In_the_Skin_of_Loin

The storyteller has a significant role to play. Would you not agree' Would you agree that in the right hands stories can be enriched and empowered, the storyteller can bring light to the issues and lives of the stories of individual’s. Michael Ondaatje’s In The Skin of A Lion refracts the intertwined, ‘wonderous web’ of many individual, human experiences, all threaded together by the central protagonist Patrick. Through Patrick, Ondaatje acknowledges the importance of the storyteller as he invites empathy and understanding into the many mini-narratives within the story endowing them with a myriad of emotion. We can see that he expresses the importance of these mini-narratives, these individual stories which essentially capture the chaotic experiences, reflecting the true human condition. In the epigraph, Ondaatje’s disjointed yet chaotically functional novel manifests “Never again will a single story be told as though it were the only one”. So before the novel even starts, instantly our attention is drawn to the fact that this narrative exposes several personal stories. Moreover, in the prologue, Ondaatje’s narratological device accounts for the story within a story structure: “the man…picks up and brings together the various corners of the story”. The man, the yet unnamed Patrick, is metaphorically represented as the storyteller, collecting the memories of the elliptical story. But it is important to remember everyone that the facilitator of the tapestry of stories within the novel is –ultimately- Ondaatje, he is the omniscient author, he controls Patrick’s narration; he knits the paths of the characters together. But it is through Patrick’s role as storyteller that the myriad of life experiences are rebuilt out of the chaos and darkness, with order and light. Patrick lived a lonely, isolated childhood in which he “Absorbed everything from a distance”, and he was merely a “prism that refracted their lives.” Eloquently the metaphor symbolises how it is Patrick who brings light to the mural of stories within the text. And it is Patrick who observes the little things of individual stories. The way in which his fragmented memories are chaotically bound to reflect the way in which stories are told. How the storyteller is responsible for conveying the emotions which give life to stories. The recurring motif of moths being drawn towards lights serves to symbolically accentuate these emotive and memorable moments which render the his story. Patrick is spasmoticaly elucidated through moments of illumination such as when he experiences love with Alice. She is a fluid and free spirited character, a contrasting personality to the passive and observant Patrick. By such contrast, Ondaatje postulates the demarcation of human experience and references the power of characters to enrich stories. Thus he brings textual integrity to the novel through the characterisation of Alice. Symbolised in the references to her as an actress, Alice assumes the identities of others and constantly moves in and out of the narrative’s ‘light’, but nonetheless she retains her passionate identity. This is encapsulated in “the rest of her…lost to darkness till the next brief flutter of light”. (A link to the movement of moths) Patrick’s passive trait of observation is expressed in the motif of moth imagery. Embittered by the tragic death of Alice Patrick escapes the consequences of his irrational, destructive behaviour by retreating back onto and island of bitterness and isolation. In the Garden of the Blind, Patrick, ironically is shown the Garden by the blind woman, Elizabeth. However, Elizabeth is a threshold, a catalyst through which Patrick is enabled to recall the memories of his childhood – his fascination with Moths, how they, like him, are draw to light. The strongest visual is that of Elizabeth’s green eye, “moth like”, “darting”, “moving with delight” and “alighting”. This recollection, prompted by colour imagery, evokes the kaleidoscope of Patrick’s memories and gives light to his experience with Elizabeth. Thus he is enabled to continue his narration of the mural of intertwining stories Structurally therefore, through the postmodern device of authorial intrusion Ondaatje recognises Patrick as the hero and affirms himself as the all-powerful storyteller- “trust me” he alludes, “this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human”. Here faint refers to the novel’s looseness, human refers to love and loss, and order insinuates that from darkness comes light. Patrick’s memories are bound together chaotically and elliptically. And it is Patrick who eventually validates the cohesion and solidarity of these stories: Patrick finally assumes the “skin of a lion” and draws together all the elements of the novel, he takes responsibility for his role as the storyteller.