Thoughts on What We All Long For
Dionne Brand’s characters in What We All Long For possessed very unique traits and personality. Personally, I loved them all. They were real, and really spoke out to me. Unimpressed by their immigrant parents’ current lives and past, they distance themselves from their cultural background. Furthermore, they are also represented as misfits within society, being loners throughout high school and then moving to a run down neighbourhood following graduation. Because of these two factors, they face the internal conflict of identifying themselves. They are torn between their heritage and mainstream Canadian society.
Each character possessed a set of their very of traits. Tuyen, a lesbian, avant-garde artist who lives behind the shadow of her lost older brother. Carla, an independent bike courier who lives away from her irresponsible father and whose mother has committed suicide. Jackie, a shopkeeper who is unable to control her parents from their hedonistic lifestyles. Oku, a poet and college drop out who lives uncomfortably with his parents.
Each character is so unique in their own ways, and as the story unfolds, each characters’ personal stories go down different roads, while at the same time, their relationships deepen as tension between them build. Tuyen is in conflict with her parents and their grief for their lost son. Carla is in conflict with her father for not taking care of her brother. Jackie is in conflict with her family, feeling unable to properly build a relationship. Oku is in conflict with his father and himself, striving to become independent. Tuyen’s one-sided love for Carla and Oku’s one sided love for Jackie are described very often. We learn about each character in depth as we follow along on each other their little stories, and when they pool back together, we see them as a whole different group of people compared to when they are first introduced.
What We All Long For possesses so many different themes which brings the story to life. Crime, romance, death, belonging, and desire are all apparent themes. Just like in life, we don’t face one “theme” at a time, we are tackled with multiple “themes” all at once, leaving most of us lost in a flurry of confusion. No one knows what could possibly be around the next corner.
Being a second-generation immigrant myself, I kind slightly relate to them (although my parents’ lives are substantially better than the parents’ depicted in the novel). First and foremost, I consider myself Canadian before Taiwanese-Chinese. Like the characters in the novel, I consider myself different from my family. However, I still try to stay connected to my culture and heritage as it is still a part of my identity. I do not understand how Tuyen can just throw her family away, leaving them and her culture behind her. This is probably the only thing that irks me. Besides that, I found the characters funny, reasonable, and most of all, alive. I feel that they could truly be living down in Toronto, facing off against the struggles of self-identification and life.
Dionne Brand does a great job at bringing her characters to life, and depicting each their own struggles in life. Besides the abrupt ending which can be pretty much compared to a slap to the face, What We All Long For is a great novel that allows one to ponder about life.
