Cultural Displacement in Canadian Literature-Rohinton Mistry's "Squatter"
Rohinton Mistry is known as a post-colonial writer. His writings reflect the Indian diaspora - the 'splitting' of identity. On the one hand, his characters dream of being integrated into, and accepted by, Canadian society. On the other hand, these same characters are torn my an insatiable desire to be true to their native culture, to honour and cherish their own, distinct cultural identity. This is the theme of "Squatter". Rohinton Mistry uses satire and symbolic imagery to attempt to convince his readers damage, he feels, that can come of hybridization. His short stories are very layered, presenting the reader with many images representing the dichotomy of the Indian versus the Canadian (Western) culture. At the beginning of the story, Nariman's character is depicted as one who has been greatly influenced by the Western culture and material goods (1932 Mercedes-Benz, which "he called the apple of his eye", whistling of an English song, "Clark Gable moustache" - page728). Ironically, he presents his listeners with two very distinct stories: one representing the need to stay strong and resist conformation, and the second, the story of Sarosh and the alienation that (can) come out of integration with the Canadian culture.
When describing the compound in which the Parsi sub-culture lives, Mistry presents the reader with an image of a drab place, a place with "blocks", which compels me to envision the complex as a sort-of prison, with cell blocks and an "iron gate where the watchman stood" (730). The fact that Mistry integrates words from his native language within the English text further Dr. No further explains the concept of hybridity; he relays the question that if more people conform to the master culture, then it could cause problems. When he states "you could be sharing the code with others. Then the risk of accidents becomes greater" (738) he is referring to the fact that as more and more people are hybridized, the purity of the native culture is dead and gone, forever. Upon deciding not to take advantage of the treatment, Sarosh resigns himself to the opinion that he will never be 'truly Canadian' and makes the decision to return home to India. Another satirical image used to represent the Canadian culture was the ability to ingest "Wonder Bread" because it "is a Canadian bread which all happy families eat to be happy in the same way; the unhappy families are unhappy in their own fashion by eating other brands" (736). The bread represents the culture itself - the underlying belief of Canadian culture is that unless you can immerse and integrate yourself totally and absolutely into the culture (with no traces of "other brands") then you have been enlightened, and to be enlightened is to be truly happy.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Crappus Interruptus, Canada Sarosh, Cricket English, Clark Gable, Rohinton Mistry, Bread Canadian, Parsi India, Dr No-Ilaaz, Canadian Western, India Finally, canadian culture, dr no-ilaaz, dr no-ilaaz sarosh, friend nariman, native culture, no-ilaaz sarosh, hand characters, master culture, post-colonial writer, western culture, rohinton mistry,
Approximate Word count = 1240
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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