Big I, Eye, Aye.

Polarizations and Conflicts
(just words below, proper formatting in .doc above)

Literary Criticism Take Home Test

Polarizations and Conflicts

By: Ilayda Williamson

For: Mr. Murray

ENG4UE-02

October 28, 2008

The fastest, the strongest, the richest, the rarest. The human society is one obsessed with the ultimate best. Humans strive to perfect their bodies and careers to ‘come out on top’ – and then compile lists of records of the furthest they could push. It is not surprising then that human society has an infatuation with mythical superhuman figures – be they gods, spirits or comic book super heroes. They represent an extreme – the perfection in some area.

The movie Unbreakable, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, reflects this obsession with comic book super heroes in particular. More than this, it looks into the cause and effect of conflicts because of polarization of human ability, and how being at polar opposites affects a relationship with society. The movie features two characters – one who sustains injuries from a simple fall, and one, as the title suggests, who cannot sustain injuries in almost any situation. Because the movie is an insight on human conflict, the literary criticism mimesis and scapegoating can easily be applied to de-construct this movie. Acquisitive mimesis, the traditional theory of mimesis in art, and scapegoating can all be isolated and examined in the film Unbreakable.

Mimesis has many definitions, all pertaining to different fields of knowledge. The definition Plato and Aristotle devised in Ancient Greece is that it is an imitation of life in art. It is the opposite of diegesis, which is the perfect retelling of what actually occurred. To clarify, diegesis is to mimesis as history is to art, as a newspaper article is to a poem. Both have their uses, although some people are wary of life represented mimetically in art. What they do not realize is that reality may be ‘shown’ just as accurately as it is told. The artful additions do not take away from the truth, merely draw a thin veil over it which one may still see through. This has been seen through history in cave-drawings, pottery and sculpture, for example.

This applies directly to the movie as Elijah believes something along the lines that the components of comic books – the heroes, villains, and conflicts – are in fact real. Elijah explains as so: “I believe that comics, just at their core now… have a truth. They are depicting what someone, somewhere felt or experienced. Then of course that core got chewed up in the commercial machine and gets jazzed up, made titillating – cartooned for the sale rack” (Shyamalan). This correlates to Plato and Aristotle’s theory because what Elijah is saying is that what one sees in a comic is real life, but it is altered. Perhaps instead of a half-man half-spider hero swooping in to save a day, it was actually an agile young man running in. But one can still see the core of what happened – the problem, the rescue, etc. In effect, it is ’showing’ reality through story-telling and images, rather than telling it through a list of facts. This, explained once and once again, is the purpose of mimesis in art.

Acquisitive mimesis is, fundamentally, the want to acquire something that someone else has. It occurs when there is a discrepancy of power, real or imagined, between one individual and another individual or group. This discrepancy of power can manifest itself as a need to acquire ‘things’ that the more successful individual or group has – cars, houses, significant others, gadgets. This need can be felt by both parties involved, or the more affluent party may be completely unaware of this yearning. The latter is the case of Unbreakable. Both Elijah and David feel acquisitive mimesis towards the general population for the normal person’s purpose. Elijah and David are both outcasts. They lack purpose because of the reason that makes them different. In the case of Elijah, it is because of his biology – he has a condition which makes being a normal person extremely difficult. He cannot function normally in society, and he cannot have a true purpose other than to keep himself from death. David on the other hand can utilize his purpose but feels he cannot. He should use his talents to protect others and bring ‘justice’ but this would, to his mind, forfeit the illusion of normalcy for him and his family. He explains his turmoil well in the following to Elijah Price.

Did you know that this morning was the first morning I can remember, that I didn’t open my eyes and feel that sadness… Do you know what I’m talking about? That little bit of sadness? (beat) I thought the person that wrote that note had an answer for me. For why I survived that train. For why my life feels so out of balance… (Shyamalan)

The mimetic tension, which has existed from birth for both, builds to a breaking point as these two characters cannot acquire what they desperately want.

The mimetic tension formed by this long-harbored acquisitive mimesis is dispelled through the assignation of a scapegoat. The point of a scapegoat is to place the blame on something or someone concrete, rather than a hard to grasp, abstract idea such as world famine or a corrupt government. Who receives the title of scapegoat? It is usually an arbitrary victim, and this victim is usually completely innocent and removed from the situation. In Ancient Greece, scapegoats traditionally were cripples, or beggars – helpless citizens that were blamed simply because they were helpless citizens. Helpless, so they were unable to retaliate, and a citizen, so that the anger felt because of a tragedy may be purged through one of their own. This is true of the scapegoats in Unbreakable. David Dunne’s scapegoat is close to home – he chooses his wife as his scapegoat. The evidence found in the movie is their failing marriage and Dunne’s consideration of moving out. He blames his wife for making him choose to fake his injury so that he would be ‘normal’ for her, normalcy in this case not being a football star as a career. And the faking of the injury covered up any of his talents that he may have used later in life. His resentment is illustrated in a key piece of dialogue.

MEGAN Do you knowingly keep Jeremy and me at a distance? Beat.

DAVID Yes.

Megan’s face tenses. She’s on the verge of getting upset.

MEGAN

Why? DAVID

I don’t know Megan. MEGAN

It’s like you resent us David. Resent the life you have.

(Shyamalan)

When the need to cover up his ‘power’ is defeated and he finds his purpose, helping a victimized family, the scapegoat is no longer needed and his marriage recovers.

Elijah Price’s choice of scapegoat is further reaching. He scapegoats the regular populace. This is proven at the end of the movie, when it is revealed that he himself had been creating all the tragedies that were featured on the news. He desired purpose, he desired a place - and he played out his feelings of poor chance by killing others ‘in search of a hero’. While he may have been committing murder for some twisted ideal of good, the fact that he still killed these people without batting an eye remains true. He feels no guilt, because he places no blame on himself. It had been placed on the backs of his victims long before they fell into his disastrous rat-trap. And this scapegoat-ing helps ease his pain. He says, speaking of seeing Dunne’s miraculous escape from harm, “[when] I saw it this morning. I felt a part of the world again.” (Shyamalan)

The fastest, the strongest, the richest, the rarest. These all exist on the ‘best’, the ‘most coveted’ end of the spectrum of Western society. But what happens when one begins including normal citizens on this spectrum? Most find themselves in the middle – average people. Those who do not, who like Dunne find themselves at the strongest end, or like Elijah who find themselves at the weakest end, face a sometimes unending battle with society. A true pressing of the eye to the keyhole of the human’s love of bests and worsts, and the conflicts spawned from this love is offered through the application of mimesis and scapegoating to the movie Unbreakable.

In a lightning-boltlike moment of realization on Thursday, I figured out that Unbreakable has such an obvious criticism-pairing.

So, I lied before. It’s not any tougher. Ah well.

              Yes, movies! How could I be sad. We finished the Wizard of Oz yesterday. I haven’t watched it in a while… oh my lord, it is funny! And creepy. Which makes it even funnier. I miss the little kid movies of before, there aren’t enough weird ones nowadays. I mean, have you guys seen James and the Giant Peach? That is a trippy movie with a pretty depressing plot. The kid’s parents are killed by a rhino. That’s it. They don’t explain it, just ship him off to physically and mentally abusive aunts. And then he travels in a giant peach, with giant INSECTS. That sing.

Please, compare that to that space movie about flies that just came out.

                Anyways, that was a tangent. Back to topic. I really like Unbreakable. It was slow at first, but man, once it pulls you in, it pulls you in. I was sad when Ms. Powers turned it off today. I think I’m going to use this as my essay movie, because I think it might be a bit tougher. I’m not sure which one to use yet though, because I keep thinking about the topics from lit class last year.  Post-modernism is engrained in my brain, I’m pretty sure. (pastiche! pastiche! I always get a mental image of pistachios when I think of post modernism)

I made a new banner for this last Saturday morn. Most productive Saturday morning of my life, haha.

Well, that’s all.  Goodbye!

In the Skin of a Lion essay

(title page compacted for space… and sorry for any formatting problems.)

In the Skin of a Lion

By: Ilayda Williamson

For: Mr. Murray

ENG4UE-02

October 17, 2008

“Some people suffer in silence louder than others.” – Morrie Brickman (http://thinkexist.com/quotation/some_people_suffer_in_silence_louder_than/172696.html)

              In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje follows the life of Patrick Lewis and the people who cross his path. The setting of this novel is 1920-1930 Toronto. At this time, there is a great influx of immigrants. This reflects the character set, as all could be considered immigrants in their own way. An immigrant is defined as being an “an organism found in a new habitat” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/immigrant) and each character is attempting to adapt to their new habitat at one period or another. There exists another feature which distinguishes these characters – their soundlessness. They all strive for acceptance in something – lifestyle, humanity, or country. Instead of the expected sound to accompany this struggle, it is instead punctuated by a complete auditory void. This is fitting, as the goal of acceptance is not to be silent among the din – but to add one’s voice to the chorus. Michael Ondaatje, by featuring these quiet characters – Patrick, Alice, and the Macedonians – uses silence within In the Skin of a Lion to underscore the trials of an immigrant.

             Patrick Lewis may be considered the heart and soul of In the Skin of a Lion, and the epitome of silent struggle. Readers are first brought into his childhood and his silence is evident even then. Patrick as a child has a fascination with insects. It is not the all-encompassing scientific need to know about insects- which usually leads to injury to the quarry as the curiosity deepens. Rather, Patrick has the romantic eye of one who truly loves whatever it is that he is studying. He identifies with these insects, and their inability to communicate in human ways. He yearns to form a bond between a silent being and a silent species.

Patrick pulls a double-ocarina from his pocket. Outside he will not waken his father, the noise will simply drift up into the arms of soft maple. Perhaps he can haunt these creatures. Perhaps they are not mute at all, it is just a lack of range in his hearing. (When he was nine his father discovered him lying on the ground, his ear against the hard shell of cow shit inside which he could hear several bugs flapping and knocking.) He knows the robust calls from the small bodies of cicadas, but he wants conversation – the language of damsel flies who need something to translate their breath the way he uses the ocarina to give himself a voice, something to leap over the wall of this place. (Ondaatje, 10)

              This picture of Patrick persists throughout the novel – a fluid person outwardly, wanting to change for those around him. Alice Gull describes him, saying he is “[like] water, [he] can be easily harnessed” (Ondaatje, 122). Beneath this passivity is an obstinate inner pillar of silence. Because of this, Patrick never truly fits in one place. His is a struggle of human connection through language – on the grand scale of humanity as a whole, and the small scale of one-on-one contact. It is not a complete inability to form bonds that evades him, but to create ones that are not precarious, perched on the edge of ending. He is an immigrant to humanity. Unable to assimilate, Patrick later turns to outbursts of sound. In one case, he warns a cell mate in danger with song. “The men enter and Patrick in the cell opposite on the next level up watched them and all language dries up. As they raise their hands over Caravaggio, Patrick breaks into a square-dance call – “Allemande left your corners all” – screaming it absurdly as warning up into the stone darkness.” (Ondaatje, 184) Patrick, who longs to enter a normal human relationship through speech, ultimately fails and turns to overcompensated rebellion through specific, and sometimes absurd, noise. He is the silent immigrant.

              Another character who reoccurs in the novel is Alice Gull. She is first depicted as a mute nun who partakes in an excursion onto an unfinished bridge, unsurprisingly falling off said unfinished bridge. Before, during, and after the fall she will not or cannot speak. After being saved by a bridge worker , she will not even scream, deaf to the worker’s pleadings, such as “Scream, please, [Lady,"] [...] She could not speak though her eyes glared at him bright, just staring at him. Scream, please. But she could not.” (Ondaatje, 32) Her version of silence is encapsulated in the episode of the bridge-fall. Inner-turmoil on behalf of Alice is manifested by this complete quiet. A great change must have been taking place inwardly for her, as the fall triggers her abandonment of being a nun.. After a one-sided exchange with her savior, she tends to his broken arm and leaves. The night ends with a kiss, a whispered question, and a wiping clean of a past life. “The zinc was an edge of another country. She put her ear against the grey ocean of it. Its memory of a day’s glasses. The spill and the wiping cloth. Confessional. Tabula Rasa. [...] What is your name? she whispered.” (Ondaatje, 38) She soon becomes an actress.

                The quote above also introduces the idea of Alice’s immigration. She is entering ‘another country’. Alice can be considered an immigrant to a certain lifestyle. She begins as a nameless nun and ends up as driven, free-spirited actress. Besides the three hundred and sixty degree turn of lifestyle, another point of interest is the name which Alice takes. Her new persona is named after the parrot in the Macedonian bar she is taken to afterwards – Alicia. A parrot imitates the sounds of their environment. Quite like how immigrants learn a language. The quotation above illustrates her break of silence – the moment of decision and end to her struggle. Readers of In the Skin of a Lion catch only the tail end of Alice’s struggle and silence. While not an obvious immigrant, Alice in actuality is one to a ‘normal’ lifestyle and changes to be a parrot – knowing that silence excludes one from a population, and that some sort of emulation is needed to belong. Her immigration is successful.

              Lastly, the Macedonian people. These are the most literal immigrants in the novel and in ways the quietest. Like many other immigrant cultures of Toronto, the Macedonians work bakeries, tanneries, etc. – the operations that allow the city to function. They are new to the country and every aspect of it. One Macedonian character, the bridge worker who saves Alice, revels in this newness.

“As with sight, because Nicholas does not listen to most conversations around him, he assumes no one hears him.
For Nicholas language is much more difficult than what he does in space. He loves his new language, the terrible barriers of it. “‘ ‘Does she love me? – Absolutely! Do I love her? – Positively!’ ” Nicholas sings out to the forty-foot pipe he ferries across the air towards the traveller.” (Ondaatje, 43)

These people must learn new social structures, languages, and cities. Although they work jobs essential to the workings of everyday processes, they are often overlooked. While being pushed to the background, they strive to adapt to their new habitat.

               The Macedonians’ silence is not always one of their own choosing, but instead one forced upon them by the city. City-dwellers are deaf to them because of a language barrier, or simply because they are outsiders. This obliviousness is best seen in a scene performed by Alice Gull and other actors in an underground play.

“Laughing like a fool he was brought before the authorities, unable to speak their language. He stood there assaulted by insults. His face was frozen. The others began to pummel him but not a word emerged – just a damaged gaze in the context of those flailing arms. [...] The scene was endless. [...] The audience around him was silent. The only sounds on stage were grunts of authority. They were all waiting for the large puppet to speak, but it could say nothing. [...] It stamped a foot to try and bring out a language. [...] The figure knelt, one hand banging down on the wooden floor as if pleading for help – a terrible loudness entering the silent performance. The audience began to clap in unison with the banging hand, the high hall of waterworks echoing.” (Ondaatje, 117)

This quote draws all three ideas together. Alice performs, the subject at hand is the silence of Macedonian people, and Patrick has such a violent reaction to the scene. “Patrick was unable to move, his eyes locked upon the crouched figure, the manic hand. [...] He wanted the hall to be quiet, the figure’s terror stopped.” (Ondaatje, 117) The play portrays the Macedonian trial perfectly – nothing can be heard of the immigrant, just the authorities’ vain attempts to force them to express something. Ondaatje uses this silence to underscore the ultimate challenge facing the Macedonians – that of being listened to, or merely heard.

                A picture of muted hard labor – a man raising a pickaxe at a rock wall without a sound. This is the image one walks away with after reading this novel. All three main characters – Alice, Patrick, and the immigrants of Toronto – aim to assimilate in some way. And as their challenges are distinct, their silence is individual as well. Some succeed, such as Alice, by breaking their silence to emulate those around them. But some, such as Patrick, can never truly change and break the silence, simply due to their nature. This tableau of muted characters juxtaposed against very specific sounds, such as singing, an ocarina, or a hand pounding, has been orchestrated by Ondaatje to show the poignancy not of the expected sound, but the lack of it. He has shown the reader that sometimes the most brutal struggle cannot be heard at all.

mimesis-powerpoint

Part II

He had finished his epic talk,

the dragon understood, he did not mock

the wisdom of Girard and his mimetic ways,

the dragon was surely onto happier days.

Rene then left the dragon’s humble home,

the great big world he would roam,

to find literature, and read it well,

and criticism, he would then tell.

But very soon after his journey began,

he again had to find out the mettle of man.

He searched long and far for his quarry,

sleeping little, he hardly tarried

“I must find the mimesis¹! I really must!

The dragon, the villagers, in me they trust!”

So he set his eyes firmly and cast out a glance,

delving into all with his intellectual lance.

At first Girard only saw rolling plains and trees,

but soon the mimesis, it stood forth with ease.

This oak, that stood so mighty and grand,

he recognized as a painting² once seen in his homeland,

and this birdsong that trilled so sweet and lightly,

was quite like the flute³ he used to serenade with nightly,

and the squirrels, here, that scrabbled for a nut,

were like dramatists⁴, in a play, a sword in a gut.

Rene stood still as revelation took hold,

“Oh my goodness!” he said,

“The knowledge I’ve been told!

This nature, this life, that exists all around,

in art, imitations of it can be found⁵!

Mimesis, mimesis, I did not find you fast,

but mimesis, mimesis, I’ve found you at last.”

“You, who allow us all to understand art,

to empathize, to really take part,

in the story, really, mimesis,

you’re the one who lets us get catharsis⁶.”

And Rene stood and basked in his glee,

his heart was light, he felt quite free,

when all of a sudden the ground, it shook,

And from the heavens fell a big history book.

Impossible, strange, what a weird happening!

The book was opening, and he could hear clapping!

And lo and behold, a figure stepped out,

a figure known for many things, a figure with clout.

Plato⁷, the philosopher, stood right there,

and on his face was a great big glare,

“You’re not being truthful, young man,

You’re not looking at the truth, you’re ruining my plan!”

Rene looked back, clearly in shock,

a very dead person… he could talk

And it clapped so sarcastically, it wore a terrible grin,
Rene was afraid he would not win.

“What is wrong?” he asked, meek,
“YOU ARE HIDING ABSOLUTE TRUTH!” Plato replied in a shriek.
“This poetry, this painting, it is a mask,
you can’t see the truth, the ultimate task⁸!

Those perfect forms, they’re so far removed,
From this silly art, you’ve just proved,
that it’s obsessed with how they appear,
not deep truth. For everyone I fear.”

Rene quaked from this violent tongue-lashing,
when another figure from the book came dashing,
It was Aristotle⁹, another Greek mastermind,
He felt like in front of a firing squad, he was lined.

He needn’t have feared, as Aristotle agreed,
humans are imitative, it is why they lead!
It was important, especially in art,
“Don’t listen to Plato, that old fart.”

“Diegesis¹⁰ is important, dealing with history,
but mimesis is needed for any good fiction story,
History can teach through how it really unfurled,
but art can teach through a perfected world.” (show VS tell)

Finished their tete a tete, the two figures left,
listening to their wisdom, Rene felt more deft,
he thought he was finished, but oh was he wrong,
the battle ahead of him was still very long.

The book snapped up once, and then opened again,Rene had to dodge, because out stabbed a pen!
“WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW.” the book bellowed,
“OR TO LEAVE THIS FOREST, YOU’LL NEVER BE ALLOWED.”

“Uh oh,” Rene said, “this is quite the pickle.”
He had to be serious here, not at all fickle.
So he started to pen all that he knew,
And all the time, a storm grew and grew.

High and low mimetic¹¹, he wrote lots about,
he was pelted with rocks, the wind began to shout,
he was being battered and bruised, and knocked all around,
but he started to write about mimetic criticism,
and how in literature real life could be found.

He finally finished, and he was quite spent,
He was bleeding, and his clothes were all rent,
but he had finished, relief came in a wave,
So very tired, he crawled into a cave.

And there he lay, trembling and weak,

So exhausted was his brain, he could not speak.

And we leave our hero here, in the dark and alone,

but not yet is he done.

1- Mimesis is the representation of an object/idea, but not an imitation or mimicry of it. Mimetic criticism compares literature to the real world to find how compatible it is to reality.

2- Mimesis can be represented in the form of paintings and various 2-D art. To analyze mimesis, composition is often taken into account, as well as the features of the character(s) within the painting.

3- Mimesis in music can be readily observed and recognized by an audience through comparison to emotions/moods, sound effects (volume, tempo, overall tone), etc.

4- Mimesis can be found in theatre in its poetic function of pantomime (representation of reality by use of the human body) and play-within-the-play (often an inner conflict that can be observed easily by the audience).

5- Mimesis is best exemplified in the arts, as it is thought by some to be the re-presenting of human emotions in new ways.

6- Catharsis is best defined as the releasing of emotions or relieving of emotional tension especially through certain kinds of art.

7- Plato was a Greek philosopher (427-348 BC) who was taught by Socrates and later taught Aristotle. He was intent on truth and believed any art could be considered mimetic as it was a representation of life. He believed also that anything in our world is a representation of a perfect image, and this representation leads to many imitations of it.

8- Plato disliked the way poetry was most removed from truth and saw poetry (as well as drama and visual art) as false truths that were more concerned with appearance than solid fact.

9- Aristotle agreed with Plato in terms of art being an imitation of life, but he (unlike Plato) believed that mimesis in art enabled audiences to empathize with characters and reach catharsis.

10- Diegesis is a narrative or history; a recital or relation.

11- High and low mimetic are two modes of criticism defined and explored by Herman Northrop Frye in his 1^st essay from his Anatomy of Criticism, Historical Criticism: Theory of Modes. His categorization of high and low mimetic were a representation of the characterization and relates to how the protagonist is portrayed in respect to the rest of humanity and the protagonist’s environment. These two modes are divided into 3 different aspects of fiction: tragic, comic, and thematic literature.

(poem written by Ilayda, footnoted by Michaela)

“Some people suffer in silence louder than others.” – Morrie Brickman

In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje follows the life of Patrick Lewis and the people who cross his path. The setting is 1920-1930. At this time, there is a great influx of immigrants. This reflects the character set of the novel, as all characters in the novel could be considered an immigrant. There is another feature which distinguishes these characters – their quietude. These characters all strive for acceptance in something – lifestyle, humanity, or country. Instead of the expected sound to accompany this struggle, it is instead punctuated by a complete auditory void. This is fitting, as the goal of acceptance is not to be silent among the din – but to add one’s voice to the chorus. Michael Ondaatje, by featuring these quiet characters – Patrick, Alice, and the Macedonians – uses silence within In the Skin of a Lion to underscore the trials of an immigrant.

Patrick Lewis may be considered the heart and soul of In the Skin of a Lion, and the epitome of silent struggle. Readers are first brought into his childhood and his silence is evident even then. Patrick Lewis as a child has a fascination with insects. It is not the all-encompassing scientific need to know about insects- which usually leads to injury to the quarry as the curiosity deepens. Rather, Patrick has the romantic eye of one who truly loves whatever it is that he is studying. He identifies with these insects, and their inability to communicate in human ways. He yearns to form a bond between a silent being and a silent species.

“Patrick pulls a double-ocarina from his pocket. Outside he will not waken his father, the noise will simply drift up into the arms of soft maple. Perhaps he can haunt these creatures. Perhaps they are not mute at all, it is just a lack of range in his hearing. (When he was nine his father discovered him lying on the ground, his ear against the hard shell of cow shit inside which he could several bugs flapping and knocking.) He knows the robust calls from the small bodies of cicadas, but he wants conversation – the language of damsel flies who need something to translate their breath the way he uses the ocarina to give himself a voice, something to leap over the wall of this place.” (p10)

This picture of Patrick persists throughout the novel – a fluid, changeable person (water quote), with an obstinate inner pillar of silence. Because of this, Patrick never truly fits in one place. His is a struggle of human relations – on the grand scale of humanity as a whole, or the small scale of one-on-one contact. It is not a complete inability to form these bonds – but to create ones that are not precarious, perched on the edge of ending. He is an immigrant to humanity. Unable to assimilate, Patrick later turns to outbursts of sound. In one case, attempts to explode a water filtration plant. Another example is when he warns a cell mate in danger with song. “The men enter and Patrick in the cell opposite on the next level up watched them and all language dries up. As they raise their hands over Caravaggio, Patrick breaks into a square-dance call – “Allemande left your corners all” – screaming it absurdly as warning up into the stone darkness.” (p184) Patrick, who longs to enter the normal human relationship world, who ultimately fails and turns to overcompensated rebellion through specific (and sometimes absurd) noise. He is the silent immigrant.

Another character which reoccurs in the novel is that of Alice Gull. She is first depicted as a mute nun who partakes in an excursion onto an unfinished bridge, unsurprisingly falling off said unfinished bridge. Before, during, and after the fall she will not or cannot speak. After being saved by a bridge worker , she will not even scream, deaf to the worker’s pleading, saying, “Scream, please, [Lady,"] [...] She could not speak though her eyes glared at him bright, just staring at him. Scream, please. But she could not.” (32) This ultimately changes, as this fall triggers her to give up nun-dom (NOT RIGHT WORD). She leaves after her rescue to become an actress. Her version of silence is encapsulated in the episode of the bridge-fall. Seven nuns went to the unfinished bridge, on what surely some knew was a suicide mission. Inner-turmoil on behalf of Alice is manifested by her complete quiet. She did not make a sound, but a great change must have been taking place inwardly for her to give up the life she knew for an uncertain one. After her exchange with her savior, she tends to his broken arm before he falls asleep. The night ends with a kiss and a whispered question.

“She leaned forward earnestly and looked at him, searching out his face now. Words just on the far side of her skin, about to fall out.” (38) “The zinc was an edge of another country. She put her ear against the grey ocean of it. Its memory of a day’s glasses. The spill and the wiping cloth. Confessional. Tabula Rasa.
At the table she positioned the man comfortably, so she would not fall on his arm. What is your name? she whispered. ” (38)

Besides the 360 degree change of lifestyle, another point of interest is the name which Alice takes. Her new persona is named after the parrot in the Macedonian bar she is taken to afterwards – Alicia. Alice can be considered an immigrant to a certain lifestyle. She begins as a nameless nun, and ends up as driven, free-spirited actress. This is her break of silence – and the moment of decision, ending her struggle. Readers of In the Skin of a Lion catch only the tail end of Alice’s struggle and silence. Also, there is the choice of name. A parrot imitates the sounds of the things around it. Quite like how immigrants learn a language. Alice in actuality is an immigrant to a ‘normal’ lifestyle and changes to be a parrot – knowing that silence excludes on from a population, and that some sort of emulation is needed to belong.

Finally, the Macedonian people. These are the most literal immigrants and in ways the quietest. The Macedonians, like many other immigrant cultures of Toronto, work bakeries, tanneries, etc. – the operations that allow the city to function. They are new to the country and every aspect of it. One Macedonian character (the bridge worker who saves Alice), revels in this newness.

“As with sight, because Nicholas does not listen to most conversations around him, he assumes no one hears him.
For Nicholas language is much more difficult than what he does in space. He loves his new language, the terrible barriers of it. “‘ ‘Does she love me? – Absolutely! Do I love her? – Positively!’ ” Nicholas sings out to the forty-foot pipe he ferries across the air towards the traveller.” (43)

He is unheard and new, and does not expect anything different.

The Macedonians’ silence is not always one of their own choosing, but instead one forced upon them by the city. They are deaf to them because of a langugae barrier, or simply because they are outsiders. This obliviousness is best seen in a scene acted out by Alice Gull and other actors in an underground play.

“Laughing like a fool he was brought before the authorities, unable to speak their language. He stood there assaulted by insults. His face was frozen. The others began to pummel him but not a word emerged – just a damaged gaze in the context of those flailing arms. [...] The scene was endless. [...] The audience around him was silent. The only sounds on stage were grunts of authority. They were all waiting for the large puppet to speak, but it could say nothing. [...] It stamped a foot to try and bring out a language. [...] The figure knelt, one hand banging down on the wooden floor as if pleading for help – a terrible loudness entering the silent performance. The audience began to clap in unison with the banging hand, the high hall of waterworks echoing.” (117)

This quote pulls all the three ideas together, as Alice acts, the subject is Macedonian people, and Patrick, who is in the audience, has such a violent reaction to the scene. “Patrick was unable to move, his eyes locked upon the crouched figure, the manic hand. [...] He wanted the hall to be quiet, the figure’s terror stopped.” (117) The play paints a picture of the Macedonian trial perfectly – nothing can be heard of the immigrant, just the authorities’ vain attempts to force them to express something.Ondaatje uses this silence to underscore the ultimate challenge facing the Macedonians – that of being listened to, or merely heard.

A picture of muted agony. This is what Ondaatje paints in this novel. All three – Alice, Patrick, and the immigrants of Toronto aim to assimilate in some way. And as their challenges are distinct, their silence is individual as well. Some succeed, such as Alice, by breaking their silence to emulate. But some, such as Patrick, can never truly change and break the silence, simply due to their nature. This tableaux of muted characters has been built by Ondaatje to show the poignancy, not of the expected sound, but the lack of it. He has shown the reader that sometimes the most brutal struggle cannot be heard at all. <—- MENTION THE SORT OF SOUNDS HE USES.

Okay, driving for 10 hours is fun. Not so fun when 3 of those are just stuck in traffic in Toronto. Oh joy. But look! We made it, and here’s my lesson plan. On time!

Warning: My outlines make little sense. Sorry.

Thesis - Michael Ondaatje uses silence in In The Skin of a Lion to signify some struggle/misfitting. (immigrants on different levels)

Para – Patrick (immigrant to human relationships)
                        – very quiet character, throughout book
                        - never really belongs anywhere
                        – later resorts to exploding things
                        - singing in the silence of the attack on Caravaggio
Quotes to consider using: “Patrick pulls a double-ocarina from his pocket. Outside he will not waken his father, the noise will simply drift up into the arms of soft maple. Perhaps he can haunt these cfreatures. PErhaps they are not mute at all, it is just a lack of range in his hearing. (When he was nine his father discovered him lying on the ground, his ear against the hard shell of cow shit inside which he could several bugs flapping and knocking.) He knows the robust calls from the smal bodies of cicadas, but he wants conversation – the language of damsel flies who need something to translate their breath the way he uses the ocarina to give himself a voice, something to leap over the wall of this place.” (p10)

” Patrick sat on a bench and watched the tides of movement, felt the reverberations of trade. He spoke out his name and it struggled up in a hollow echo and was lost in the high air of Union Station. No one turned.” (p 54)

“The men enter and Patrick in the cell opposite on the next level up watched them and all language dries up. As they raise their hands over Caravaggio, Patrick breaks into a square-dance call – “Allemande left your corners all” – screaming it absurdly as warning up into the stone darkness. The three men turn to the sudden noise and Caravaggio is on his feet struggling out of his nightmare.” (p184)

Para – Alice Gull (immigrant to lifestyle)
                  – nun who fell off bridge, made no sound as fell, not afterwards either.
                  – adopted name of Parrot, became actress.
Quotes to consider using: “She leaned forward earnestly and looked at him, searching out his face now. Words just on the far side of her skin, about to fall out.” (38) “The zinc was an edge of another country. She put her ear against the grey ocean of it. ITs memory of a day’s glasses. The spill and the wiping cloth. Confessional. Tabula Rasa.
   At the table she positioned the man comfortably, so she would not fall on his arm. What is your name? she whispered. ” (38)

“Scream, please, Lady, he whispered, the pain terrible. He asked her to hold him by the shoulders, to take the weight off his one good arm. A sway in the wind. She could not speak though her eyes glared at him bright, just staring at him. Scream, please. But she could not.” (32)

Para – Macedonian people (immigrant to country/culture)

Quotes to consider: ”As with sight, because Nicholas does not listen to most conversations around him, he assumes no one hears him.
                     For Nicholas language is much more difficult than what he does in space. He loves his new language, the terrible barriers of it. “‘ ‘Does she love me? – Absolutely! Do I love her? – Positively!’ ” Nicholas sings out to the forty-foot pipe he ferries across the air towards the traveller.” (43)

“A plot grew. Laughing like a fool he was brought before the authorities, unable to speak their language. He stood there assaulted by insults. His face was frozen. The others began to pummel him but not a word emerged – just a damaged gaze in the context of those flailing arms. He fell to the floor pleading with gestures. The scene was endless. [...] The audience around him was silent. The only sounds on stage were grunts of authority. They were all waiting for the large puppet to speak, but it could say nothing.  [...] It stamped a foot to try and bring out a language. The other puppets shifted like bamboo to the side of the stage. The figure knelt, one hand banging down on the wooden floor as if pleading for help – a terrible loudness entering the silent performance. 
          The audience began to clap in unison with the banging hand, the high hall of waterworks echoing. Patrick was unable to move, his eyes locked upon the crouched figure, the manic hand. [...] He wanted the hall to be quiet, the figure’s terror stopped.” (117)
                   
[conclusion here]