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In The Skin Of A Lion Essay

Decent Essays

What is history? Who gets to writes it? Can you be a part of it? History is an array of fragmented stories clustered together to form a whole and power is the driving force of storytelling, that is, those with a voice can be part of history. Michael Ondaatje’s 1987 novel, In the Skin of a Lion, challenges the notion that our great human narrative is just singular written story and suggests, through a post-colonial context, that it is actually the micro-narratives that create our collective history.

In the Skin of a Lion explores the importance of achieving a voice and how it promotes individuals to challenge the dominant metanarrative allowing it to be re-written. “Never again will a single story be told as though it were the only one”, Ondaatje …show more content…

The fragmented structure of the novel emphasises the interconnectedness between each individual setting and each individual character revealing the true multidimensional structure of history. The marginalisation of immigrant workers – who are forbidden to speak their native tongue – and their lack of power is highlighted metaphorically in, “perhaps they are not mute at all”, emphasising the initial dominance of the metanarrative. The notion of the helplessness of those without a voice, is metaphorically depicted by Alice Gull’s puppet show, “it stamped a foot to try and bring out a language”, allegorically demonstrating the impact of the power of language on the notion of storytelling. Patrick Lewis develops his voice by recognising his role as a storyteller, depicted in the authorial intrusion, “his own life was no longer a single story but part of a mural”, signifying the relevance and necessity of micro-narratives upon identity and the consequential reshaping of the hegemonic metanarrative. Nicholas Temelcoff, a daredevil bridge-worker, is painfully aware of his anonymity to history until Patrick shows him a photograph and he symbolically becomes “aware of himself standing there within the pleasure of recall… Patrick’s gift…shows him…how he has been sewn into history”, his

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