The aim of this essay is to present you with an analysis and in-depth description of the narrative technique applied by Michael Ondaatje in his novel ‘Anil’s Ghost’. Michael Ondaatje is widely acknowledged within the borders of the literary community as a new talent shedding a unique light upon the secrets entailed in what is to be received as an interesting piece of writing, generating deeper thought and motivating its readers to go one step further than the plot they have just read. His novel ‘Anil’s Ghost’ took according to his own admittance seven years to be completed and although it came to public after his famous novel ‘The English Patient’, it succeeded in obtaining its own place in the hearts of literary readers with some even reaching the belief that it proved to be even better in terms of intriguing their inner feelings and fueling their concern as far as social matters of worldwide effects are concerned. In ‘Anil’s Ghost’ the writer comes to present his readers with the civil war which took place in his own birthplace, Sri Lanka from the mid-1980s to early 1990’s. This was a very turbulent period for the island of Sri Lanka of extreme violence and numerous unknown innocent victims, which at most readers’ surprise had not been widely communicated to the world. It seems that Michael Ondaatje apart from the main core of his plot - which is the search of truth lying under a corpse of unknown identity found by his main heroine, a forensic pathologist – wants to make readers aware of violence existing in places far away from their neighborhoods and strictly framed social environments within which they are to live their lives. Through Anil’s quest for truth, for finding the real identity of the dead body who is called by the nickname ‘Sailor’, the readers live step by step all the horror existing in that land because of the war. They witness along with the main persons of the story the terrible conditions existing there and the total lack of any quality of life. Michael Ondaatje succeeds in taking his readers to a maze whose corridors are covered in the heroes’ and heroines’ personal individual stories, traumas and nightmares all of which co-exist under the veil of the war. ‘Anil’s Ghost’ is an innovative novel not only due to its plot and main theme but also due to its narrative technique. This essay is to present you with the innovation characterizing Michael Ondaatje’s narrative which by all means contributes to empowering the effect of this novel on its readers. The writer is known for his mastery in approaching matters such as the effects of neo-colonialism, the conflicts developed in one’s self because of his origins and expectations in comparison to his accomplishments and the contradictions existing in terms of the evolution of one’s identity. All these issues along with the effects of transnationalism on people’s lives - who are to be able to deal with their new reality of their global society which is no other than their familiarization with their multicultural ego – are themes of Ondaatje’s novels. In ‘Anil’s Ghost’ readers are once more presented with all these themes as well as with issues involved in the gender and position. But the innovation of great significance in ‘Anil’s Ghost’ is the way in which all these themes are communicated to his readers. It could be argued that ‘Anil’s Ghost’ is the most representative novel of Ondaatje since he appears to communicate all these themes to his readers not only by developing an interesting plot but mainly by empowering this plot with a narrative technique which puts across the plot’s messages even more efficiently. It is common knowledge that even things and ideas which may have been expressed a thousand times still manage to seem new and provoke genuine interest if seen under a new perspective, if presented in another way. And Michael Ondaatje’s speaks to his readers’ hearts about issues which more than once have troubled the global community –especially if the underlying violence and the effects of a civil war are to be taken into consideration as two of the most commonly addressed issues –making a unique impact on them. It is his nonlinear narrative which leads his readers to look into these issues even deeper than before and do it on themselves. Michael Ondaatje leads his readers to exploring these issues following the main persons of the story which at one point they leave behind them. There is one point at which readers decide to reenter the maze whose outing will lead them to finding out the truth on their own. And this is the very ending of the story which by all means is an ending and a new beginning at the same time. And it is the nonlinear narration which makes this amazing effect of this novel experienced.
Analysis of the nonlinear narration in the novel
The definition ‘nonlinear narration’ refers to a narrative technique which doesn’t follow the typical steps of a narration. If a story has to present its readers / listeners with a beginning, a main theme / incident, its effects and results and its ending, then the nonlinear narration is just the opposite. It is a way of seeing and telling a story totally differently. The reader may be put in the middle of things – this is what academics call ‘in media res’ – and start living a series of events which communicate between them making perfect sense although they keep their unique individuality and identity. A number of trips backwards are experienced by the readers and comebacks at the moment of the plot which was their initial departure. All these backwards routes are experienced in the form of memories coming through the narrator(s) of the story or extra feedback information on the characters’ personalities on behalf of the third, unknown narrator who may be the writer himself or the backstage witness of the story which the readers live.
In ‘Anil’s Ghost’ Michael Ondaatje introduces his readers to his main leading role, Anil Tissera, a forensic pathology, who has just come back to her birthplace, Sri Lanka after 15 years of absence. During her investigation procedure on the identity of a skeleton she has found out with her partner Sarath – which has no resemblance as expected to the skeletons of the 6th centuries – readers travel backwards and come back to present at all points of the plot’s evolution. The quest of the truth on the identity of the skeleton involves the help of Palipana, Gabini and Ananda. A historian of inscriptions, a ritual painter and the brother of Sarath, a doctor also working with the victims of violence are the persons the readers meet. These are the persons who will help Anil and Sarath to their investigation. Each one of them carries his / her own past revealed to the readers in form of independent narrations, fragments of individual value which they all built up the story’s connected plot. Each fragment sheds light indirectly to these people’s present reactions, attitude and behavior. Each memory or information on their past lives explains the mystery or weirdness of their present appearance. The past is alive in present and present foresees the future outcome of the story. Although nothing can be predicated, readers start to become suspicious on the possibility of the quest’s efficient result. Nothing is said for clear. Present masques and disguises are taken down by readers themselves since parts of the main protagonists’ characters are revealed to them through this interplay of their inner conflicts. There are also points in which the implications on the future plot are given indirectly to the readers. Such a point is the dialogue Anil and Sarath have with Palipana who describes to them the ritual of painting eyes on statues. This is the ending scene of the novel in which Ananda wearing the shirt of dead Sarath sculptures the eyes of a statue of Buddha. "And now with human sight he was seeing all the fibres of natural history around him. He could witness the smallest approach of a bird, every flick of its wind, or a hundred-mile storm coming down off the mountains near Gonagola and skirting to the plains. He could feel each current of wind, every lattice-like green shadow created by cloud."
Readers witness the interplay of past defining parts of the present and of the present managing to get rid of past’s nightmares and darkness and open new windows to an enlightened future. For Ondaatje the identity of the plot is not something static. It is not fixed and it is not to be observed as something drawing its own route leaving readers and protagonists as pathetic marionettes in the writer’s hands. The plot is nonlinear which for Ondaatje means unpredictable and having entailed its protagonists and readers energetic involvement.
Works cited
Ondaatje, Michael. Anil’s Ghost. London: Bloomsbury, 2000
The essay wants to present your readers with the nonlinear technique on Anil’s Ghost. So the essay begins by presenting your readers with its aim. An introduction functioning as the feedback one ought to have in mind in order to understand the essay’s topic and its analysis is given. What is Anil’s Ghost? Who wrote it? Why have you chosen the analysis of the nonlinear narrative? The reader is given indirectly and directly all the feedback he/she ought to have so that he/she knows and understands what he/she is about to read. Notice ought to be taken of the fact that thh reader is given indirectly your personal liking as far as this technique is concerned and your admiration on the way it is used by Ondaatje himself. The second part of the essay emphasizes on providing the reader with all the examples of the plot which define and prove the use of nonlinear narrative. Last but not least the way the examples are presented and the analysis of the nonlinear narrative lead the readers of the essay to realize how the nonlinear narrative has contributed to the beauty of this novel and why it’s worth mentioning and analyzing.
