The Mirror: Analyzing Running in the Family Adam McLaughlin 12th Grade

In Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje uses motifs, syntax, and analogies in order to create a mythic Ceylon and convey his fragmented identity through the fate of history. By employing a sarcastic and ironic tone, he creates an analogy between what people in the past did to Ceylon and what he is doing in the memoir; he is making a “chart” of his father.

Ondaatje first uses the motifs of uncertainty, unanswered questions, and what is lost in translation to highlight that subjective reality precedes objective reality. While thinking about Ceylon during his time in Toronto, he introduces the motif of in-between-ness and hybridity, emphasizing that he is stuck between the two worlds: Ceylon and Canada. He combines the fragmented syntax with “old portraits” (2-3) as a metaphor to “false maps” (2) in order to emphasize these motifs. The motifs of uncertainty, unanswered questions, and what is lost in translation are also highlighted through the paradox of “rumors of topography” (19); the paradox is that since topography is science, how can there be rumors? Ondaatje uses what these maps project to give power to the subjective truth and to undermine facts and objective truth. The motifs of uncertainty, unanswered questions, and...