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In The Skin Of A Lion Essay

Decent Essays

The Unknown History
The genre of historical fiction is loved by many authors as it allows them to use the past as an inspiration while writing a fictional story that will captivate the readers. In the novel In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje, the rich history is explored throughout the novel with the theme of the unfair treatment of immigrants, the construction of both the Bloor Street Viaduct and the Queen Street Waterworks and the character of Rowland Harris. By looking at the historical facts in the novel, we can see why it’s considered a historical fiction novel, which most readers fail to recognize; this is important because Ondaatje chooses this writing style so that the readers can learn about the rich history of Toronto through …show more content…

In the novel, Ondaatje names him Rowland Harris and he’s a secondary character in the story. However, that being said, Rowland Harris is portrayed as a visionary, a dreamer and an achiever. The author does a great job of bringing this character in the story all while maintaining some great accomplishments in his life. Roland Harris envisioned a lot of aspects that Toronto now has. During Harris and Patrick’s conversation at The Queen Street Waterworks, Harris says “It turned out I was dreaming about projects for the city that had been rejected over the years. Wonderful things that were said to be too vulgar or expensive, too this too that.” (Ondaatje 237) Roland Harris was a great architect for the city of Toronto, he was a visionary and wanted to make the city of Toronto grow. This is directly linked to Toronto’s history and Ondaatje uses that secondary character who the readers don’t see a lot throughout the book to talk about someone who dreamed big for Toronto. Harris even says to Patrick “I mean the Bloor Street Viaduct and this building here are just a hint of what could have been done here.” (Ondaatje 237) For someone who was a visionary for Toronto, the sky would have been the limit if he had the money and the right to keep making the city grow. The Character of Harris has played a valuable part in the way Toronto is shaped today and Ondaatje knew

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