonialists.
The Sinhalese Alphabet
During the insurgency in 1971, there were “ hundreds of poems written on walls, ceilings and in hidden
corners of the campus”. The writing on the walls is used to symbolize the underground expression of
ideas and the hidden attempt to preserve a culture. This echoes the sense of beauty, the roots and sense
of personal identity, that remain hidden from the colonialists. Lakdasa’s poem is a good representation of
this underground Ceylonese individuality where he expresses his disdain towards the colonialists.
Themes:
Post-colonialism and East vs. West
This is Ondaatje’s most obviously post-colonial chapter and there appears to be a clear criticism of the
exploitative attitude of the early colonisers. Diction such as ‘sacked’ implies that the country was callously
looted and pillaged while the description of these foreigners as “Karapothas” (beetles that “never grew
ancient here,” but just admired the landscape, disliked the natives, and left) suggests a superficiality and
fickleness to these invaders, perhaps even hinting at a weaknesses … as if they were unable to
appreciate the chaotic vibrancy of life in Ceylon. Ondaatje emphasizes this in the beginning of the poem
‘High Flowers’ in the line ‘The woman my ancestors ignored sits at the doorway chopping coconut
cleaning rice,’ where the tone suggests that these ancestors failed to realize the value or beauty of this
woman, or women like this.
This sense of a critical attitude towards the colonial powers is established from the very start of the
chapter by the opening quotations. Lear’s claim that the “brown people of this island” are “odiously
inquisitive and bothery-idiotic” suggests that the locals are primitive, limited and inferior in their
knowledge. However, at the same time, Lear also claims that are roads are “intensely picturesque”. This
contrast parallels with how colonialists view Ceylon at the time as “a paradise to be sacked”. They are
there merely for the resources, not to appreciate the indigenous people and their culture.
In the second quotation, Lawrence claims that Ceylon is an experience--but heavens not a permanence”.
This highlights the egotistic views of colonialists as “ experience” suggests a momentary stay at Ceylon,
presumably while Ceylon is being stripped from all its natural wonders and its resources. Lawrence also
claims that all the colonies are only “negations of what [colonialists] stand for”. By grouping Toarmina,
Ceylon, Africa and America together, Lawrence effectively separates the colonialists and the colonies
even though individual colonies have individual cultures and beliefs that they stand for, which ultimately
undermines the individuality of all the different colonies. Interestingly, D.H. Lawrence writes that these
countries like Taormina, Ceylon, etc are the ‘negation of what we stand for’ which suggests the postcolonial concept of the importance of ‘the other’ and the idea that we only come to know ourselves
through comparison with other things. This perhaps explains the dreadful fascination that Europeans felt
towards supposedly ‘savage’ countries like Sri Lanka – they were perhaps repulsed and terrified by the
strangeness they discovered but at the same time they were also attracted to these differences because
the contrast gave them a clearer understanding of what they were.
In the third quotation, Woolf claims that “: All Jungles are evil” yet, the following chapters are dedicated to
exploring the wonders of Ceylon: its language, culture and even its poisons which directly contrasts with
the attitude of the colonialists. In High Flowers, To Colombo, and Women like You, Ondaatje further
emphasizes the short-sightedly dismissive attitude of the colonial powers by celebrating the simple,
pastoral life of people in Ceylon.
Ondaatje writes about the Sinhalese alphabet, and how “The only freedom writing brought was as the
author of rude expressions on walls and desks.” Language here is seen as a tool for rebellion (albeit a
limited rebellion in the form of breaking minor rules) but the fact that this rebellion is in an indigenous
language perhaps reflects the way in which the colonized can retain a sense of their identity by clinging to
the elements of their culture to which the colonizer is denied access, for example their language.
Tentatively a post-colonial reading of the text may see in Ondaatje’s rude graffiti an echo of the attempts
by the colonized to carry out minor rebellions against the colonizers in the only way they can – through
seemingly petty or trivial criticisms. Criticisms that are too minor to evoke serious punishment but which
nonetheless chip away at the status and authority of the colonizing power. Admittedly Ondaatje is
descended from colonial ancestors but these ancestors have intermarried with locals and lived in Ceylon
for long enough for him to identify more with the Sinhalese than the occupying British.
In “Kegalle (ii)”, the insurgency movement of 1971 is, in itself, a post-colonial concept since the rebels are
fighting for their own beliefs against the government, even if it is their own government. Throughout
Ceylon’s colonial history, the culture of the colonizing power has displaced the native culture and as a
result post-colonial Ceylon is in search of its own identity. The insurgency of 1971 was one attempt made
by the people to find a better way to govern themselves, this time through Marxist revolutionary theory.
Although these rebels were violently suppressed (which is significantly not mentioned in the book and
perhaps reveals how selective Ondaatje’s account of the past is), the people had tried to create a future
for Sri Lanka with their own determination and judgment.
The Romanticisation the Past and the Pastoral
The poems, ”High Flowers” and “To Colombo”, are a clear representation of this theme. High flowers
outlines the life in rural villages, e.g. shuffling rice in a cane mat, collecting white liquid for tavern vats and
cutting flowers. By lifting the villages up higher, gliding through trees seamlessly, Ondaatje is trying to
show how beautiful and exalted the lives of these people are. Obviously, however, this is a simplification
of their daily routine, which may consist of hard work. This harmony between nature and villagers in
Ceylon and the exploitative nature of the colonialists only further distances ourselves from the foreigners
and draws us closer to side with the locals.
Post-modernism
The structures of the poems are often irregular or disorganized and this perhaps reflects the nature of
Ondaatje’s memoir as he is obtaining information from different points of view with no, single, coherent
overview or vision of the truth.
The sense of Post-Modernism is accentuated by our uncertainty about the narrator. The line: “I am the
foreigner. I am the prodigal who hates the foreigner” creates a sense that Ondaatje is ambivalent about
his origins and that he is confused about where he stands and what his position should be. Does he side
with the likes of Lear and Lawerence or with the locals. The fact that we, as leaders, are limited to the
emotions and the images that he sees, rather than an objective truth, reinforces this sense of postmodern uncertainty. Is Ondaatje’s depiction of the colonialists as cold hearted exploiters or his celebration
of the simplicity of Sinhalese life reliable?
The War Between Men and Women
The poem ‘High Flowers’ raises issues like the status of women in Ceylon. In some ways the women
seem to have a lower status because they remain on the ground and carry out work obscured in the
shadows of their huts. However, a closer reading seems to suggest that Ondaatje is idealizing these
traditional gender divisions in the Ceylonese culture and this reading is supported by lines like ‘everything
that is important occurs in shadow’ and ‘Within a doorway the woman turns in the old pleasure of
darkness.’
In the poem ‘Women like You’ the women initially seem to be in a more powerful position as Ondaatje
talks about women who capture the hearts of men in lines like “Seeing you I want / no other life / The
golden skins have / caught my mind.” However, while this may initially seem to empower these female
figures, reading the text from a feminist perspective we may argue that these women appear only to be
statues or monuments that do little more than “stand against the sky” looking pretty and so, although they
appear powerful, they are no more than depictions of the passivity and beauty that men have traditionally
idolized about women. As such they are no more than a male fantasy of what womanhood should be. If
we continue reading from this perspective we may even argue that the way in which that the men who are
writing these poems of adoration have turned away from the real world represents the way in which men
are so attached to their imagined ideal of womanhood that real women are no longer enticing to them as
they do not live up to this stereotype. Indeed it is only unreal, dead or idealized women that are
celebrated in this way.
Characters:
Mervyn Ondaatje
His character develops in the chapter Kegalle (ii). The fact that he has donated several acres of Rock Hill
towards a playground shows that he is a generous man. The young rebels being “extremely courteous” to
Ondaatje’s stepmother and his family emphasizes this point (100).
Michael Ondaatje
At this point in the memoir we can begin to get a sense that Ondaatje is developing a greater
understanding of himself as he develops a better grasp of the history of his family and of Ceylon and
connects to the local culture through the different poems that he writes. He says, “I am the foreigner. I am
the prodigal who hates the foreigner.” (79) and this contradictory statement may reflect his internal
conflicts and the uncertainty he feels about his own personal identity as a Ceylonese Canadian.
Ondaatje’s criticisms of the colonial attitude suggests, however, that he feels more of a connection with
the Ceylonese than he does with the European invaders and he clear approves of the poetry of Lakdasa
Wikkramasinha, who he describes as “a powerful and angry poet” (85). In addition, the beauty of the
Sinhalese alphabet shown on page 83 further accentuates the sense that he appreciates the hidden
beauty of Ceylon.
William Charles Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje’s ancestor knew “at least fifty-five secies of poisons easily available to his countrymen”
(81) which suggests he is intimately in touch with the world around him. Again, this is perhaps a trait the
Ondaatje sees as running in the family.
Narrative style:
In Running in the Family, Ceylon is portrayed as an exotic and almost magical place. This is especially
true when describing the things that have happened in the past. Ondaatje uses a light-hearted tone to
make even the most serious things seem quite trivial, for example setting fire to a dorm room appears to
be a regular habit for Noel and this is just one of the earliest incidents that Ondaatje downplayed using a
light-hearted tone. In Kegalle (ii) and Lunch Conversation, there is another technique used by Ondaatje
that allows him to romanticize the events, which is the anticlimax at the end of the chapters. For instance,
in Kegalle (ii), the young rebels were supposed to search for weapons in homes around Kegalle to
prepare for their takeover for the country, but they decided to play a game of cricket with Susan in the
front lawn for most of the afternoon. What they were doing was supposed to be extremely serious, but
Ondaatje has downplayed their efforts with the anticlimactic ending (where an important event ends in
something trivial) perhaps so that it better fits with the magical, carefree image that he was trying to
create of Ceylon. This technique is also evident in the incident described in the Lunch Conversation
where Lalla was supposed to tell Dickie about David Grenier’s death but eventually decides to lie casually
about him sitting in the next room. Ondaatje uses the anticlimax here again to introduce humour and
downplay a serious situation.
Ondaatje’s use of poems is also a clear indicator that this is, stylistically, no ordinary memoir. The
inclusion of these different text types reinforces the sense of postmodernism and the chaotic structure
echoes some of the chaos (or freedom) of Ceylon in comparison to the West. Rather like the poem
‘Sweet Like a Crow’ these poems may not look poetic (or beautiful) in the traditional sense but as a result
of their difference they have their own unique charm. In addition the inconsistency of the contents may
suggest Ondaatje’s own sense of confusion and uncertainty as he struggles to come to a better
understanding of himself.
Relation of the Part to the Whole
This section mainly describes the history of Ceylon and its beauty as Michael Ondaatje reflects upon
historical and ancient objects. This section contains the most obviously post-colonial section in “the
Karapothas” and Ondaatje’s disdain towards the attitude of the colonizers is apparent. The absence of
Ondaatje’s family in this section suggests that his journey back to Ceylon was not carried out solely to
find out about his parents marriage, but also to gain an understanding of his own personal identity as well.
Running in the Family: Chapter Notes – Eclipse Plumage
Lunch Conversation - The Passions of Lalla
Lunch Conversation (105-109)
 This chapter recounts a lunch conversation Ondaatje had with his relatives about two incidents. The
first incident is when David Grenier died when Doris (Ondaatje’s mother) was only nine. At the same
time Lalla (his grandmother) was caught in a current that took her far out to sea but she decides not
to fight it and “eventually came back in a semi-circle” (106). When she returns Lalla has to break the
news of David Grenier’s death to Dickie, his wife.
 The second incident is a wedding lunch about 55 years later which sheds light on the complicated
relationship between Doris, Hilden and Trevor de Saram both of whom seemed to be in love with
Ondaatje’s mother.
 The fragmented nature of this chapter highlights the hardships Ondaatje sometimes encountered
when trying to learn his family history. Events are vulnerable to time and perspective and it can be
seen that everyone’s version is just a little bit different and difficult to piece together.
The Passions of Lalla (113-129)
 This chapter focuses entirely on Ondaatje’s maternal grandmother, Lalla and describes the events
that take place from the time that Lalla’s husband dies until her own death. The title of the section,
‘The Passions of Lalla’, is appropriate as this section describes and illustrates many of Lalla’s
passions and her adventures after losing her husband and becoming her own person again. The
foregrounding of her ‘passions’ over the character of Lalla herself suggests that these passions are in
fact the most significant part of her and creates the impression that they are something akin to a
powerful force, distinct from Lalla herself, that determine the direction that her life is going to take and
over which she has no control. This image of a woman at the mercy of her eccentric and crazy
passions is again an idealized, romanticisation of her character.
 The beginning of the chapter describes Lalla in her childhood, youth and first marriage to Willie
Gratien. Willie, however, died young leaving Lalla to raise her two children and look after their dairy
farm. The first section then goes on to describe her various outrageous antics such as hiding her
head milkman, Brumphy, from the police after he had stabbed a man, taking groups out to meals
without being able to pay, playing jokes on her dinner guests such as the one with the live goat and
attempting to marry her brother, who had wanted to be bachelor his whole life, to a woman who had
wanted to become a nun.
 The middle of the chapter focuses on Lalla’s life after she lost the dairy farm and all of her money. At
this point in her life she sold her house and moved where ever she wanted to and did whatever she
felt like: she loved flowers and stole them constantly from neighbours, she would throw parties for
poor children and steal toys for them when she couldn’t afford to buy them, she would urinate in
public and after her death she had donated her body to six different hospitals.
 The end of the chapter deals with her death in 1947 when she steps drunkenly into the flood waters
outside of the house in which she had been drinking with her brother Vere and floats away through
the town
Motifs:
Alcohol
Alcohol is implicitly present in the chapter “Lunch Conversation” where most people who are at the
wedding lunch are drunk, including Doris, Ondaatje’s mother. The effects of alcohol are once again
destructive, making people argue with each other, as the case with Trevor de Saram and Hilden. More
importantly, alcohol is what made this lunch conversation so confusing. Not only are the different
accounts of that wedding lunch already made biased by time and perspective, they are also probably also
made inaccurate due to the influence of alcohol.
Alcohol however is a more important recurring symbol in the Passions of Lalla where it helps to
accentuate the sense of the freedom and independence of youth that has been established in the earlier
chapters. Interestingly, Lalla drinks not when she is upset, for example when her fiancé left her for
another woman Lalla threw a fit of rage and married another man and when her husband was dying she
didn’t drink but instead prayed and offered her faith to give him good health. Instead Lalla is described as
drinking with her brother Vere (‘a sweet drunk’) (120) and she grew “loud and cheerful” which suggests
that alcohol is used as a fuel for celebration or for the creation of a good mood. Drinking is again
romanticized in this chapter in the description of a friend of Lalla’s brother who was “brilliant when drunk”
(121). Indeed when Lalla is nearly broke she continues to drink and seems not to care much for the idea
of money. At the end of the chapter Lalla and her brother when stuck inside during a rainstorm make the
best of their situation and drink while playing games and eating food.
Money
Lalla does not seem to consider money to be very important. From the beginning of the chapter it is
conveyed that Lalla did not come from a family of excessive wealth as she and her husband made money
by running a dairy, which would not provide enough money to live an exceptionally sophisticated lifestyle.
In addition, after her husband died Lalla survived on her “wits, character and beauty” rather than on
money. Furthermore, Lalla spent much of her money on entertainment and spent much of it on poor
children and would invite groups out for dinner without consideration of her lack of funds suggesting her
generosity of spirit. Lalla also handed out gifts at parties “when she was rich” but “when she was poor she
[…] would go to the Pettah market […] and steal toys” (122).
Animals
Animal imagery is a recurring image throughout the memoir where they are often used to reveal elements
of Lalla’s personality. In the first part of the chapter, Lalla is compared to her neighbour’s noisy chickens;
“Lalla and the chickens would wake him before dawn every morning” (114) which suggests her lively
vociferousness. She is then compared to a rooster as she “swept into the school at noon […] fluttering
down the halls in her long black clothes loose at the edges like a rooster dragging its tail” (117) which
evokes a sense of her noisy and magnificent disarray. She is also described as loving the company of
“cows, adults, babies, dogs” (119) where the incorporation of both humans and animals reinforces Lalla’s
kind and giving spirit but also the sense of eccentricity and uniqueness that surrounds her as she holds
cows on the same level as adults.
Water
Both David Grenier and Lalla drowned and in the first chapter of the memoir Ondaatje is described as
being carried away on another wave of the party which reflects the idea that things run in the family and
there is a unity and common fate that binds these people together and perhaps ground Ondaatje and give
him a sense of the personal identity that he appears to feel he is missing. This idea is also echoed by the
fact that Lalla gets drunk on the same brand of alcohol that is ‘destroying’ Mervyn Ondaatje.
The Fake Breast
Lalla has gone through 4 fake breasts in total and she has lost each one in a different, unique and slightly
absurd situation which helps reinforce the sense of Lalla’s liveliness and the impression that she (like her
breast) has a life of her own and does not live according to the rules of appropriate behaviour according
to which other people conduct their lives.
Themes:
The Vulnerability of History to Time and Perspective
Throughout Running in the Family, this theme is evident, especially in chapters, Tropical Gossip and
Lunch Conversation. The disjointed, fragmented and hard to follow structure of this chapter reflects the
troubles that Ondaatje (as any chronicler of the past) faced when trying to research his family history – his
task being made more difficult by the many rumors, biases and absurd little tales that cloud an individual’s
view of events. In “Lunch Conversation”, the conversation about the incident that happened is very
confusing and rather hard to follow. There are the multiple settings, the relationship between Trevor and
Doris was disputed and Ondaatje had to confirm Doris’s age three times before he was convinced that
she was nine at the time of the drowning of David Grenier. These differences in opinions and confusions
with the actual details of the event reveal the vulnerability of memories and history to time and
perspective. The fact that most of these people were drunk at the time of the incident also contributes to
this point. How much can they remember accurately if they were not sober? Which version of what they
are saying is truer than the others?
In the end these snapshots and stories may actually tell us more about the person telling the story than
the events that are actually being narrated themselves … and indeed this is an idea that we might apply
to ‘Running in the Family’ as a whole. On reflection this text perhaps actually tells us more about
Ondaatje (his desire to romanticize the past; the attraction he feels to the halcyon image he has painted
of Ceylon in the 1920s and 30s; the need he seems to feel to rehabilitate the image he has of his father;
the distance that he seems to feel towards his mother even though he sympathises with her, etc) than it
does about the people or country about which he is ostensibly writing.
Freedom & Independence
In a similar way to Mervyn’s mother, we get the impression that Doris’ mother, Lalla, also gained more
freedom once her husband died. After her husband’s death, Lalla becomes increasingly independent in
that she was free to be spontaneous and play jokes on her friends for example at one dinner party, she
serves one of her friends a pot containing “a baby goat [that] jumped out a skittered down the table”
(118). This perhaps echoes the freedom the Ceylonese experienced after independence.
The Fragility of Love and Marriage
Ondaatje once again creates the impression that engagements and affairs were easily created and
broken as Lalla is engaged to “a very good looking and utterly selfish man” (113) who then leaves her for
another woman while she proceeds by “quickly [marrying] Willie Gratiaen [...] on the rebound” (114). The
rapiity with which she transfers her affections to another man shows the lack of seriousness put into
relationships. Western culture usually values the idea of a long lasting unity between a man and woman
while in Ceylon love affairs more romantically rainbow over marriages and long lasting couplings. After
Lalla and her neighbour Rene’s husbands both die they decide that “neither of them [were] to marry
again” (115) which perhaps implies that the idea of marriage has lost its appeal and the sense of security
that it might have brought to some women has begun to seem like a confinement. Indeed as we see later
Lalla seems to have developed an aversion to being ‘grabbed’ or ‘contained’ by anyone, even her
grandchildren. Lalla also remains connected to all her past lovers as “she refused to lose friends” (123)
despite having had an affair with him as “her first beau”. Ondaatje presents all of Lalla’s “old flames” in a
tone that suggests that there is something romantic about their lingering involvement with one another
and that it is difficult to let go of the past.
The Romanticisation of the Past
The ‘Passions of Lalla’ chapter is a celebration of Lalla’s character. Lalla’s character could have been
perceived as overbearing and excessive (indeed Mervyn seems to have had little patience with her while
Ondaatje’s sisters were embarrassed) but Ondaatje seems to find her appealing, depicting her as lively,
vibrant and fun-loving rather than an annoyance. The way in which Ondaatje paints an indulgent picture
of even her worst extremes (stealing flowers from gravestones, urinating in public, etc) is a clear
indication of the way in which he has created a romanticised ‘gesture’ of this woman rather a realistic and
accurate portrait of her.
Characters:
Lalla
Her character continues to be seen as very carefree and she still gives off the feeling that she is in some
senses disconnected from the real world. When she is caught in the current in the sea, she does not fight
back like a normal person would and remained relaxed until the current takes her back to the shore. It
seems like she never panics and knows what she is doing. This can be related back to her reaction when
being groped by a man; she was calm and was smiling despite being in a potentially awkward situation.
We do, however, get an increasing sense of her almost childish aversion to responsibility when she
casually lied to Dickie about David’s death. It was a moment of seriousness where Dickie should have
found out the truth, but Lalla disregards the importance of this situation by lying in such a casual manner.
This sense of childishness can also be seen when “she is suddenly very tired. She hates hurting
anybody” where these two statements make her change of mood seem extremely abrupt, just like the
fast-changing moods of children.
We are also given the impression that Lalla is ‘physically selfish’ and that, although she loves her family,
she could not stand to be ‘grabbed’ or ‘contained’ and so she would not even hold her grandchildren’s
hands if they asked her too. Once again we can see that Ondaatje tends to reinterpret potentially
negative traits (e.g. the potentially irresponsible and rash way in which she jumped into her marriage with
Willie Gratien) in a more positive light, e.g. as spontaneity, vibrancy, energy or being care-free.
Lalla is also portrayed as lighthearted and humorous. She asks her grandchildren to “fetch her tit” (124) in
the middle of a formal dinner; makes witty jokes in the courtroom despite the possible charges against her
and even her death is depicted as a “last perfect journey” (128) where she fantastically floats through the
streets carried away by a flood into the arms of a blue jacaranda tree. Throughout each of these serious
events she maintains a contrastingly light, unconcerned character giving the sense that she is living in her
own world, reflecting perhaps again her selfish and inwardly focused nature.
Hilden
Hilden seems to be a typical young man in his “flaming youth” who was drunk at the incident that was
discussed during the chapter, “Lunch Conversation”. He seems to be quite flirtatious and playful since he
was perceived as flirting with Ondaatje’s mother.
Doris Gratiaen
A sense of mystery continues to surround this character, because Ondaatje still has not given much
concrete description about her. From here, it can be seen that she seems to be charming and attractive
since she supposedly catches the attention of both Hilden and Trevor. Her fun and playful nature can be
seen by the fact that she was “quite drunk” at the wedding reception where the story about David
Grenier’s drowning was being told for the first time (105). The lack of description of Doris makes it clear,
however, that the focus for Ondaatje in this memoir is really on his father. It is as if, leaving his father at
such a young age, it is this man that Ondaatje feels he has to get to know. Mervyn stayed in Ceylon while
Doris left to work in England and so his father and the country he was born in seem to take on equal
importance in Ondaatje’s writing as he struggles to find out more about his past and where he came from
in his quest for a better understanding of his personal identity.
Narrative Style:
The Passions of Lalla is written in a more linear and broadly chronological (from age of 20 till her death)
style than much of the rest of the memoir. Nonetheless within each broad period of Lalla’s life the order of
events remains ambiguous. The story of Lalla loses the first person voice present when Ondaatje is
writing about himself and takes on a third person omniscient position. However, the narrative stance
remains closely tied to Lalla’s character suggesting an intimacy between Ondaatje and Lalla that a more
distant narrative voice would lack. The misleading omniscience of this third person voice is more evident
in this section than perhaps any other part of the memoir as the account of Lalla’s death contains events
and feelings that could not possibly have been known by the author. The contrast between the apparent
credibility of the narrative voice and its unreliability helps to accentuate the elements of creativity and
story-telling in Ondaatje’s memoir and this in turn emphasizes the post-modern idea of uncertainty that
runs throughout the text. This uncertainty and unreliability however, is celebrated by Ondaatje and it
becomes clear that, through the use of fiction, Ondaatje is able to create a romanticised and (in some
respects) almost magic realist feel to the events he describes, giving them a greater depth and vibrancy
and fully immersing the reader in the imaginative experience.
Relation to the rest of the text:
The main purpose of this chapter is to provide an insight into Lalla’s life and it answers some of the
questions raised by the previous chapters, for example how the false breast came to be and how exactly
she died. The fact that a whole chapter is devoted to Lalla marks her out as one of the most important
characters in the memoir (second only, perhaps, to Ondaatje’s father) and her romanticised death (which
is possibly partly an allusion to Ophelia’s death in Hamlet) makes it clear that she is the focus of much of
Ondaatje’s idealism and romanticism. It could be argued that, for Ondaatje, Lalla is the most striking
symbol of the care-free, laissez faire attitude that Ondaatje seems to find so attractive about the ‘golden
days’ of Ceylon. She is the archetypal example of the ‘flaming’ life which exemplifies the past (and in
particular the past of Ceylon) as a time of euphoric freedom and irresponsibility.
The title of the section, Eclipse Plummage, also echoes the stages of Lalla’s life. Some birds (ducks in
particular) lose their bright feathers after the mating season and become a grey drab for the rest of the
year. This dull coloration of feathers is called the eclipse plumage and can be seen as a metaphor for
Lalla’s life and death. The loss of such a vibrant individual may be like a duck replacing its colorful
feathers for dull grey ones.
Running in the Family: Chapter Notes – The Prodigal, Part 1
Harbour – Kuttapitiya
Harbour (133 - 134)
 This is a collection of short stories and phrases about Ondaatje’s love for the Ceylonese harbour
 He describes one specific memory of going to the harbor and saying goodbye to a sister or mother
 Recalls further memories associated with harbours; this includes the song “Harbour lights” and how
he would hum the song “Sea of Heartbreak”
 Comments on how he enjoys the harbour because it is “sincere”
Monsoon Notebook (ii) (135 - 136)
 This chapter contains memories of the wildlife in Ceylon, ending with Ondaatje listening to them on a
tape recorder in his Canadian home
 This chapter contrasts to Monsoon Notebook (i), which dealt with Ondaatje’s childhood and
recollections from in a more fictionalized style without the realization that Ondaatje is conducting
research for a book.
How I Was Bathed (137 - 139)
 This chapter is a retelling of the story of how Ondaatje was bathed at school as a child
 The story is retold at a dinner party by Gillian Ondaatje, although the story was originally told to her
by her friend Yasmine Gooneratne
Wilpattu (140 - 143)
 Ondaatje drives to Wilpattu with his family to experience life in the jungle and the chapter consists of
collected stories about their time there. Unusually there is a specific date for this entry, April 8 th
 Upon arrival they all take a shower using the rain and are all amazed about the beauty of the place.
As they shower a large wild boar appears and judges all the people taking a shower in the open rain.
He stares at them and walks away without harming anyone.
 The chapter than separates to the next part of the journal, which is the last day in Wilapttu on April
11th when Ondaatje realizes that his soap has been stolen, apparently by the boar.
Kuttapitiya (144 - 146)
 This chapter contains stories from Ondaatje’s childhood at Kuttapitiya which was his last childhood
home and was famous for its gardens
 Ondaatje reminisces about life with his family and the antagonistic relationship between Lalla and his
father who would always plunder the garden. As a result Mervyn started planting prickly plants and
succulents which Lalla was less interested in stealing
 Ondaatje’s daughter finishes by saying that if they lived ‘it would be perfect.’
Motifs, Symbols & Imagery
Songs/Singing
The idea of songs has been introduced before with the song ‘A Fine Romance’ which Ondaatje’s mother
always loved to sing. However, it is brought up again in this section of chapters (particularly Harbour) to
highlight the romanticisation of Ceylon and Ondaatje’s quest for personal identity. In Harbour, there are
three separate quotations dealing with songs or singing and each adds to thematic development.
Ondaatje writes primarily in this chapter about his love of the harbour and relates it to songs, such as
when he says, “For years I loved the song, “Harbour lights,”” (133). The title of the song is rich in colourful
and romantic imagery, and as a result it romanticizes the idea of the harbour and Ondaatje’s memories of
it. This romantic idea is brought to life in a more adolescent sense when Ondaatje says, “later in my teens
danced disgracefully with girls, humming “Sea of Heartbreak”” (133). Here he ironically relates a song
about heartbreak with the notion of fleeting teenage relationships and raging hormones. It could be
argued that the romantic nature of the song is stripped through the image in the reader’s mind of lustful
teenagers and because this idea so strongly contrasts the one preceding it, Ondaatje could be writing to
give an idea of the versatility of the harbour he loves so dearly, or he could be saying that he has
conflicting feelings and memories of every kind about his time in Ceylon. This contributes to the other
interpretation of this chapter, which is that it is written to highlight Ondaatje’s quest for personal identity.
The last singing quotation of the chapter emphasizes this; “I sing “the lights in the harbour don’t shine for
me…” but I love it here” (133-4). In Ondaatje saying that the figurative lights in the harbour do not shine
for him, he insinuates that he does not belong to Ceylon anymore, yet he still loves his home country.
From this the reader recognizes thematic development in the idea that this memoir is Ondaatje’s quest for
personal identity. On a related note, the fact that, at various points, we see Ondaatje, his mother and his
father singing and humming songs suggests that this is something else that runs in the family.
Baths/Bathing
The motif of bathing is found in two consecutive chapters yet the contrast found between the two
examples brings to light thematic issues in the text. In How I Was Bathed, the idea of bathing was
described using violent and extreme diction; “Maratina filled a bucket with water and flung the contents
towards our cowering screaming bodies” (138). Ondaatje suggests that the boys being bathed dislike
their baths through his harsh description. However, it is noted in the chapter that Ondaatje does not recall
this childhood story for himself, and because he does not seems to be traumatized by it this suggests that
the event itself was simply not important enough to want to retain. The bathing and references to soap
found in the next chapter, Wilpattu, are of a contrast – writing “The girls are out there in their dresses
getting wet and suddenly the rest of us decide this is the only chance for a bath that we will have here
and walk out into the storm” (141) is picturesque and romanticized, as opposed to violent and harsh. In
this story, accepting and enjoying bathing in the thunderstorm indicates that Ondaatje has grown since
his experiences as a child, and his relationship with Ceylon has changed from one of familial necessity
and forgotten memories to one of enjoyment and curious inquiry. In this way, the contrasting quotations
embody the theme of Ondaatje’s quest for his personal identity in exploring his relationship with Ceylon
through extended metaphors.
Soap
Similarly, soap is discussed in both How I Was Bathed and Wilpattu to make the contrast between the
two chapters even more apparent. In the former, the idea of soap and its meaning to the children in the
story is portrayed in extreme language (“scrubbed him violently with carbolic soap and threw him towards
the opposite side of the room” (138)). While on one hand insinuating that memories of soap should have
unfavourable characteristics about them, Ondaatje goes on to describe in the next chapter how
distressed he is over losing his bar of soap to a val oora, or a wild boar. He writes, “This thing has walked
off with my bar of Pears Transparent Soap? Why not my copy of Rumi poetry? Or Merwin translations?
That soap was aristocratic and kept me feeling good all through the filthy hotels of Africa” (143), showing
that the bar of soap was highly valued. There are a number of different interpretations of this contrast –
one of them is that Ondaatje had brought this soap all around the world with him, showing it to be almost
an extension of his self, only to lose it in the Ceylon jungle shows how there will always be a part of
Ondaatje left in or stolen by Ceylon. This ties in with the theme of the quest for personal identity, as it
illustrates the impact Ceylon still has on even a westernized Ondaatje, and questions how much the
author belongs to both the East and the West. Alternatively, Ondaatje’s longing for this aristocratic soap
which in some respects suggests a taste for home may imply that there is a part of him now that is
irremediably Westernised suggesting that he will never be fully Ceylonese.
Cars/Driving
Cars in previous chapters were a motif that represented escape, and while they still mean similar things,
the idea of escaping is different for Michael than it was for Mervyn. While Mervyn’s escape was to get
away from his life and to indulge his alcoholism, Michael’s escape is back to his homeland to explore the
intricate jungle, shown in the chapter Wilpattu. Ondaatje writes, “We now have an hour’s journey to the
middle of the jungle. It is a slow ten-mile-an-hour drive on bad roads of red clay and sand.” (140).
Michael’s slow car drive represents his gradual reentry into the inner parts of Ceylon, and his gradual
journey to rediscovering his Eastern Ceylonese roots. This differs from his father’s journeys, which often
involved (literally and metaphorically) speeding away from problems that he did not want to face, and
wishing that he could leave Ceylon for the West. Thus, the motif of cars shows the difference in
generational views of Ceylon as well as the attitude of the different generations toward the cultures of the
East and West.
Death
Death has been previously illustrated as concept that is treated very casually by the Ondaatjes, partly
perhaps as a way of depicting their unfettered and carefree nature and the same proves true in the
author’s generation as shown when Ondaatje writes of the approaching wild boar, “If I am to die soon I
would choose to die now under his wet alphabet of tusk” (142). The willingness to die indicates that the
feeling of being back in the jungle is so euphoric and thrilling that it would be worth dying here to maintain
it. It is as if Ceylon has an effect on her people making them care little about the meaningfulness of death,
possibly because it is a country of such intense and rich beauty that it overpowers any other sense and
adds a romantic quality to the lifestyle.
Animals
Animals throughout the text are often used in thematic development, and in this section the theme they
specifically deal with is the romanticisation of the past and of life in Ceylon. In Monsoon Notebook (ii),
Ondaatje describes how the wildlife inhabited their homes, saying “Wildlife stormed or crept into homes
this way” (135) and “Others moved in permanently; birds nested above the fans, the silverfish slid into
steamer trunks and photograph albums” (135-6). The casual acceptance of these animals into their
homes, and even the placement of them throughout the estates, shows how relaxed the Ceylonese were
about their surroundings and creates a pastoral sense, whereby a life in the countryside that is lived in
harmony with nature is shown. In addition, the livelihood Ondaatje describes the animals portraying
contributes to the romanticized nature of the scenes. When, “at 3 a.m., night would be suddenly alive with
disturbed peacocks” (136) and even when “In this silent room [in Canada] there are these frogs loud as
river, gruntings, the whistle of other birds” (136), the vibrancy of these animals is shown and the reader
realises that they too are contributing to the romanticized image that is being constructed of Ceylon.
Romanticisation of life in Ceylon is also portrayed through animal imagery in Wilpattu, where Ondaatje
describes how “A val oora – a large filthy black wild boar has appeared majestically out of the trees”
(141). As this beast draws closer to Ondaatje and his family, the author remarks that “[the beast] can take
his pick, any one of us” (142), and in doing so romanticisation is seen through the casual approach taken
towards death. Because the boar presents a blatant threat to the lives of these people, their carelessness
suggests that Ondaatje has reached a level of fulfillment where he believes that dying now would be no
great loss. This laissez-faire attitude to life and death seems both relaxed and unreal at the same time
further contributing to the almost magical image painted of life in Ceylon.
The Val-oora
One of the key symbols in this section is the wild boar that Ondaatje sees while showering in the rain.
Ondaatje clearly feels a close connection with the animal, describing it at points as “My wild pig. The
repulsively exotic creature in his thick black body and the ridge of non-symmetrical hair running down his
back” (143). The boar is an exotic creature that has “non-symmetrical hair running down his back” and we
may tentatively argue that Ondattje feels similarly unsymmetrical as he is torn between the two worlds of
the East and the West. More straight-forwardly the boar seems to be the perfect symbol of Ceylon for
Ondaatje, it is exotic, wild outlandishly striking and unique and there is clear a sense of connection
between the two.
Food
The only mention of food in this section is in the chapter How I Was Bathed, where Ondaatje describes a
dinner party scene. He writes, “We are having a formal dinner. String hoppers, meat curry, egg rulang,
papadams, potato curry. Alice’s date chutney, seeni sambol, mallung and brinjals and iced water” (137).
The exotic and unique sounding food served here clearly contrasts with that which would normally be
served at a Western dinner party and the intense delight that Ondaatje takes in delicacies like the ‘egg
rulang’ suggests the strength of his identification with the Ceylonese version of a formal dinner, and thus
his identification with eastern Ceylonese culture over the western culture he was previously associated
with.
Nature/Flowers
The ornate descriptions of nature and flowers in this memoir often add to the romanticisation of history
and the past. However, in this case the nature and flower imagery also reveals some of the more intricate
details of the relationship between Mervyn and Doris. Ondaatje writes that his childhood estate,
“Kuttapitiya […] was famous for its gardens. Walls of flowers – ochre, lavender, pink – would flourish and
die within a month” (144). This idea, coupled with the fact that this was where Ondaatje’s mother and
father lived “for the longest period of their marriage” (144) suggests that, like the flowers, their marriage
would have periods of romantic beauty only to be inevitably followed by a rude awakening when Mervyn
returned to drink.
Ondaatje also uses images of nature to create a sense that there is an intimate connection between man
and nature in Ceylon which serves to further accentuate his portrayal of this country as a kind of pastoral
idyll. In Monsoon Notebook (ii) Ondaatje uses the image of the snake coming in “like a king and [moving]
in a straight line through the living room, dining room, the kitchen and servant’s quarters,” (135) which
suggests that supposedly wild animals seem to make no distinction between the Ondaatje home and their
own natural habitat. Ondaatje’s casual use of expressing an auditory image through an insect’s noise
helps accentuate the idea of nature embedding itself into society and this idea is further emphasized by
the descriptions of the birds “[nesting] above the fans” (135) as well the “silverfish [sliding] into steamer
trunks and photograph albums” (136). This is directly contrasted to the image of the “bars across the
window” which might paint the animals as intruders rather than residents. Perhaps the most effective
image of the intimate relationship between man and nature in Ceylon can be found when Ondaatje
describes how he couldn’t hear the sounds of the night until he played them back on his tape recorder in
Canada because "they were always there like breath," (136).
Themes
The Contrast between the East and the West
In ‘Harbour’ Ondaatje describes how he loves the Ceylonese harbour, with its “Infinite waters [which]
cohabit with flotsam on this side of the breakwater and the luxury liners and Maldive fishing vessels”
(133). The combination of western and eastern features portrayed in the quotation show not only the
influence of the West on the East, but also suggest Ondaatje’s love of both cultures as both represent
some part of him and his cultural and personal identity.
In ‘Monsoon Notebook (ii)’ Ondaatje describes how “In this silent room (with its own unheard hum of
fridge, fluorescent light) there are these frogs loud as river” (136). In doing so he contrasts the natural
sounds of Canada and Ceylon, proving through example that one is very westernized culture with
electronic devices creating the majority of the sound, and comparing it to the eastern culture with only the
sounds of nature permeating through the silence. Apart from the clear contrast between the natural and
the artificial, the fact that Ondaatje has brought the sounds of Ceylon with him back to Canada may be a
metaphor that suggests how, following his journey, his life even in Canada has been affected by what he
learnt, saw and experienced while in Ceylon. Alternatively this chapter may suggest that while they
appear superficial different there may be more similarities between Canada and Ceylon than we had first
thought – both, for example, have a background hum that accompanies the lives of the people who live
there. As a result, perhaps we can conclude that the difference between whether this hum is created by a
fridge or a frog isn’t really that significant after all and this may in turn suggest that Ondaatje has found a
way to bridge or relate these two different worlds of which he is a part.
Postmodernism
The fragmented structure of Monsoon Notebook (ii) reveals Ondaatje’s postmodern struggle to try to find
an objective truth to write about in his memoir, as the fictional elements and the lack of objective research
he is able to do takes away from the truthfulness of all the stories included. This is portrayed through the
idea of listening to “that section of the cassette” (136), which is not as genuine as listening to the real
sounds of the Ceylon animals. This idea represents how Ondaatje is only listening to stories being retold
of events in order to write about them and has no real access to all sides of stories and the whole truth
behind the development of some characters. This is significant because it represents how the memoir is
only a broken attempt at truth, but the fictionalized parts reflect his attempt.
Ondaatje accentuates this sense of post-modern uncertainty in ‘How I Was Bathed’ in the retelling of
stories. After Gillian shares the story of his bath time as a child, Ondaatje comments to himself, “I am
dreaming and wondering why this was never to be traumatically remembered” (138). His speculation
touches on the idea that this story is one that has likely been exaggerated and possibly even blown
completely out of proportion, as he cannot think of a reason why this did not surface “as the first chapter
of an anguished autobiographical novel” (138), as he suggests it should.
The Romanticisation of the Past / Ceylon
The chapter ‘Harbour’ paints another romanticised picture of life in Ceylon not only through its colourful
descriptions but also through Ondaatje’s choice of particularly romantic times of the day. Twice in two
paragraphs Ondaatje ends his sentences with ‘dusk’ (“I arrived in a plane but love the harbour. Dusk”
(133), “One frail memory dragged up out of the past – going to the harbour to say goodbye to a sister or
mother, dusk.” (133)) which emphasizes the romantic and beautiful feel of the harbour. Ondaatje
emphasizes the romanticized nature of the harbour when he says, “There is nothing wise about a
harbour, but it is real life.” (133) as here he seems to suggest that despite the simplicity (and perhaps ugly
practicality) of the place, the harbour is rich in beauty. Additionally, the idea of appreciation something as
banal as a harbour implies that beauty lies not just in the extravagant but in the prosaic as well. While
harbours don’t exactly fit in with the natural world, his feelings towards harbours seem to parallel that of
his feelings towards Sri Lanka; his appreciation stems from the simplicity and serenity of it. The symbol of
a ‘barber shop’ further accentuates this idea of finding beauty in simplicity. The image of the “portholes of
moon” subtly provides association between the portholes of a boat and the celestial moon which
accentuates the sense of beauty within the ordinary.
In Kuttapitiya Ondaatje glorifies the relaxed nature of Ceylonese life. He writes that his father “played for
half an hour and slowly and lazily we rose into the pale blue mornings” (144) and subsequently the reader
is able to see how little effort was required of the people living at Kuttapitiya and how stress-free their
lives were. Ondaatje uses this sense of relaxation and harmony to glamorize the kind of pastoral life that
they lived in the country.
The Fragility/Instability of Marriage
In Kuttapitiya the rapidly changing state of the gardens at the tea estate where “Walls of flowers would
flourish and die within a month” (144), echoes the way in which the relationship between Mervyn and
Doris would alternate swiftly between periods of contentment and times of conflict with the latter
coinciding with Mervyns bouts of alcoholism. The cyclical nature of the image insinuates the variability in
their marriage and suggests the theme of the fragility and instability of marriage as it can veer so quickly
from being under duress to having moments of romantic beauty.
The Quest for Personal Identity
This section begins with ‘The Harbour’ where the memory of Ondaatje saying “goodbye to a sister or
mother” (133) is contrasted with the current image of him travelling on the tug with his brother-in-law while
his nieces wait for them on the shore. This contrast shows us how this simplistic connection and almost
childish attachement to harbours has stuck with him his entire life and we are given a sense that Ondaatje
is developing an increasing awareness of the continuity between his present self and his childhood past.
His comments about how he “loved the song, ‘Harbour lights,’” and how he would hum “Sea of
Heartbreak” only serve to further accentuate this.
In Monsoon Notebook (ii) the contrast between Ondaatje’s Canadian home and the tape of sounds he
made of animals in Ceylon which contains, “frogs loud as river” suggests the contrast that Ondaatje can
clearly see between eastern and western culture, and perhaps suggests the sense of tension of
uncertainty that prompted him to embark on this quest for personal identity in the first place.
This sense that he is beginning to understand more of his Eastern roots is accentuated in the chapter
Wilpattu where Ondaatje clearly revels in the delightfully exotic shower in the rain and the threatening
wildness of the val-oora. Furthermore, when he leaves the jungle without his precious bar of soap and
remarks, “My eyes are peeled for a last sight of the oora, my soap caught in his tusk and mouth foaming”
(143). The idea that Ceylon and her jungle and animals have stolen Ondaatje’s soap signifies that
although the soap, itself an icon of western culture, was so important to him, it has been taken from him
by his ties to the East. This may suggest how even though Ondaatje leads a westernized lifestyle in his
home in Canada, there will always be part of the East inside of him that prevents him from being fully
Westernised.
Finally in Kuttapitiya we see Ondaatje’s daughter remark, “‘if we lived here it would be perfect’” (146), and
Ondaatje agrees which suggests not only his desire to reconnect to his past, but also how this affinity for
the East is something that he has passed on his generation to the next.
Characters
Michael Ondaatje
The author’s development through these chapters is made clear to the readers in Ondaatje’s metanarrative where he writes about his own process of writing. Lines like “Now, and here, Canadian
February, I write this in the kitchen and play that section of cassette” (136, Monsoon Notebook (ii)), not
only force the reader to realise that the memoir they are reading is a creation like any other fictional story,
but also allow Ondaatje to comment wittily on the stories he is presenting as both an insider and
observer, for example in How I Was Bathed when he writes that the story being told “is the kind of event
that should have surfaced as the first chapter of an anguished autobiographical novel” (138). His ability to
comment on the stories as he weaves them into his memoir is what creates the impression that we are
gaining a better understanding of both author and the characters as the memoir progresses.
Gillian Ondaatje
The reader already knows Gillian as the sister of the author, but in these chapters (particularly How I Was
Bathed) the reader recognizes her as a more outspoken character with a grand movements and
expressions that are larger than life. This is shown when she is retelling the dinner party story and
Ondaatje comments that “Gillian is no doubt exaggerating Yasmine’s account in her usual style” (138)
which accentuates the sense of postmodernism that runs throughout the text as Ondaatje makes it clear
that Gillian’s story is not actually hers and thus the reader begins to doubt its truth as we also wonder
whether it would have been different had the storyteller been Yasmine Gooneratne. In addition, her
presence in her brother’s memoir demonstrates a sense of familial support and suggests that Ondaatje’s
quest for a greater understanding of his own personal identity is actually something that appears to be
uniting his family.
Yasmine Gooneratne
In the chapter How I Was Bathed Yasmine is another symbol for the postmodern theme. As a figure, she
is mentioned briefly at the start of the story as the original storyteller and as “a prefect with [Gillian] at
Bishop’s College for Girls” (137), and Ondaatje discusses her briefly again at its close. He writes of
seeing her, “this demure woman in a sari who was once “bath prefect” at Bishop’s College Girl’s School,
who officiated over the cleansing of my lean five-year-old nakedness” (139), and wonders why it is not
only something that she neglected to mention to him, but in addition, something that was never
remembered from his childhood. The idea of this story being retold on three levels – from Yasmine to
Gillian to Ondaatje in this memoir – reinforces the postmodern doubt that we have about the objectivity of
the truth of stories like these.
Lalla
Once again Lalla resurfaces briefly in the final chapter, Kuttapitiya, where her principle effect is to further
romanticse Ondaatje’s childhood home. He describes her penchant for stealing flowers through the
comparison to “a bee attracted to the perfume of any flower, who came up every other week solely to
ransack the garden and who departed with a car full of sprigs and branches” (145). Her carefree attitude
toward Mervyn Ondaatje’s property and gardens expresses an air of romantic indifference and chaos
found commonly among her peers in the ‘golden era’ of Ceylon in the 1920s and 30’s that Ondaatje
describes earlier in the memoir.
Mervyn Ondaatje
Curiously Mervyn is contrasted with Lalla when Ondaatje writes that “he loved ordered gardens and hated
to see beds ravaged by Lalla’s plundering” (145). This contrast is surprising when we consider how
similar he is to Lalla in terms of the disruptive effects that Mervyn has on the lives of others, for example
during his infamous train rides. This presentation of the other side of Mervyn’s character perhaps
suggests an increasing level of maturity to him and perhaps foreshadows the more somber version of
Mervyn that we see towards the end of the memoir.
Narrative Style
Ondaatje continues to vary his narrative style throughout this section and in ‘Monsoon Notebook (ii)’ he
begins with a third person omniscient voice that uses elaborate description to paint an image of Ceylon in
the reader’s mind. Halfway through the chapter, however, the narrative voice shifts temporarily to second
person, and Ondaatje writes that the sounds of the outside animals would be “forever in your ear” (136).
This signifies an increasingly personal approach to the chapter and this sense of personal connection is
intensified in the final paragraph which is written completely in the first person.
The sense of connection between Ondaatje and his family (and again the sense that this memoir is about
things running in the family) is emphasized in ‘Wilpattu’ by the fact that Ondaatje frequently switches
between narrating in the first person singular “I” and the first person plural “we”. This suggests the
intermingling of Ondaatje’s character with that of his family around him and the sense of a close
relationship between family members is accentuated throughout the text as Ondaatje recognizes that not
only could this memoir not have been written without the support and help of those around him but that it
is also bringing him closer to his family and giving him a greater understanding of them.
Relation of the Part to the Whole
This set of chapters focuses mainly on the return of Michael Ondaatje and his family to Ceylon, hence the
allusion to “The Prodigal” in the title. While one meaning of the word is to “spend money recklessly”, the
more relevant meaning of the story seems to be that of a son returning home, expecting to meet with
disapprobation but only to find the he is welcomed back with open arms. Ondaatje uses this title to allude
to the sense of welcome that he seems to feel upon his return to his childhood home and this is section is
important in establishing the idea that Ondaatje’s decision to write this memoir may be interpreted as an
attempt to find out more about his past and come to a better understanding of his own personal identity.
Hence many of the chapters are written in the first person and detail Ondaatje’s experiences in Ceylon
while there is relatively little development of characters like Mervyn, Doris and Lalla.
The first chapter, Harbour, combines Ondaatje’s stories of returning to Ceylon with those of his childhood
at the harbour, creating a sense of fusion between the past and present, while Monsoon Notebook (ii)
creates a sense of fusion between East and West. The third chapter, How I Was Bathed, retells a more
recent story from Ondaatje’s life and further develops the text’s postmodern themes and the fourth
chapter, Wilpattu, continues to contrast East and West by focusing on Ondaatje’s most recent
experiences in Ceylon.
Running in the Family: Chapter Notes – The Prodigal, Part 2
Travels in Ceylon - The Photograph
Travels in Ceylon (147-155)
• The chapter begins with a brief description of the shape of Ceylon as a tear on a map before it goes
on to describe Mervyn’s adventures on trains, his obsession with trains and his antics while serving in
the Ceylon Light Infantry as a rich man from a prestigious family which allows him to pull off his antics
• After one of Mervyn’s more outrageous train antics where he runs naked into a tunnel Doris is sent in
to retrieve him and we get the impression that her experiences with her husband are bbeginning to
change her from that carefree, frivolous young woman that she used to be into an increasingly strong
and independent woman.
• This chapter also recounts details of the Bandaranaike-Ondaatje feud where Mervyn “waged war”
with Sammy writing derogatory comments about each other on the Visitor’s Book
• The chapter ends with Mervyn’s last train journey before he was banned where he stopped the train
believing that there were bombs on board when really all he found were harmless pots of curd
Sir John (156-160)
• Ondaatje and his sister Gilian visit one of his father’s old friends, Sir John Kotewala (who
subsequently became Prime Minister of Ceylon) for information about Meryvn
• Most of the scene describes the opulence and elegance of Sir John’s house as he feeds peacocks
with muffins and food from the dinner table.
• We also learn of the incident where Sir John’s political opponents published a sex-scandal
photograph including Sir John
Photograph (161-162)
• The brevity of this chapter belies its importance as this is the chapter where Ondaatje finds the only
picture he has of his mother and father together. The picture is of his parents on their honeymoon
making hideous faces
• The photograph reassures Ondaatje that his parents were “absolutely perfect for each other” and we
get the sense that Ondaatje has finally found something for which he has been searching a long time.
Motifs, Images & Symbols
The Lamp and Tunnel
The dark tunnel that Doris travels into in order to rescue Mervyn suggests something of the depths to
which he has sunk in his addiction to alcohol and the nakedness here foreshadows the darkness that we
see in the chapter ‘The Bone’ later on. The fact that Doris brings a lamp into the tunnel may suggest hope
(as well as her loyalty to him) and the smashing of this lamp also suggests some obvious fore-shadowing.
The Pots of Curd
The fact that he mistakes these for bombs (and even sees the ‘explosions’ when he disposes of them in
the river) not only suggests the depth of Mervyn’s alcohol addiction and the degree to which he has lost
his way but the fact that it is not clear to the reader that these are not really bombs until the very end of
the passage also suggests something about the post-modern idea of unreliability and how it can be
difficult to disentangle the perspective of the writer from the details of the text. Although Ondaatje is the
narrator, we do at points see the event from Mervyn’s perspective and, in this light, we are unable to see
the pots of curd for what they really are. The uncertainty created here perhaps reveals the idea that any
text we are given is always going to come at us from a certain perspective and so questions about the
reliability of that perspective can always be asked.
Themes
Post Colonialism
The description of Ceylon as a “tear” and the crazy “maze-like routes” of the train system echo the two
(slightly contradictory) stereotypes that the colonial powers may have had of Ceylon: firstly as a beautiful,
exotic, unique ‘tear’ shaped spice island and secondly as a disorganized and chaotic place. Throughout
this section Ondaatje creates the impression that the current colonial powers, the English, are largely
disconnected from the real life of Ceylon and do not really know or understand the country that they have
conquered. During Mervyn’s last train ride, for example, the English are mocked as having a ‘rage for
order’ and described as sleeping in their especially appointed ‘carriage’ while the Sinhalese tip toe across
their roof in the moonlight as Mervyn wreaks havoc and discovers ‘bombs’ which are really pots of curd.
The image painted of the English is of them as being fusty, faintly ridiculous and out of touch.
The Romanticisation of the Past
The comical account of the visitors’ book feud with Sammy Bandaraike continues to add to the lighthearted impression created of life in Ceylon in the 20s and 30s. There also seems to be a degree of pride
(or chagrin) in Ondaatje’s claim that the prohibition against writing anything negative in visitors’ books still
prevalent today stems from this time. This echoing of events through the history clearly relates back to
the idea of things running in the family and the sense we get that Ondaatje is looking for a connection to
his past.
Characters
Mervyn Ondaatje
Mervyn’s outrageous antics are once again stressed – stopping the train so that his friend Arthur can join
him on the journey, for example - however this time his antics seem to have more dangerous or worrying
effects and we given the impression that his alcoholism is now fuelling something much darker than the
lively vibrancy and exuberance that it did in Mervyn’s Flaming Youth. At times Mervyn is also portrayed as
a vulnerable, almost broken character, who heavily depends on his wife, Doris, for emotional support. As
such, no matter how outrageous Mervyn’s behaviour, we continue to sympathise with him.
Doris Gratiean
In this chapter, we begin to get a glimpse of Doris as a character and she is depicted as a strong, loving,
independent woman who is tolerant of his antics even going as far as journeying alone, “armed with [only
the[ clothes she had borrowed from another passenger, and a light, and her knowledgeable love of all the
beautiful formal poetry that existed up to the 1930s” into the tunnel to rescue him. The pitiful state of her
armoury evokes a sense of sympathy for Doris that we rarely see elsewhere in the memoir. The reference
to poetry echoes the old, romanticised, sophisticated, elegant days of the Gasanawa group and the
inadequacy of this as a tool for dealing with a deranged madman suggests that, for Doris at least, the
romantic days of her ‘flaming youth’ are well and truly over. As a result we learn that she had to develop
as a character and becomes “like a tough and demure breeze” a change that is reflected in the labourious
nature of her handwriting. Ondaatje writes that it was as if she had been ‘blasted … lost the use of
habitual style and [was forced] to cope with a new and dark alphabet.’ (150) a line which suggests that
there was a deep and traumatic shift in the way that Doris viewed the world, a shift that Ondaatje appears
to associate with Doris’ experiences with his father.
In the chapter ‘Photograph’ Ondaatje’s parents are described as having a strikingly different appearance
to one another as he is darkly tanned while she is pale. While these differences were portrayed as
unimportant in the light their common sense of humour in ‘Photograph’ this no longer seems to be the
case in ‘Travels in Ceylon’ and Ondaatje begins to suggest that there is a clear (and perhaps
unbridgeable) gap between these two characters that foreshadows their later separation.
Sir John
He is a respected man who used to be in the army with Mervyn and was subsequently the Prime Minister
of Ceylon. He is described as a ‘Victorian dream’ with his opulent house surrounded by peacocks …
despite their being something clearly colonial about this character, Ondaatje portrays him indulgently as if
he is one of the last vestiges of the elegant and sophisticated Ceylon of the 1920s and 30s that Ondaatje
seems to find so attractive.
Michael Ondaatje
The tone of excitement and achievement in the line ‘the photograph I have been waiting for all my life’
(161) begins to paint a picture of Ondaatje’s character as it suggests that, in addition to writing this
memoir in order to record the details of his parent’s marriage, he is also searching for reassurance that
his parents were happy and, perhaps, that his own life is therefore meaningful.
Narrative Style
Ondaatje continues to glorify his father’s antics in this chapter although there is now a sense of increasing
darkness creeping into the pictures he paints; this is most notably the case in the symbolism during the
tunnel scene. The last part of the chapter is written confusingly as it is unclear for a while whether the
‘bombs’ that Ondaatje finds really are bombs. This confusion may be intentionally created to reflect the
distorting effects of alcohol on the mind or perhaps the difficulty of obtaining an objective view of the truth
from a post-modern perspective.
Relation of the Part to the Whole:
The section title ‘The Prodigal’ conjures the image of someone who is extravagant and reckless which
accurately describes Mervyn. This chapter also begins to introduce the marital difficulties that Mervyn and
Doris are experiencing which foreshadows the more thorough exploration of the break down of their
marriage in the section entitled ‘What we think of married life’.
Photograph was written from Ondaatje’s perspective and this chapter is vital in creating the impression
that Ondaatje has motivations for writing this memoir that go beyond the neutral and purely historical. The
fact that he had been ‘waiting … all his life’ for this photo is one of the first indications that Ondaatje is
also getting something out of this process and is a key beginning point for the development of the theme
of the search for personal identity which becomes more significant as we near the end of the memoir.
Running in the Family: Chapter Notes – What We Think of Married Life
Tea Country – The Bone
Tea Country (165 – 167)
 Onndatje describes his personal experience returning back to Colombo and visiting the tea estate
and his half-sister Susan and her husband Sunil.
 He recounts the drive to the estate, lightning hitting the fuse box, and the morning after the monsoon
storm
 Finally, the ending part of this chapter describes the landscape that surrounds the house and his
parents’ marriage.
“What we think of married life” (168 – 172)
 In this chapter Ondaatje chronicles the arguments that his parents had while they were living
together. He creates the impression that his mother would over-react when his father was getting
drunk as a form of revenge knowing that his father was essentially a shy man
 The narration reveals the difference in personality between his mother and father where his father
was quieter while his mother was louder and more theatrical.
 However, the chapter goes on to mention that despite the differences, they share a certain, intimate
bond of humor and wit.
 Finally Ondaatje describes how Doris, Mervyn and the children are now constantly separated from
each other and never all in one place at the same time
Dialogues (173 – 178)
 The chapter is composed of a total of 11 stories told by Mervyn and Doris’ immediate family, relatives
and friends
 The quotations further reveal some of the most memorable points in their marriage and their changing
attitudes towards one another
 The stories from the siblings serve to show the embarrassment and shame created by the
occasionally absurd and ridiculous behaviour of the older generation
 Even after the divorce the impression is created that Mervyn still cares about Doris
Blind Faith (179 – 180)
 This passage mainly relates to Ondaatje’s feelings about his parents’ divorce and how he, as their
child, understood very little of it.
 He wishes to know more about the relationship between his parents and regrets that he was unable
to truly get to know his father.
 He finishes this chapter with references to Edgar and Gloucester from King Lear suggesting that, like
Edgar, he remains loyal to his father to the very end, even though his father will never really see or
understanding this loyalty
The Bone (181 – 182)
 This chapter is written from the point of view of a character called Arthur, a friend of Mervyn’s and is
another outrageous train story where Ondaatje’s father escaped from a train, ran off naked into the
jungle and was later found walking around having caught a series of local dogs. The image created is
a disturbing one of Mervyn speaking a subterranean language as he holds the dogs off the ground by
the ropes around their necks
 At the end of the chapter the dogs are cut loose and Mervyn is taken back to Columbo by Arthur and
Stephy
Motifs / Symbols & Imagery
The Bone
Bones have been associated with Mervyn since the opening chapter where Ondaatje dreams about his
father as ‘chaotic, surrounded by dogs, and all of them screaming and barking into the tropical
landscape.’ This comes shortly after the line ‘What began it all was the bright bone of a dream’ and the
echo between this line and the chapter title perhaps suggests that this may be the story that first piqued
Ondaatje’s interest in his father. Indeed opening lines of this chapter are ‘There is a story about my father
that I cannot come to terms with’ and this perhaps creates the impression that it is his attempt to make
sense of this story about his father that has led Ondaatje back to Ceylon in an attempt to reconstruct his
family history and learn about the relationship between his parents. Bone also obviously refers to the
structure of the human skeleton and thus oblique reference to foundations may be related to the sense
that we get throughout the memoir that Ondaatje is attempting to uncover his roots and come to a better
understanding of himself.
The Dogs
The dogs seem to be a symbol for darkness as Mervyn is described as having “captured all the evil in the
regions he passed through” (182). However, perhaps their main function is to echo the darkness in
Mervyn who at this point seems to have become so lost in alcoholism that he has lost much of his
humanity – hence the descriptions of his conversation with the dogs as ‘subterranean, volcanic’. The fact
that the dogs are strays and, perhaps, outcasts may also echo something about Mervyn’s character and
status within society.
Alcohol
The destructive effects of alcohol are demonstrated throughout this section as it is alcohol and Mervyn’s
drunkenness that eventually tore the Ondaatje family apart. This may suggest that although drinking
during their “flaming youth” brought no serious consequences, alcohol was ultimately responsible for the
gradual decay in Mervyn’s character seen in his later life.
Identity
In earlier chapters, the idea of identity revolves around the identity of Ceylon, but in this section,
Ondaatje’s own identity is more in focus. This can be seen in the chapter “Blind Faith” where he seems to
question his connection with his family and his own role in the scheme of things. He draws upon the
feeling of wanting to meet his father and to discuss the past with him to reveal that he is trying to develop
a greater understanding of his father and is perhaps in need of a guide.
Edgar & Gloucester
These characters from Shakespeare’s King Lear are two of the most powerful symbols in this section.
Gloucester is the self destructive father who never really knew his own son, a clear echo of Mervyn, while
Edgar is the loyal son who remains devoted to his father even when he has been cast out by him. Edgar’s
attempts to teach Gloucester about suicide by pretending to help Gloucester throw himself off a cliff
perhaps echoes Ondaatje’s similar attempt to rehabilitate his father. More convincingly, the fact that
Edgar feels close to his father and is heartbroken by his suffering but never reveals who he is reflects the
distance between Ondaatje and his own father despite their closeness. The tragic nature of the play may
also echo the sense of tragedy we feel as we witness the destruction of the Ondaatje family. The link
between Ondaatje and characters like Edgar (and Fortinbras) is cemented by the fact that both of these
characters are among those who survive the tragedy and live to tell the tale. Indeed, Fortinbras speaks
the closing lines in Hamlet when he encourages the survivors at the Danish court to honour the dead
prince and orders Horatio to relate to everyone the story of what happened. The connections to Ondaatje
here are evident.
The Tea Estate
In the chapter, “Tea Country”, the magnitude of the tea fields surrounding the old Ondaatje family is used
to emphasize the sense of isolation Doris seems to feel when living there. The vast expanse of these
fields, although tranquil, creates a sense of imprisonment with its uniformity and silence. The fact that she
could not see beyond these fields accentuates the distance between her and Colombo, where all the
excitement is going on. In addition, Ondaatje describes the landscape and nature, surrounding the tea
estate through repeated use of the colour green creating the impression that the place is natural, vibrant
and even “regal” a description which helps to evoke the sense of a pastoral idyll. This sense of peace is
reinforced by the ‘word sleepy’ which suggests the quiet, slow and relaxed atmosphere of the country,
where nothing out of the ordinary happens, and the fact that “the loudest noise is the excited breathing of
two dogs.”
The North Pole
In “What we think of married life”, Ondaatje describes his father as the North Pole. Partly this may be
used to suggest the cold distance that he associates with his father who, now that he is dead, is
unreachable and this echoes the sense we get later on in Blind Faith that Ondaatje regrets not having
had the opportunity to develop a proper reltionshp with his father. Alternatively the symbol of the North
Pole may have been used because when navigating it is the point of origin or the fixed point against
which bearings are taken. This may suggest that he is the origin of this generation of Ondaatjes and that
they move in accordance with him.
Themes
Post-modernism and The Vulnerability of History to Time and Perspective
The post-modern idea of the fractured narrative and the impossibility of obtaining an objective truth is
evident in both the Bone and Dialogue sections where we are given stories from different perspectives.
Not only does this reveal how these stories have to be stitched together by someone before they can be
understood (suggesting the possibility of bias, misunderstanding or inaccuracy) but ‘The Bone’ in
particular reveals the unavoidable influence of the author’s perspective on the story being told as
Ondaatje admits that this is a story that does not fit with his image of his father. In addition, because the
narrative perspective in ‘The Bone’ is that of Mervyn’s friend, Arthur we are left unsure as to the reliability
of the story and this sense of unreliability is accentuated by the clear exaggeration evident in Arthur’s
narrative where he describes Mervyn walking towards him, huge and naked, holding five dogs in one
hand.
Characters
Mervyn Ondaatje
Mervyn’s character is explored in more detail in this section of the memoir. He is described as being a
private man who “swallowed the heart of books and kept that knowledge and emotion to himself” (168).
Ondaatje also creates the impression that he is also gentle and loving, and was only violent and impulsive
when he is was drinking. We are also given a clear impression that, despite their differences, he bonded
with Dorisas the shared the same “secretive and slightly crooked humor” which would make them both
double up with laughter (170).
Doris Gratiaen
Doris is depicted as being similar to Lalla in their shared sense of theatricality where everything she says
or does is dramatic and somewhat exaggerated. Ondaatje nicely emphasizes this when he says that his
mother could make a situation so dramatic that, even from the isolated Tea Estate where they lived, the
news of it would quickly reach Colombo. In addition, she is seen to be very determined in her attempts to
stop Mervyn from drinking. Ondaatje says that “she drew on every play she had been in or had read and
used it as a weapon” to make him sober again (171). Her strength and determination can also be seen
when she moved back to England to work in a hotel in order to support the children.
Christopher, Janet and Gilian Ondaatje
Ondaatje’s siblings who are described as having “a sense of the dramatic … [and] … the determination to
now and then hold the floor” (168) and the implication that they have inherited this from their parents
echoes again the theme of things running in the family and reinforces the sense that Ondaatje is trying to
discover more about himself through coming to a greater understanding of himself. This attempt to
understand the self through understanding you parents is also evident in Ondaatje’s comment about his
half sister Susan who is portrayed as being gentle, calm, quiet and “utterly humble” (168) – as a result of
the difference between them Ondaatje concludes that he most have inherited his taste for the dramatic
from his mother’s side of the family.
Narrative Style
The first person narrative style of ‘Tea Country’ is perhaps used to create an impression of the very real,
and moving beauty of the Tea Estate. The first person voice here may have been used to evoke the same
powerful impression of beauty on the reader as it seems to have done on Ondaatje. This contrasts with
the third person view used in ‘What we think of married life’ where the distance here perhaps allows the
arguments and tempests of married life to take on a slightly comical hue.
The narrative style of ‘Dialogues’ stands out as it is composed of a series of different stories that are
pieced together chronologically. Not only does this echo the process that Ondaatje would have
undergone as he constructed this memoir but it also reinforces the sense of post-modern uncertainty that
we associate with the unreliability of information from multiple sources that has been selected and then
re-framed to tell a story from a certain perspective.
In this section, Ondaatje’s narrative the becomes more serious as he recounts the disintegration of his
parents’ marriage. However, he continues to interject moments of humour, for example, as he mentioned
that Doris would hold her breath until she fainted to force Mervyn to stop drinking.
The confused and dark narrative style used in ‘The Bone’, befits the darkly disturbing image of Mervyn
created therein and the lack of romanticisation gives this section a much more realistic feel which shows
the seriousness of the situation and implies that, at some level, Ondaatje is aware of the destructive
effects of alcohol and does not view it only as a fuel for the flaming youth. Perhaps most interestingly
Ondaatje begins narrating this chapter in first person but ends it by directly addressing his father. This
direct address in the lines ‘I am the son you have made hazardous but who still loves you’ and the fact
that Ondaatje says ‘I am writing this book about you when I am least certain about such words’ creates
the impression that Ondaatje has been left with unanswered questions and that the writing of this memoir
is, at least in part, an attempt to answer them. The short sentences and rhetorical questions here help to
intensify this sense of loss.
Relation of Part to Whole
The entire section continues to develop the sense that Ondaatje is on a quest to find out about his family.
Nature is incorporated into every part of the text, and is used as a tool by Onndatje to convey his
impressions and feelings of his homeland. In this section, he is seen doing just that, as it opens with his
description of the tea-estate, leaving the readers with the impression of a laid-back countryside. In
contrast to this, there are times in the text where we see the power of nature and how people have to
work tirelessly to keep it in check, this is evident in the lines, “Such precision would be jungle in five years
if left alone.”
This section is also crucial in painting a picture of the relationship between Ondaatje’s parents. The fact
that the title of the section is taken from the comment on Doris and Mervyn’s honeymoon photo reinforces
the impression that it is their relationship that is to be the focus here. On one Ondaatje reveals the effects
of Mervyns’ alcoholism and how Doris tries to combat it in response and we learn that while his siblings
saw it as “a nightmare” there were still moments of hilarity that are suggestive of the golden age of
Mervyn and Doris’ flaming youth. Rather than paint his father as an alcoholic villain the quotation “a bomb
to disturb a butterfly,” actually suggests how outrageous Doris’ actions are, and the lengths to which she
will go to try and embarrass her husband into sobriety.
Finally, in “Blind Faith,” Ondaatje reflects on his role as the “remnants [left over] from the earlier
generations” and questions himself about how little he actually knows; what did “love, passion, [and] duty”
actually mean to his father. It is this chapter more than any else that, when read from an autobiographical
perspective, may reveal some of the motivation behind Ondaatje’s decision to write this memoir. Despite
being made hazardous by his father, which denotes perhaps how nightmarish his childhood may have
been, it is clear that Ondaatje still loves his father and in some senses may want to rehabilitate or ‘save’
him in the same way that Edgar ‘saves’ Gloucester. The depths of Ondaatje’s feelings are further
suggested when, in contrast to previous chapters, Ondaatje reveals his own feelings and directly
addresses his father instead of narrating indirectly.
Running in the Family: Chapter Notes – Ceylon Cactus & Succulent Society
Thanikama – Monsoon Notebook (iii)
“Thanikama” (185 – 189)
 This story echoes the extended description of Lalla’s life in ‘The Passions of Lalla’ and tells the story
of Mervyn after his separation from Doris. He appears to feel lonely and abandoned: “...after the
meeting with Doris - tense, speaking in whispers in the hotel lobby - he would force himself to sit on
the terrace overlooking the sea” (pg. 185)
 There is a sense that Mervyn refuses to believe that Doris has really left him for good as he wants her
to “stop this posing at her work”. He also appears desperate to speak to her and waits all day in the
sun in a place where they could be alone if “she changed her mind and came down to him”
 The title means ‘loneliness’ and the section focuses on evoking a sense of pathos for the isolated
Mervyn who ends the chapter staring aimlessly at the page of a book that is being carried away from
him by an army of ants.
 One quotation that effectively sums up Mervyn’s sense of isolation is: “Objects had stayed and people
disappeared” (186)
Monsoon Notebook (iii) (190 – 191)
 As in the previous monsoon notebook chapters, this chapter is a series of descriptions of the
environment surrounding Michael Ondaatje. The school exercise book that he is writing in seems to
be the notebook that he has used to record his journeys through Ceylon and that holds the
information that he has found out about his family.
 The descriptions are largely of nature. There is a focus on earth, rain and wetness and the chapter
finishes with ‘the garden a few feet away … suddenly under the fist of a downpour’ (191). The coming
of rain in itself suggests the possibility of rebirth and renewal, which helps create an impression that
Ondaatje’s journey has been completed and that he has a better understanding of himself now that
he can see who he is in the light of his origins. In addition, the almost magical feeling suggested by
the fact that Ondaatje ‘actually saw’ the sheet of rain fall from the sky ‘like an object past the window’
creates the impression that Ondaatje has been granted a moment of rare insight and this is
accentuated by the tone of wonder evident in the line ‘But I actually saw it.’
Motifs, Symbols and Imagery
Alcohol
Mervyn continues to consume alcohol throughout this section, notably in “Thanikama”. He drinks beer
(185), then brings cases of beer and gin to take back to Kegalle (186). Towards the end of the chapter, he
also drunkenly looks at his reflection in the alcohol bottle. In contrast to its previous appearances in the
memoir alcohol here has lost its earlier outrageous, gregarious and riotously funny connotations and
instead the image of a lonely man drinking to drown his sorrows and unable to look at himself in the
mirror evokes a clear sense of pathos.
Allusions to Shakespeare
Ondaatje’s reference to Shakespeare may serve a number of purposes. At an obvious level the fact that
Shakespeare’s plays are described as ‘those plays of love that he wept over too easily’ reinforces the
image created here of Mervyn as isolated, broken and alone. However Ondaatje may also be continuing
the post-colonial theme introduced earlier as the fact that the book ‘was not Shakespeare’ partially
echoes the title of the section ‘Don't Talk to me About Matisse’ which is the section most obviously critical
of the European powers that colonized Sri Lanka. This book may also be a reference to Mervyn’s life
which was most definitely not Westernised. Finally the fact that the book that the ants carry away is page
189 (the same page on which this section is actually written) reinforces the link between the book in the
bathroom and the memoir that we are currently reading. Mervyn’s lack of interest in this page of a book
about him may reflect his lack of interest in his own life now that he has lost his family. Alternatively
perhaps Ondaatje is trying to imply that while Mervyn’s life did not possess the grandeur of a
Shakespearean tragedy it is worth recording none-the-less and is tragic in its own way. There is also a
further sadness in the implied (albeit impossible) connection that the father could have been reading the
book that his son wrote and this is perhaps reflective of Ondaatje’s desire to really understand and be
understood by his father – the sense that he has come close but will never quite be able to have the
conversation with his father that he wants, just like Edgar and Gloucester in King Lear.
Themes
Post-modernism
Post-modernism is most obviously suggested in “Thanikama” in the section where Mervyn was in the
bathroom and saw a “whole battalion [of ants] carrying one page away from its source” (189). The fact
that the page on which this section is written is page 189 perhaps suggests a blurring of the boundaries
between the fictional and the real worlds and thus the post-modern idea that ‘reality’ is little more than an
agreed upon form of fiction. In this light we can see an interesting parallel between the text Ondaatje is
writing and the real world in which he is living. In the acknowledgements, Ondaatje claims that his memoir
is more a gesture than a portrait, which reveals that this text is a combination of fictional elaboration and
real world information while in parallel the real world is a combination of real world detail and pseudotextual interpretation.
Romanticisation of the Past
The romanticisation of the past is again evident in this section of the memoir as Mervyn’s actions continue
to be eccentrically unique, for example his ability to talk lucidly about the stars with the cinnamon peeler
on the drive back from Colombo. However, towards the end of “Thanikama”, Mervyn gradually begins to
reflect upon his life in a hopeless and melancholic way. In this way Ondaatje reinforces the impression
that the glorious times which is father inhabited in the past are gone for good and he also evokes a sense
of pathos as a result of the comparison between the life Mervyn used to live and the one he lives now.
Alternatively we might argue that, by painting Mervyn in such a grand state of desolation, Ondaatje
continues to romanticize his father as a man capable of truly reaching rock bottom and perhaps there is
something romantic, although not attractive, about a man who can sink that low.
Post-colonialism
The fact that the title is left in untranslated Sinhalese (although a hint is given to us at the start of the next
chapter) suggests how perhaps there are some ideas that cannot be truly expressed in English and that
there is therefore a richness in Ceylon (and the Sinhalese language) that the colonizers cannot equal nor
take away. The reference to the cinnamon peeler who Mervyn picks up on his drive home further
reinforces the uniqueness of Ceylon as it echoes the poem in ‘Don’t Talk to me About Matisse’ which
recongnises the importance of celebrating your cultural identity.
Characters
Mervyn Ondaatje
Through this section, readers identify immense changes in Mervyn’s character. From being a reckless
and seemingly irresponsible person, Mervyn reflects upon his past for a while. Specifically in
“Thanikama”, Mervyn feels alone as he reminisces about the past and his ex-wife. However, some
aspects of him still don’t change, and he is clearly still dependent on alcohol … only now, his use of
alcohol seems to depress rather than enliven the mood and his character. The fact that Mervyn is drunk
by the end of the chapter and “saw himself with the bottle” creates a sense that he is reflecting on his life
as if from a distance and can see how it has revolved around alcohol. The fact that he lost his “book”
(188), the book which is a memoir or record of his life, may suggest how he has lost interest in or control
over his life. The fact that Mervyn “surrendered [the page] to [the ants]” (189), clearly illustrates his
hopelessness in Mervyn and the fact that he is “scared of the company of the mirror” (189), shows how
he is unwilling to confront the truth about himself. However, there is something tragic about this as, in
order to avoid looking in the mirror, he must in some level already realize what he is going to see if he
looks in it. Ultimately, the line “objects had stayed and people disappeared” (186) suggests Mervyn’s
loneliness and his realization that he has lost the people that he loved from his past.
Narrative Style:
The chapter is written predominantly in a third-person narrative style however Ondaatje breaks this on
page 188 when he writes from Mervyn’s perspective in the line “The bottle top in my mouth as I sit on the
bed like a lost ship on a white sea.” The switch into first person not only accentuates the pathos created
for Mervyn but also suggests that a connection now exists between Ondaatje and his father that wasn’t
there before and that Ondaatje can now, metaphorically, stand in his father’s shoes and understand his
feelings and actions. The fact that this comes so close to the end of the memoir contributes to the sense
of resolution that we feel in this final chapter.
The omniscience of the narrator in this chapter echoes the omniscience in the ‘Passions of Lalla’ as
Ondaatje writes about things which he could not possibly have found out in his research. This clearly
illustrates the fictionalized nature of this memoir and may suggest that Ondaatje celebrates his father in
the same way that he celebrates Lalla. There is also a clear contrast between the grandeur of Lalla’s
intoxication and her final magnificent ride in the flood with the squalor and loneliness of Mervyn’s
alcoholism.
The narrative style of Monsoon Notebook (iii), like the earlier ‘notebooks’, is a disjointed, diary-like, first
person account of what seems to be Ondaatje’s final night in Ceylon. The first person style helps to evoke
this sense of realization and closure that has been reached at the end of Ondaatje’s journey.
Relation of Part to Whole
The entire section seems to be the end of Ondaatje’s quest to find out about his family. This section
shows Mervyn in the full pathos of his isolation after his first wife has left him. The sense of despair and
loneliness contrasts with the romanticised version of him that we see earlier in the memoir and helps to
create a sense of closure, as if Ondaatje has come to a balanced understanding of what his father was
like. The final vision of rainfall and the send of wonder at seeing something so rare also creates the
impression that a greater understanding and sense of peace has been reached.