In The Skin Of A Lion
"Let me now re-emphasise the extreme looseness of the structure of all objects" How Ondaatje makes use of "loosness" in the novel. In "In The Skin Of A Lion" by Michael Ondaatje, "the extreme looseness of the structure of all objects" is carried into the themes, characters and into the nature of the novel itself. Ondaatje uses a "looseness" in the style of the novel - post modernism, and "looseness of structure" in the way that people are able to stretch and expand their boundaries: transform or mask themselves into someone not typical of their social group. This novel was written in the late 1980s and is classified as a post-modern work. Essentially, "In The Skin Of A Lion" has many traits of a post-modern novel, it deals with chaos and order, has multi-layered interpretations, provokes an ambiguous and mixed reaction from the reader, and has varied approaches to the conventional storyline; beginning, exposition, and closure. There are liberties taken with the time structure of the narrative. The story itself is like a "mural, [the] falling together of accomplices." Ondaatje tells of ordinary people who's stories interlock and intersect, with many "fragments of human order". Ondaatje does not tell the stories loosely and scattere
d with no real purpose in mind, he employs recurring images and motifs, for e.g. moths and insects, feldspar. This is to provide continuity and relevance, and helps him to give a view on the untold history of Toronto. An emphasis is placed on the story that comes from different viewpoints and angles - the "chaos", and then structures it so that its order of history is "very faint, very human" as opposed to official histories. It takes every single word from the first page to the last, in order to make sense of the meanings, which "travel languorously like messages in a bottle". The novel's storyline is not linear, it slides from one character to the next, then slips and loses itself in the time that it created, "five years earlier, or ten years into the future..." The prologue only makes sense once the end is reached, and the bits in between all mingle and melt into one another until most of the completed narrative is achieved. In fact, it takes a few good readings to pick up the events and stitch them together to create order, and only then are the meanings apparent. "Meander if you want to get to town". Even when the book is finished, there is no distinct closure and finality of the narrative; the story itself is in the process of being told. "This is a story a young girl gathers in a car...", and in that same way, it tells of how that car trip started, so the tale backs up on itself. The novel constantly brings attention that it itself is a work of fiction. There are constant references to art, music, drama, film, photography, and literature, as well as devices used "You reach people through metaphor". It implies that it is a creation, "Only the best art can order the chaotic tumble of events.." and even "The first sentence of every novel should be...". Authors, painters, singers and actors all featu
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1223
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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