That darkness dissipates gradually, however, throughout the novel, as Patrick learns and accepts more about his true self, and recognizes his capacities not only to love, but to grieve. Perhaps fittingly, the woman who most inspires Patrick is named Clara, which means "light". IN a similar vein, the character Caravaggio bears the name of an Italian Renaissance painter who was considered a master of chiaroscuro (light and darkness). .

             Narrative voices within the story combine to help to shed light on events and circumstances, some accurate, others pure fiction. Together, these fragments comprise a compelling composite of Toronto, and of daily life within Toronto. Fragmentation of narrative voice is the "cubist structure" [which could as well be described as prismatic] to which Simmons (1998) refers. .

             Historical truth, e.g., the real-life construction of the Bloor Street Viaduct and of the R.C. Harris Filtration Plant, and the real life disappearance of the enigmatic millionaire Ambrose Small, combine, with elements of pure fiction, to illuminate, impressionistically at least, snapshots of immigrant (and quasi-immigrant, as in Patrick's case) experience of Toronto. Ondaatje's descriptions of light, darkness (and, by association, of colour, or the lack of it) almost always underscore related themes (and oppositions), e.g., of urban (e.g., well-lighted, busy) versus rural life (stark, dark, deserted). .

             As Ondaatje tells us early on, for example: "Patrick Lewis arrived in the city of Toronto as if it were land after years at sea . . . he had been drawn out from that small town like a piece of metal dropped under the vast arches of Union Station to begin his life once more . . . He was an immigrant to the city" (In the Skin of a Lion, p. 53). Still, however well-lit and teeming with active life the city might seem to the newly-arrived Patrick, he is nevertheless a stranger here, and, along with all those who hurry around him now, inside Union Station, he realizes he is "in the belly of a whale" (p.