The Infinite Complexity of Literature, as seen in Running in the Family Anonymous 12th Grade

Few aspects of the world are as subjective and as complex as literature. The same piece of literature can take on a virtually infinite number of meanings based upon the interpretation of the individual. This idea has been expounded upon in several literary works, such as How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. Foster’s work addresses and analyzes a wealth of literary tropes and examines their applications in popular literary works. However, the concepts Foster describes can be applied to almost any work of literature. One such work is Michael Ondaatje’s 1982 memoir Running in the Family. The memoir is divided into several sections. The first section, A Fine Romance, primarily describes Ondaatje’s parents. It capitalizes heavily on the use of motifs and symbols, particularly those of death and fish, as well as the context that an understanding of history provides to a literary work.

To begin with, Running in the Family’s A Fine Romance section contains several chapters. The chapter Honeymoon depicts death in a highly unusual manner. As opposed to treating it with humility and grief, as is the norm both in literature and reality, the novel uses ironic prose to downplay the deaths simply as “casual tragedies”...