ENGL 146 Study Guide - Final Guide: Firstclass, Michael Ondaatje, Leitmotif

• School: University of Victoria
• Department: English
• Course: ENGL 146
• Professor: Sanghara Harb

Document Summary

It is an adventure story: similar to a more modern retelling of huckleberry finn or tom sawyer. The contrast between the child narrator and his adult vocabulary, message, and iguraive language. Like medicine river, the cat"s table is episodic in form: this is reminiscent of how children think (their focus jumps quickly between subjects and ideas) Michael ondaatje says that the character michael is not representaive of himself, despite similariies in life events: journey from sri lanka, writer, naionality, etc, it is impossible for writers to create in a vacuum. There is always an element of their experiences in their wriing. (art relects the lives of its creators) Ondaatje stretches the breadth of the intended audience by using a young narrator going on an adventure coupled with adult vocabulary and introspecive themes: the narrator himself doesn"t even understand these themes unil he is older. She represents the unknown goal of the journey (like a mysterious treasure)