How has reading Running in the Family shifted your sense of identity?

Throughout the past few lessons in my CAP courses, be it sociology, ASTU, or political science, identity has been a theme that has more or less been touched upon. In political science, ideologies such as nationalism has been touched upon, where people identify themselves as members of a nation through something they perceive as common values or interests, from values such as liberty and freedom to things such as hockey and maple syrup. In sociology, theories such as those proposed by Focault’s have been touched upon, on how the concepts of surveillance and self policing has killed the man beneath us, and how we are never really free to do anything, which could easily expanded upon and be seen that there is not really much we can truly do out of our volition, never mind possessing a unique identity for us to speak of. And here, for the past few courses in ASTU, with my professor and group in the course, I have begun to explore Michael Ondaatje’s ‘Running in the Family’, and how he provides, through his historiographic metafiction, a fictional memoir showing portrayal of his memory, and how his so called ‘memoir’ despite not being true, portrays, in a unique way, how he has identified himself when trying to reconcile and explore his past. As a global citizen in the CAP program, this is especially important since whilst we try to understand how the world works and so on, it is also equally important to determine by ourselves, the line where our various identities are separated, and ‘Running in the Family’ has enabled me to rethink of how I try to identify myself, both in society, and also in daily life, such as in family affairs and so on.

First of all, from outside the classroom, I feel that throughout the world there seems to have been an increasing emphasis on the so called ‘national identity’ that countries continue to promote internationally, from blatant propaganda from the likes of countries such as China, those from the UK before and after Brexit, and those of France in the wake of Islamic fundamentalist attacks. And indeed, this is something which is also not left unnoticed in the study of ‘Running in the Family’, with Matthew Bolton in ‘Michael Ondaatje’s “Well-Told Lie”’, reveals how various critics such as Arun Mukherjee who criticize Ondaatje for negating the dominant themes of ‘displacement’ and accusing him of ‘race blindness’ due to his background of immigrating to the UK and Canada. However, looking at ‘Running in the Family’, I see that Ondaatje doesn’t blatantly reject his past, as his mentionning of his Tamil history and his revealing of how he feels about his ties to Sri Lanka have indicated so. What is interesting, however, is how Ondaatje criticizes the concept of other people enforcing what they think on other peoples and cultures, such as in ‘The Karapothas’, where the quoting of various westerners in regards to Sri Lanka have shown their ignorance under the umbrella of so called ‘orientalism’. Perhaps, as I would believe, criticisms of Ondaatje would fall into the same categories. Indeed, perhaps, by forcusing so much on national identity and marginalizing the identities of others, the world outside is simply repeating everything and doing the same all over again. From this, Running in the Family has allowed me to further enforce my viewpoint that sometimes, society has been increasingly been making us believe in the marginalization of others, whilst accusing others for not believing in their same values, and sometimes, it is important for us to defend our own identities whilst not completely forgetting who we are.

Secondly, Bolton also points out how other people have criticized Ondaatje for not being accurate, from accusations even coming from within his own family, espeially on cases such as the nature of Lalla’s death and the nature of Ondaatje’s father. However, what was discussed in the ASTU classes, I understand that from Bolton’s analysis of Running in the Family, we can see that Ondaatje focuses on emotional truths over historical truths, and that even though these truths may not necessarily be the literal truth, they not only create a literally effect, but have also helped in shaping the identity of the ‘I’ in ‘Running in the Family’. Similarly, I can easily think of how people, especially children, could easily romanticize about the unknown, and that how Ondaatje presents his so called emotional truth on the things he didn’t know, such as his father, and how Lalla was, by portraying them in the way he wants them to be portrayed in, was not so different from how children roleplay and conjure up their fantasies when looking at the outside world and the unknowns out there. From that, Running in the Family enforces my feelings on how sometimes our fanatsies should be preserved, and how that these are things that are ‘unique’, and that society and family shouldn’t look down upon such thorughts.

Thirdly, we see how Ondaatje, in ‘Blind Faith’ states how we see ourselves as remnants from the earlier generations that were destroyed, thus prompting him to reconcile himself with his father through his book at the end of the book. Similarly, this also makes me consider the unique identity that I am in, as the next generation, in relation to the family. As young people nowadays, we often forget about the past, and yet, it is something which should not be forgotten, because once gone, there will be no memory left for us, not even to dream of.

As a result, Running in the Family has changed my view on how I view myself, be it my identity in a national perspective, as a unique perspective or that of a family perspective. Indeed, sometimes we all need to rethink and further understand our identities.