In “In The Skin of a Lion,” Michael Ondaatje has revised the history of the city of Toronto. Although, city planners and corporations in town are the principal focus of official accounts, however, Ondaatje does not allot enough space in his narration to such functionaries and their visions. Instead, he emphasizes on those who built Toronto and their stories. In his novel, he focuses on peripheral workers rather than the controlling centre. In his novel, Ondaatje uses an oral narrative model to present the diversity of these workers. The characterization of the novel and the foundation of its structure and themes are rooted in the Epic of Gilgamesh (Sandars 46-48). Even the climax scene of Ondaatje’s novel that follows is modeled after the Epic of Gilgamesh. Patrick Lewis is the protagonist of Ondaatje’s novel. He is among the workers who assisted in building the infrastructure of Toronto and his story enlightens readers of the history of the city. Alice Gull, an actress and a political activist/nationalist, serves as an inspiration for Patrick, and acting according to her will, he decided to undo the city order by getting to the “centre of the city” (Ondaatje 29). Traditionally, it is the victors who tell the story; however, Ondaatje challenges this view by being very objective in his novel’s contents and omitting nothing. In his novel, Ondaatje gives voice to those were silence by the historical discourse of Toronto, and rewrites the city’s history by mixing fact with fiction.
Ondaatje’s narrative has a more empathetic tone because of his position as an immigrant in Canada. By commenting on his protagonist’s experiences in his own voice, Ondaatje is able to change how we read fiction and history. He grants the unconventional – those who have been on the outskirts of Toronto’s history – the power to change the outlook of the centre (Hutcheon 103). Ondaatje’s narrative is also fragmentary in nature, as a result, not only does it draw readers into the world he has recreated, but also demands that readers actively participate in it. He makes his readers comply with him in the act of rewriting history by luring them into the lives of his characters. Like several other of Ondaatje’s novels, he has also drastically alters the concept of linear time in “In The Skin of a Lion.” Instead, he is telling the story in an analeptic timeframe. As a result, the narrative ends up being a recreated personal history that is formed of fragments of memories. By using this narrative technique, Ondaatje reveals historical facts and outcomes of events to the readers even before they have actually occurred in chronological order. Rather than starting at the beginning of a particular memory and then tell the reader of its outcome, Ondaatje does the opposite. Alice Gull’s death is a prominent example of this. Readers learn about Alice’s death very early in the narrative, but the events leading to her death are revealed gradually.
Ondaatje exploits the title of the novel, “In the Skin of a Lion,” throughout the narrative in different ways. Not only is it an allusion to The Epic of Gilgamesh, but it is also an allusion to the experiences of the characters. All of the characters in the novel are somewhat hiding into their surroundings by hiding in a “different skin.” As Ondaatje illuminates an alternative history, he ends up shedding light on something is hidden. Ondaatje questions the construction of identity and race in the colonial society in his novel. By showing how immigrants are treated in Toronto, he creates a culture that is contrary to that of most of Toronto’s population. Apparently, Ondaatje is alluding to the concept of strategic essentialism, according to which those who part of a minority group or outside of society become more recognizable as a group (Siemerling). In his narrative, Ondaatje uses multiple voices to confront the official narratives of Toronto’s history, so that the readers may see and celebrate the diversity of the city. By taking a counter-dominant approach in his novel, Ondaatje seeks to tell history in a more democratic manner (Williams), and he uses this counter-dominance as a device which embraces both political and social metaphors (Spinks). In the novel, Ondaatje reflects the fact that the migrant identity was systematically erased by excluding migrants from the political sphere. Arguably, Ondaatje forces a hybrid identity upon his characters by assimilating them into the Toronto society.
Ondaatje has structured his novel, “In the Skin of a Lion,” in such a way that it becomes a blend of fiction and reality. Ondaatje also uses language to dramatize the tensions between the native society and the immigrants in Toronto. Ondaatje also challenges everything that has been omitted from the history of Toronto. Even the presentation of history has been challenged in the novel. Ondaatje creates pictures of events in the minds of the readers while using very few words. Ondaatje reminds his readers of memories and comments on things that considers are relevant to the history of the city by painting these pictures in their minds. Arguably, he is reminding readers that the more human story is hidden under the surfaces of history, and pleads them to look at it. As a result, he challenges the concept of universal truth. Ondaatje’s specifically questions the culture and society of Toronto so that he may portray a very particular picture of the city. He shows how powerless the silenced and unspoken in his novel are, but he also emphasizes the fact that Toronto city would not have existed without them. The truth cannot be constructed without depending on the society (Williams). Thus, a motif that Ondaatje continues to repeat throughout his novel is the blending of fact and story. Ondaatje brings back the forgotten voices of history to life by writing his novel as if he is telling a story.
Works Cited
Bhabha, Homi. The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print.
Hutcheon, Linda. The Canadian Postmodern: A Study of Contemporary English-Canadian Fiction (Studies in Canadian literature). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989. Print.
Ondaatje, Michael. In The Skin Of A Lion. 1st ed. . Toronto: Vintage Canada, 1996, 1996. Print.
Sandars, N.K. The Epic of Gilgamesh. London: Penguin Group, 1972. Print.
Siemerling, Winfried. "Oral History and the Writing of the Other in Ondaatje’s In The Skin of a Lion." Trans. Array Comparative Cultural Studies and Michael Ondaatje's Writing (Comparative Cultural Studies). . 1st ed. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2005. Print.
Spinks, Lee. Michael Ondaatje (Contemporary World Writers). England: Manchester University Press, 2009. Print.
