The extract I will be discussing is on page 117 of the picador edition. It starts ‘He had discovered the Macedonian…’ and ends on ‘…almost nothing.’
“Language becomes the medium through which a hierarchical structure of power is perpetuated…” (The Empire Strikes Back, eds. Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin p. 7).
This line seems very important to the extract that I will be discussing as it shows that during this passage we have a role reversal between born-Canadian Patrick and the immigrant Macedonians. This sentence is being used to discuss the power of English speakers in Canada; however it can be shown that the power structure is changed by Patrick entering the Macedonian community without knowing their language. It is instead Patrick who is wishing to learn the Macedonian language and it is almost like he no longer fits into a part of his own country. In the passage, the theme of language struggle is brought up as the Macedonian woman corrects Patrick’s pronunciation of ‘gooshter.’ This is reminiscent of Ondaatje’s description of the immigrants who come to Toronto and go and see the same play repeatedly in order to strengthen their own pronunciation. Ondaatje individualises this idea by mentioning that Nicholas’s used Fats Waller to base his English on.
Ondaatje describes the two groups as ‘trying desperately to leap over the code of languages between them.’ This brings forth the idea that if Patrick does not know the language then he loses a sense of identity. This reminded me of the character of Nicholas who found it difficult to find a way to use his languages and so instead mixes them. However, Ondaatje shows Patrick and the woman to have a ‘breakthrough,’ as they finally have a shared understanding of what he needs. By having a relationship with the Macedonians, Patrick is almost blurring his own identity and asserting himself within the community.
Throughout this passage, Patrick is portrayed to find the situation quite daunting. Ondaatje’s language shows how the woman ‘gazed’ and ‘yelled’ and how a group of Macedonians ‘surround’ and ‘circled him.’ I think Ondaatje describes the community to show the fear that can be brought about by being an immigrant in a country where you do not know the language. Also, it can be seen as a reflection on Patrick’s own personality as he is quite an isolated person due to childhood experience. Even though as readers we know that the Macedonians are only trying to be friendly and are generally intrigued, Patrick finds this scary rather than comforting. Perhaps, this is a reminder that Patrick is, like them, also an immigrant to Toronto.
The final sentence of this passage is quite attention-grabbing as instead of saying that the Macedonian community had reduced him to nothing by surrounding him with an unknown language, he instead blames himself. Patrick states that he is ‘ashamed’ (and is almost guilty, but why?) that they can’t know very much about him because of the language difference. Even though he works with the Macedonian’s in the tunnels, there is still a distance which means they cannot be united on a class front. This took me back to reading MacLeod’s No Great Mischief and the distance between the French Canadians and the Scottish in the mining community.
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2 comments:
I like the idea that there is almost a segregation in the society resulting from differing languages that you raised, which is a prominent political concern in Canada due to the various languages and the need for official languages. I also agree with the fact that there is a breakthrough in this barrier and subsequently Patrick progressively sidelines this difference and becomes immersed in the Macedonian community. I found a similar thing in my analysis, particularly in your identification of the lexicon utilised to convey speech ‘yelled’ , in the extract that I looked at Ondaatje utilises the word ‘scream’, language almost appears violent or as a way in which to vent frustration or emotion. Inner thoughts are figured externally not only through the verbal but the way in which these are communicated. Moreover I thought that these choices communicated the need for the ex-centric voice to almost shout in order to be heard, in the extract that I looked at Patrick voice struggles and is then lost.
I like the way you’ve taken Patrick’s trajectory of learning-to-become-an-immigrant (sort of) and have read it through the language differential. It’s worth mentioning that Canada has spent so long trying to achieve a balance between French and Anglo-Canadians (& their respective languages, cultures, customs etc) that what has often happened is that those who were not French or English-Canadian got lost in the shuffle. For example, legislation enshrined the right of both French and English-Canadian children to be educated in whichever of the two languages they preferred (which meant not only French and English schools but also Catholic & Protestant schools), but this created a problem for Jewish Canadians (a minority, but a substantial one) who did not want their children to have either a Catholic or a Protestant education! That’s just one example – there are many more. So, Ondaatje could be seen as delving between the cracks (now there’s a new metaphor to substitute for ex-centricity) to show what happened to other groups, for example Macedonians, which tend to be less visible within Canadian history, consisting as that history largely does of tensions and resolutions between the French and the English.
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