The Idea of Exile in Shyam Selvadurai's Funny Boy Akshay Kundu College

In Funny Boy, we find characters who do not conform, and at the same time have to live their lives with a sense of the impending danger of them transgressing the societal norms. Therefore a brief period of liberation followed by an acute sense of alienation is what brings the individual experiences in the novel under the same umbrella, and it also casts a light on individual characters as fellow sufferers. This leads us to explore the nature of the bond that different characters share with each other and how this solidarity challenges the demarcated lines of differences and the nature of marginalization based on class, race, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality. Furthermore, we notice an overlap of ethnicity, gender, and sexuality in the novel in such a way that leads us to understand how the different experiences of exile in the novel are inter-connected The political exile of Arjie’s family, in the end, is not the only instance of exile in the novel. This essay, therefore, is focused towards discussing how a sense of solidarity that these outcasts forge for each other often blurs the line between one minority group and the other, and how this interconnectedness between the above-mentioned categories illuminates and reinforces the...