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 “
·
Comments on how he enjoys the harbour
because it is “sincere”
Monsoon Notebook (ii)
(135 - 136)
·
This chapter contains memories of the wildlife in
·
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 8th
·
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
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
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
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
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
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
Romanticisation of life in
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
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.
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
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
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
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 /
The chapter ‘Harbour’
paints another romanticised picture of life in
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 “
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
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 meta-narrative 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
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
The first chapter, Harbour,
combines Ondaatje’s stories of returning to