Michael Ondaatje’s novel In The Skin of a Lion is a text widely studied by HSC English Advanced students.
With this in mind, Boldtutor presents another exclusive sample response to the 2016 HSC English Advanced question focusing on In The Skin of a Lion.
Students can use this response as a blueprint/foundation to offer a strong response to one of the more commonly studied texts in English Advanced.
2016 HSC question:
How is the quest for control explored through characterisation in Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion?
The characterisation of certain individuals in Michael Ondaatje’s novel In the Skin of a Lion conveys how the quest for control encapsulates the lives of proletariat and bourgeoisie members of society. Although economic distinctions exist between Ambrose Small and working class characters like Patrick and Alice, these individuals do possess similar character traits, given that all of them adopt aggressive mindsets in a bid to attain control over particular people and settings. The preceding characters thus all possess aggressive personas that are the product of an environment where working class and immigrant citizens struggle to communicate their concerns in a world shaped by colonial and bourgeoisie discourse. As a result, the aggressive action of the preceding characters highlights how desire for control and stability is often achieved through forceful means.
The characterisation of Patrick undergoes a significant metamorphosis in the novel and helps reveal how the quest for control can reshape a person’s way of behaving. Patrick transitions from being an isolated and emotionally ambiguous individual to one that conveys deep passion. Patrick’s emotional obscurity is revealed through the use of second person and metaphor:
‘He defended himself for most of the time with a habit of vagueness. There was a wall in him that no one reached. Not even Clara, though she had assumed it had deformed him.’ (p. 74)
The setting that Patrick inhabits initially shapes his behaviour around others. Patrick’s persona is shaped by his time in the appropriately named town of ‘Abashed’ in Ontario. The word ‘abashed’ has negative connotations and implies a state of mental discomfort. Patrick is experiencing plenty of emotional and mental discomfort as he struggles to form a loving/friendly relationship with other individuals. His skepticism is born out of a world filled with prominent citizens who showcase indifference to those beneath them in social and economic station. As a result, Patrick builds a metaphorical ‘wall in him’ that serves as a defence mechanism against those who may try to break him down on an emotional and mental level:
‘He was an abashed man, an inheritance from his father. Born in Abashed, Ontario. What did the word mean?…he could hear the rattle within that suggested a space between him and community. A gap of love.’ (p. 163)
The ‘gap of love’ that exists is eventually filled by Patrick through his interaction with working class immigrants whose lives reflect the social obscurity and emotional ambiguity that Patrick experiences. Patrick finally realizes that his story and his struggles have not occurred in isolation. Rather, he is apart of a large marginalized group of people that long to have their voices heard by a public that celebrates the exploits of the bourgeoisie while negating the efforts of the immigrant proletariat:
‘His own life was no longer a single story but part of a mural which was a falling together of accomplices’ (p. 151).
In essence, Patrick’s experience with the immigrant working class leads to an emotional and mental awakening of sorts as he develops compassion for figures such as Alice, Clara and Hana. Alice and Patrick learn to communicate to one another, thus fostering new relationships and groups that lead to immigrants feeling more included into an alien society. The more people share their stories, the less isolated people feel. Indeed a growth in communication leads to the development of control in an environment where feelings of isolation often engulf marginalized citizens like Patrick. It is thus no surprise then that Alice’s death metaphorically ‘creates venom’ that drives Patrick to commit acts of sabotage against bourgeoisie members of society. By the novel’s end, Patrick’s persona juxtaposes his earlier self given that he is now willing and able to recount the stories of the people he cared about, without falling back into emotional ambiguity. In essence, Patrick’s aggressive action against certain bourgeoisie members of society were performed in the hope that he would attain some control/authority over an environment that negated working class citizens like Alice. Such characterisation sheds light on the view that desire for control is often made possible through forceful acts against those who would dictate terms against marginalized citizens.
Like Patrick, Alice also undergoes a philosophical metamorphosis and thus becomes an aggressive character in the novel as she strives for control in a landscape shaped by the forceful bourgeoisie. Indeed Alice is revealed as the nun who nearly fell off the Bloor Street Bridge, only for Nicholas Temelcoff to save her (p. 151-155). After meeting lover and Marxist agitator Cato, Alice sheds her conservative and religious devotion and becomes, like Patrick, an agent for social Marxist change. Cato’s death impacted Alice heavily – ‘she went into madness, into something very alone’ (p. 133) and this further convinced her that the injustice committed against working class citizens and immigrants needed to be stopped. Patrick and Alice eventually meet and live together and their relationship facilitates their evolution as proactive working class characters eager to defy economic and social inequality. Alice for example shapes Patrick’s outlook on the conflict between the bourgeoisie and proletariat, and tells him how to wage conflict against business ‘jackals’ (p. 59) like Ambrose Small:
‘You name the enemy and destroy their power. Start with their luxuries – their select clubs, their summer mansions’ (p. 130)
Despite eventually passing away, Alice’s aggressive characterisation inspires Patrick to commit violence against the bourgeoisie class. The pain that he feels over the loss of Alice is brought to light when he reveals to Commissioner Harris – ‘I don’t want to talk of this (Alice’s death) any more…Then it will always be a nightmare,’ (p. 251). Alice’s character transformation from a conservative nun to a forceful Marxist agent helps Ondaatje exemplify the injustices and tragedies that often affect the proletariat in a way that forces them to adopt aggressive personas in a bid to attain control/authority in an environment that is dominated by bourgeoisie discourse.
Like the proletariat, bourgeoisie members such as Ambrose Small also possess aggressive characteristics to combat and control working class revolt or discord. Ambrose Small is an entrepreneur and is responsible for nearly killing Patrick after setting him on fire. Ambrose’s aggressive reaction was a product of him believing that Patrick had tracked him down purposely. Patrick however eventually only becomes interested in Clara, Ambrose’s mistress. Ambrose’s aggressive nature against Patrick represents the ruthlessness of the capitalist entrepreneur. Indeed Ambrose is metaphorically described in the novel as:
‘…bare knuckled capitalism. He was a hawk…. swooping down for the kill, buying up every field of wealth and eating the profit in mid-air’.
Such metaphor helps convey bourgeoisie members such as Ambrose Small as predators of sorts, hunting down workers vulnerable to exploitation. In business and in life, Ambrose’s instincts are to eliminate the competition or threat by any means necessary, as evidenced by his actions against Patrick. Ironically, Patrick also decides to eventually adopt the aggressive persona required to combat the clinical and indifferent nature of people like Ambrose Small. Overall, Ambrose Small’s aggressive characterisation reveals that all members of society, regardless of economic station, will often use forceful methods to acquire control/authority over a group of people.
Ondaatje’s aggressive characterisation of individuals such as Patrick, Alice and Ambrose Small helps the author explore how the desire for control can force people from all walks of life to develop forceful attitudes to reshape a setting that proves difficult to adapt to. In a sense, such aggressive characterisation sheds light on the real world, and the reasons why many people act aggressively in a bid to communicate and share their views on a world that increasingly dishonours the concerns of working class migrants.
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