Walk_in_My_Shoes_-_the_Outsider

There are many ways in which the text portrays the theme of ‘the outsider’. Initially, the novel demonstrates that Gulnessa’s family live as outsiders in their war-torn country, Afghanistan. The people do not have a great deal of choice when deciding how they want to exist. Therefore, the only choice is whether to stay where they are and accept a short, violent life, or to risk escaping to find a safe place to build another life. Most people stay behind however, Gulnessa and her family along with a small number of other families had the opportunity to escape consequently making them the minority and therefore outsiders in their own country. “People’s only real choice is to stay where they are, or risk escaping...” “Mum accepted what our family in Afghanistan did for us. They told us it would make their lives worthwhile to know that they could make a difference, to know that we would be safe.” In the novel, Gulnessa also draws attention to the fact that the group of refugees are confined in a large, fenced off area which in itself establishes that the refugees have been purposely separated from the Australian society therefore making them an isolated community. This is apparent in the early chapters of the novel when Gulnessa expresses her observation of the new surroundings she and the rest of the group were about to enter: “Alongside the bus a high wire fence with jostling crowds of people behind it blocked out everything else. The people looked like us....I saw small blades glinting along the coiled strands.” Another point that can be made to confirm that the group were foreigners is that they were treated as a collective group confined to the detention centre rather than individuals. This contrasts the way of life in Australian society as everyone is dealt with as an individual and identified by their Christian name. However in the detention centre they were all given identification codes which provided a code name for the boat they came on. This is made clear when the interpreter asserts: “Because you arrived together, all your Ids start with AXZ. That’s the code name for the boat you came on. Following that you each get a different number, in English”. An additional aspect that verifies the theme of ‘the outsider’s’ existence in the novel is that Gulnessa and her family, once released from the detention centre into Australian society were perceived as outsiders. The physical difference of appearance and language was the primary basis as to why the family were treated as outcasts. The family’s values and morals were also significantly different to that of an Australian’s as well as the diversity in everyday life. Gulnessa elucidates her viewpoint on the behaviour of the Australian civilians: “Most passengers stared at us. So did people whenever we got off the bus, and I felt uncomfortable. I guess our worn, loose tops and pants were different from their clothes, and Mum wore a scarf over her head like most Muslim women.” “It was so weird hearing all around us a language I couldn’t understand, and being able to talk only between each other. People everywhere looked so pale....The clothes knocked me out. I was used to people dressing in a similar way and the variety of styles and colours hypnotised me...I felt so embarrassed to think they’d go out showing so much of their bodies”. There were a variety of techniques used in composing this text. The novel Walk in my shoes has been constructed as if it were an autobiography. It has been specifically written in first person to ensure the reader is given a descriptive view of Gulnessa’s outlook on the world around her. There are however, both limitations and advantages to the use of this technique. One advantage of constructing the novel as if it were an autobiography is that the reader is able to take on Gulnessa’s persona and obtain a greater understanding of her emotions, views and the experiences she embarks on throughout her journey in the novel. From very early on in the text, the author Alwyn Evans utilises an extensive amount of emotive language which furthermore adds to the effectiveness of getting Gulnessa’s point of view across to the reader. “...During our terrible journey, when days dragged one after another in a blur of fear, pain and despair, I didn’t know it was possible to be so frightened to stay alive... “. On the other hand, constructing the novel as if it were an autobiography has its limitations. The novel has been written in first person, therefore only allowing the reader an insight into Gulnessa’s views and thoughts. It does not provide the reader with any of the other characters aspects on their own personal experiences which makes it difficult for the reader to grasp a well rounded perspective on the events that take place in the story. The text is full of emotive language, in particular a dehumanising use of language. Alwyn Evans has flawlessly made use of both descriptive and emotive language in order to present to the reader a palpable comparison of the high and low points Gulnessa and her family are subjected to throughout the course of the novel. A perfect example of this is the comparison between Nessa’s safe, contented memory that she recalls in times of stress with language such as ‘blood orange’, ’golden silver’, ‘crimson’,’ glowing’, ‘golden peach’, and ‘luminous’ used by Evans to evoke both upbeat and optimistic feelings in the reader, to that of the description of the death of Abdul’s father where words and phrases such as ‘terror’, ‘her face an ashen mask’, ‘eyes frozen wide’, ‘raspy’, ‘fear lurches from my belly’, ‘sobbing’ and ‘a spreading red halo’ induce distressing, off-putting emotions. The landscape surrounding Gulnessa is vastly different in the two parts of the story. In part one it is the bleak, confined detention centre in the hot, dry Australian outback compared to part two where the landscape drastically changes to suburban Perth. Contrasting with both of these landscapes is the village life in Afghanistan described in Gulnessa’s various memories throughout the text. With the varying landscapes changing throughout Nessa’s journey, her reactions to the new surroundings also differ as she tries to adjust to the transformation in scenery. There are many ways in which brave new world can be linked with the novel Walk in my shoes. The theme of Dehumanisation is a central theme in both novels therefore creating one of many links between the two books. The central theme of dehumanisation in Brave New World suggests that a number of trends in the modern world are eroding the idea of human beings as unique individuals, each with his or her own ‘soul’ whilst also depicting what might conceivably happen if these trends were to prevail. This is partly a result of living in a large, complex society in which for much of the time there is a need to relate to each other on a mass scale through impersonal institutions. In Brave New World, science has given the controllers the means to reach into people’s personalities and adjust them so that they conform to the categories assigned to them. They become ‘Alpha Pluses’, ‘Epsilon-Minus Semi-Morons’ and so on, not simply because they can be grouped like this for particular purposes, but because they have been designed from conception to fit these social groups. The theme of dehumanisation materialises in Walk in my shoes through the course of action taken by the Australian authorities in dealing with the refugees fleeing from Afghanistan, in essence Gulnessa and her family. The family are not treated as individuals, rather as a collective group and therefore each entity is referred to as sequence of numbers and letters forming a code. This establishes an imperative link to the suggestion made by Brave New World that trends in society are eroding the idea of human beings as unique individuals. There are also similarities between the settings in which both texts are set. In Brave New World the novel switches between the attempted utopian society that is the brave new world, where life has been totally altered by a reliance on science and technology, to the somewhat dystopian society known as the reservation. Both locations are significantly contrary to the other.