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In the Skin of a Lion

by Michael Ondaatje

This unit was prepared by Marilyn Pretorius, Brigidine College, St Ives.

Critical study:

The factual basis of the novel

All page references are to the Picador 1988 edition of In the Skin of a Lion.

Introduction

Ondaatje moved with his family from Sri Lanka to Toronto in 1962 when he was 11. So, between puberty and adulthood, growing up in the context of a migrant in Canada, Ondaatje was obviously interested in its history and in the story of its migrants.

The factual basis of the novel

The following actually happened, or existed, in connection with the building of the city of Toronto between 1918 and the 1930s:

the building of the Bloor Street Viaduct (the bridge) and the Queen Street Waterworks
Commissioner of Public Works, Rowland Harris
the nun who fell from the bridge
Ambrose Small the millionaire who went missing in 1919. The Canadian press called him "the jackal of Toronto's business world." His disappearance gave rise to an extensive man-hunt.
the Bertillon Record, a system for identifying people
the Finns logged the forests for timber. The Macedonians, Bulgarians, immigrants from the Balkans and other migrants were employed as workers on constructions in early Toronto.
the incipient worker’s union movement.

In the Skin of a Lion could be said to be a political novel about the mistreatment and later complete disregard of immigrants to Toronto in the first three decades of the 20^th century. The novel can be categorized as historical fiction. It also holds capitalism up for criticism and shows the brutalizing nature of manual labour.

Use of language

One critic, cited on the back cover of the Picador 1988 edition of In the Skin of a Lion, has described In the Skin of a Lion as "a poem to workers and lovers". Another: "Ondaatje defies the normal distinction between the poet and the novelist."

What does the word 'poem' suggest about the writing in this novel?

Find some examples of prose in the novel that could be said to be poetic. Analyse the language of the passages you find and come to a conclusion.

For example:

"His mind skates across old conversations. The past drifts into the air like an oasis and he watches himself within it. The girl's eyes that night when he was eighteen were like tunnels into kindness and lust and determination which he loved as much as her white stomach and her ochre face." (page 128)

Consider the effect of Ondaatje's use of metaphor and simile here.

Now evaluate his use of metaphor and simile: has he used too many for such a short passage?

On page 123 Alice replies to Patrick's question, "No it's a metaphor. You reach people through metaphor." Is this what Ondaatje is doing in his novel, do you think, reaching people through metaphor? Does he succeed? (Cite as many examples as possible.)

On a larger scale, why "a poem to workers and lovers"? What does the use of "workers and lovers" tell you about Ondaatje's concerns in this novel?

Yet another critic has described In the Skin of a Lion as "a dazzling novel of power and style, dealing with human situations through verbal cinema". What does this mean? Make sure to define what you understand by "verbal cinema".

In small groups find some examples of "verbal cinema" in the novel. Discuss why they can be said to be such, and what human situations are being dealt with through verbal cinema. Is this technique effective?

For example, consider,

" He couldn't talk back against her beauty. He noticed a fragment of water under her eyelid, a sun tear she was unaware of." (page 62) Analyse page 82 as an example of 'verbal cinema'.

Consider the function of changes of tense in the narrative, from past to present. Could this be an example of verbal cinema; with the present tense forcing the reader's eye along the action, from time to time, as if following a hand-held camera?

For example, see pages 82-83, 93-95; what human situations are being dealt with here?

Could Ondaatje's poetic use of language also contribute to the "verbal cinema" effect? Explain.

Come to a conclusion on whether the novel "[deals] with human situations through verbal cinema" and the effectiveness of this technique.

Structure

How has Ondaatje structured In the Skin of a Lion? Consider how the structure shapes meaning and influences responses.

Part 1 comprises sections entitled: Little Seeds, The Bridge, The Searcher

Part 2 is made up of sections entitled: Palace of Purification, Remorse

Part 3 is made up of sections entitled: Caravaggio, Maritime Theatre

For example, consider the significance and symbolism of the titles of the sections in Part 1.

Little Seeds designates the growing years of the main character, Patrick Lewis, whence the seeds were "planted" for his subsequent actions in the novel. For example, as a young boy in Depot Creek, Ontario, Patrick watches the loggers come to the town in the winter, work in the mills during other seasons. He watches the loggers skating on the river. His father, a worker, works for two or three farms. When Patrick was fifteen Hazen Lewis became a dynamiter who was "meticulous in washing his clothes every evening in case there were remnants, little seeds of explosive on his apparel."

All of these elements are the "little seeds" of the subsequent narrative: Depot Creek, the loggers skating, learning about dynamite, his father's square-dance calling.

The Bridge is so called, because it heads the section describing the construction of the bridge - The Bloor Street Viaduct in Central Toronto. The reader is introduced to Caravaggio and Rowland Harris, Commissioner of Public Works. The title may also symbolize the bridge between Patrick's early years and the people with whom he subsequently becomes entangled in his adult years.

In The Bridge the incident of the five nuns who wander onto the unfinished bridge is related. The reader is introduced to the worker, Nicholas Temelcoff, who saves one of the nuns (This nun is to re-enter the story, later, as Alice Gull. Nicholas, later the baker, will be the guardian to her daughter.) Read the description of Nicholas's job on the bridge, page 34-35, it is dangerous, requires bravery and skill. He takes the nun to the Ohrida Lake Restaurant, a Macedonian Bar. She leaves him asleep there. We are given a clue: "What she will become, she becomes in that minute before she is outside, before she steps into the 6.a.m. morning." (page 41) Nicholas knows he will find her (page 48). The same nun's life will also impact on Patrick's although no clue of this is given in The Bridge.

The Bridge then, is of considerable significance in view of subsequent events in the narrative.

Consider the significance of the title, The Searcher.

Patrick Lewis arrives in the city of Toronto. It is 1923, he is 21. In 1924 Patrick becomes a searcher; he is to search for missing millionaire, Ambrose Small. He meets and falls in love with Clara Dickens, the lover of Ambrose Small. Through her he meets Alice Gull, The nun who disappears in The Bridge. Clara leaves Patrick to return to Ambrose Small whose hideout is at Depot Creek. The story has returned to its beginning and Patrick's. So ends Part 1.

Note: In the First Part of the novel Ondaatje has introduced the reader to three separate worlds: the farming/logging world of Patrick's boyhood in Ontario; the world of the workers constructing the Bloor Street Viaduct in Toronto; and the sensuous world of Clara who introduces Patrick to love and to the feeling part of himself.

Do the same kind of analysis for Part 2: Palace of Purification and Remorse and Part 3: Caravaggio* and Maritime Theatre

Research the painter Caravaggio. Find out what specific technique he was famous for. Relate this, too, to your analysis of Caravaggio as the title of a section of the novel. For example art critic, B de Dominici said of Caravaggio's work in 1742:

" ... to such an extent were the minds of patrons and of the painters themselves overwhelmed by that new manner full of darks with few lights, and ending in shadow, into which the outlines faded away for the most part, that they must constitute a clear example, to instruct and serve as a norm for students of the art of painting."

(Michael Kitson, 1985, The Complete Paintings of Caravaggio, Penguin Classics of World Art)

Note that by the end of Part 3 the story has turned full circle - the end reflects the prologue.

Ondaatje makes a promise in the middle of the novel: "The first sentence of every novel should be: 'Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human.' " (p. 146)

What does he mean? Does he keep his promise in In the Skin of a Lion? i.e. Does some order gradually become apparent in the narrative, "very faint, very human"? Explain.

You might consider, the role of recurring motifs in the novel: explosions, light, moths, water, labour.

Meaning and values

"Many have already died during the building of the bridge." (page 39)

Note how dangerous or unpleasant the work of the workers is: the loggers, tanners, bridge builders, tunnellers, dynamiters. (Later in the novel, Patrick attempts to give some sense of that danger to Commissioner Rowland Harris.)

Do a close reading and tabulate your findings, for example:

Workers	Unpleasantness or danger of the work
loggers	"Some die of pneumonia or from the sulphur in their lungs from the mills they work in during other seasons." (p.8) "Before daybreak the men were working - through the worst storms, in weather far below zero- and they finished at six" (p.16) "The pulp cutters, bent double, had to saw the stumps just above the ground. This was the worst job." (p.16)
tanners
bridge builders
tunnellers
dynamiters	Patrick's father had to be "meticulous in washing his clothes every evening in case there were remnants, little seeds of explosive on his apparel." (p.19) "He (Patrick's father) got killed setting charges in a Feldspar mine. The company had tried to go too deep and the section above him collapsed." (p.74)

Why should Ondaatje have tried to depict the unpleasant, dangerous nature of labour? What point is he trying to make about work, or, more specifically, manual labour?

Derogatory comments are directed at the rich throughout the novel (eg p57, p59, p222, p223). Why should Ondaatje have depicted the rich, and wealthy characters in the novel, such as Ambrose Small and Rowland Harris, as rapacious people with little care for their fellow man? What point does he seem to be making?

What was his purpose, do you think in having Patrick attempt to endanger Harris?

From his portrayal of the nature of work and workers in the novel, and the nature of capitalism and the rich, how has Ondaatje communicated certain values about them? Cite examples from the text to support your answer.

What meaning, and values, does Ondaatje convey about love in In the Skin of a Lion?

Remember, that before Patrick meets Clara, he is closed off to other people, having grown up with a taciturn father "who did not teach his son anything" (p 18,19). Patrick realised later that he had learned important things by watching, "but he absorbed everything from a distance."

When he arrives in Toronto he is totally alone, "an immigrant to the city". He speaks out his name in Union Station, "a hollow echo", but no-one in the crowd turns, "they were in the belly of a whale." He meets Clara and "was dazzled by her." Patrick falls in love with her, but even so, "there was a wall in him that no-one reached. Not even Clara, though she assumed it had deformed him." (p 71) For his part "as he held her, he still didn't know who she was." (p 72) Even though they are lovers, there is a part in each neither can know or reach.

Having begun as a searcher for Ambrose Small, Patrick meets Clara who returns to Small, which leaves Patrick grieving, searching for her and for himself. He finds himself through his deep love for Alice Gull: "She has delivered him out of nothing." (p 152)

Consider the significance of Patrick's love affair with Alice unfolding in the section of the novel called Palace of Purification. Do you think there is any connection with this name, Palace of Purification, and water?

Reflect on the love affair Patrick has with Clara and that he has with Alice. Consider the effect both women have on Patrick. What is it that Ondaatje might be conveying about the nature of love?

As a reader which relationship, that between Patrick and Clara, or that between Patrick and Alice, had the most effect on you? Give reasons, citing evidence from the text.

Another issue in the text is that of the migrant experience. Ondaatje portrays the migrants as lonely when they first arrive, isolated, exploited, killed or made ill by hard work, yet capable of a richness of living and friendship into which Patrick is drawn, see pages 112 - 119. Notice the language used to describe the migrants: "illegal gathering of various nationalities", "it was a party and political meeting, all of them trespassing", "(Patrick) was their alien."

What does Ondaatje seem to imply in In the Skin of a Lion about the migrant experience?

Has your reading of this novel changed your perception in any way of migrants in Australia, or, alternatively, struck a chord with you if you are a migrant?

Links to Web Sites

There are many web sites that can provide background information about Michael Ondaatje and In the Skin of a Lion.

Michael Ondaatje

Amazon.com reviews

Ondaatje, Michael

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