Running in the Family is a fictionalized memoir, written in post-modern style, involving aspects of magic realism, by Michael Ondaatje. It deals with his return to his native island of Sri Lanka, also called Ceylon, in the late 1970s. In the passage Th

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The Bone

Running in the Family Essay Two

Running in the Family is a fictionalized memoir, written in post-modern style, involving aspects of magic realism, by Michael Ondaatje. It deals with his return to his native island of Sri Lanka, also called Ceylon, in the late 1970s. In the passage “The Bone,” Michael shares a story about his father.  The entire passage is filled with strange imageries, metaphors, and again that blurred line between fact and fiction. The passage takes place within Michael´s past; actually the story is about his father. The story takes place in a time before Michael was born, which means the story was told to Michael on his trip to Sri Lanka.

Michael Ondaatje in this chapter really crossed the line of reality and went into fiction. In no way is anything in the passage real. The perspective of the novel as well as this passage is always a mystery.  The true perspective of this passage is addressed. Within the passage the literary devices, which are used to emphasize the fiction of Michael Ondaatje brings, as well out the actual fiction of the story of Michael´s father, which is basically a story retold to Michael.

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The perspective of Running in the Family is that of Michael Ondaatje, Michael Ondaatje is the famed author of The English Patient and the writer of this memoir. Nothing political or religious is mentioned in this novel or brought out of the pages of the book. Instead, Michael is focused on close social relationships of his family and friends. Despite the fact that Ceylon was a colony of various imperial powers beforehand. In Ondaatje's postmodern style of writing, he does not take up discussions of colonialism at any time. It is as if it did not exist. Normally these types of issues of ...

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