Identity In In The Skin Of A Lion By Michael Ondaatje

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What makes us who we are? Is this the real us? Questions such as these seem odd, but the idea of there being a person’s true identity, is obvious. In today’s modern day society a person’s identity is based on how the person looks or where they come from, gender, race, and class. There are many things in our culture around us which sort of reinforce the idea of us having a unique identity. Identity is more about the collections of personal experiences and the changes that they bring rather than it being about judging people by their gender, race and class.
In the novel, In the Skin of a Lion written in the year 1987, Michael Ondaatje uses a variety of different themes such as the power of language, the immigrant experience, search for identity and many others to make the novel interesting. Along with these interesting themes Ondaatje makes it more interesting with the novel’s non-chronological order. Identity is what makes up a person by either the description, the actions done by the person or appearance. Ondaatje does a wonderful job of developing the characters’ identity throughout the novel, especially the development of the central character, by their description, actions and a variety of different ways. …show more content…

Ondaatje is trying to convey the message that without knowing English the character would be lost, unable to gain any kind of status. The character must for therefore learn English and through this assume a new identity. The book also represents the struggle of the immigrants to hold on to their identity. This quote is comparable to myself as when I immigrated to Canada, from India with my family, we did struggle a little as it was hard getting around and at the time we hardly knew anyone. It was easy for me to adapt to English as I did go to an English speaking school. This helped me gain a new identity in

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