’s Escape From Exploitation Essay, Research Paper
An Individual’s Escape From Exploitation
Michael Ondaatje’s novel, In the Skin of a Lion, depicts
some of
the hardships faced by the working class in the early part of
the
century. It is a seemingly pro-working class novel that portrays
exploitation and unfairness by the upper class. The novel, then,
would
be expected to offer some resolution for the working class, but
it does
not. Instead of giving a solution for the class as a whole, the
novel
offers two answers for the individual within the working
class–through
entrepuenership and the family.
Throughout the novel, Ondaatje portrays the exploitation
of the
working class. When they are building the bridge at the
beginning of the
novel, the workers would huddle together, walking “in groups of
three or
four. Many [had] already died during the building of the bridge”
(39).
However, while these men were risking their lives for very
little pay,
Harris, the Commissioner, wears an “expensive tweed coat that
cost more
than the combined weeks’ salaries of five bridge workers” (43).
This
example shows the huge gap between the working class and the
capitalist
class.
In addition, Ondaatje portrays companies as not caring
for their
workers. Clara talks about her father as having been “killed
setting
charges in a feldspar mine [because the] company had tried to go
too
deep and the section above him collapsed” (74). Ondaatje thinks
that
there is a lack of concern in corporations for workers in that
the
companies treat workers as expendable.
The workers who are constructing the waterworks are forced to
operate
under conditions which the are depicted as disgusting. “All
morning they
slip in the wet clay unable to stand properly, pissing where
they work,
eating where someone else left shit” (106).
Moreover, the situation is extremely dangerous, for “if they are
digging
incorrectly–just one degree up [it will result in] the water
heaving
in, shouldering them aside in a fast death” (106). Some of the
other
jobs that are portrayed as particularly dangerous are those of
the dyers
and the hide-room laborers. In these jobs, “there was never
enough ventilation, and the coarse salt, like the acids in the
dyeing
section, left the men invisibly with tuberculoses and arthritis
and
rheumatism” (131).
But given all of the examples of mistreatment of workers
by the
upper class, Ondaatje does not make a single reference to what
would
seem (especially to someone writing in 1987) the most logical
solution–formal unions. If the work were purely a pro-working
class
novel, there would be some solution, or at least some ray of
hope,
offered to the people as a class. But Ondaatje gives none of
this in the
novel. In fact, the only person labeled as a “union man” (156
was Cato,
who is killed.
Another obvious answer that Ondaatje refuses to support
is that
of terrorism. Ondaatje argues that terrorism is not a way to
deal with
the problems of the working class. Alice had argued against
terrorism
from the start, arguing that protesting is acceptable, as long
as no one
is hurt. Ultimately, it is terrorism, in the form of a planned
attack that causes Alice’s death-showing that terrorism is not a
viable
solution for the working class. Ondaatje gives no solution for
the class
as a whole; however, he does give two possible solutions to the
individual trapped in that situation.
The first of these solutions is entrepuenership.
Caravaggio, who
was a tar-layer, goes into business for himself as a thief.
Caravaggio
is depicted as a nice person who turns the tables of poverty by
stealing
from and exploiting the wealthy. The other entrepreneur in the
novel is
Temelcoff, who used to have the most dangerous position on the
bridge.
Temelcoff leaves the working class, begins attending school, and
starts
his own bakery. It is the bakery job, being able to work for
himself,
which truly makes Temelcoff happy.
The second solution that Ondaatje offers is found in the
family.
Once Patrick finds himself in the company of Alice and Hanna,
“he is
happy” (133). He is the happiest when it is “Patrick and Alice
and
Hanna” (136). Once he had integrated himself into that family,
he began
also to be integrated into the community. The local people
“knew who
he was now” (138). Ondaatje is making the connection between
happiness
and belonging–first to a family, then to a community. When
Patrick
feels this happiness, he is content.
When Alice dies, Patrick becomes angry. Since he blames
the
upper class for her death, he tries to burn down a hotel. When
that
attempt is unsuccessful, he plans to explode the waterworks.
This leads
to the scene in the Commissioner’s office with Patrick and
Harris.
During this scene, Patrick is forced to deal with his emotions
of anger
against the capitalist class. Patrick vents his anger, telling
Harris
about the death of Alice. Instead of blowing up the waterworks,
as he
had planned, Patrick-incredulously-falls asleep. This shows
that he has
decided not to commit this act; rather, he values the sanctity
of the
family over terrorism as a way to achieve happiness.
All of the escapes from the imposition of the upper
class on the
working class in the novel show the focus on the individual as
opposed
to the working class as a whole. Although Ondaatje writes about
the
exploitation of the workers, the escape he advocates lies in the
individual-through entrepuenership or through the family.
Work Cited
Ondaatje, Michael. In the Skin of a Lion. New York: Random
House, 1987.
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