Introduction

Transnational Identities 315
be the poems’ intent. Their position at this point in the text rather suggests that
they function as a melancholic, romanticized image of people whose culture sits in
place and who do not have to deal with the problem of being both foreigner and
prodigal at the same time. Strikingly, the “brown men” in “To Colombo” “rise
knee deep like the earth / out of the earth” (RF 90). They appear to literally have
grown out of the land which Ondaatje envies at this point. These people can connect
to the country in a way that Ondaatje and his hybrid family cannot (see also
Leon 31). The sentimental mood is only confirmed if one takes a look at the poem
“Sweet Like a Crow” preceding the chapter (RF 76-77). It describes a young Sinhalese
girl singing so out of tune that her voice is described as sounding, for example,
“like someone pulling barbed wire / across a stone courtyard, like a pig
drowning” (RF 76). It must take a great amount of romanticizing and sentimentality
indeed to construe this noise as even remotely “sweet”. The poems accordingly
convey Ondaatje’s momentary longing for a simpler notion of home and identity
resulting from his frustration in establishing a connection to Sri Lanka/Ceylon,
not without his typical irony though by overdramatically exaggerating his feelings.
Anil’s reconnection with her homeland is similarly difficult and shows a more
complicated side of having a transnational identity as she suffers from a conflict of
interests. This is best expressed in her inability to use her once native language and
her inability or unwillingness to modify her idea of truth. Her reflections on language
show a change in her self-understanding: she is upset that she can no longer
speak Sinhala because it prevents her from communicating with other Sri
Lankans, such as Ananda (AG 170) and her ayah, Lalitha. The meeting with Lalitha
demonstrates this especially well. Because they no longer speak the same
language, Anil cannot re-establish their relationship, which leaves both of them
feeling isolated: “When Anil let go, the old woman seemed stranded […]. Anil sat
next to Lalitha and held her hand in silence, feeling an ache in herself” (AG 22).
There is a border between them that they cannot cross. Anil is in this instant confronted
with the extent of her estrangement from the culture she was born into.
Even when she wants to belong to it again, she is unable to, which is especially
painful with regard to Lalitha who is Anil’s last intimate connection in the country.
It is therefore not possible for herself to realign herself to the Sri Lankan part of
her identity even though she wishes to.
This is further emphasized by the reaction of Lalitha’s granddaughter. She
watches the meeting through “stern eyes” (AG 22) and deliberately excludes Anil
by talking to Lalitha in Tamil without bothering to translate for Anil (AG 23). She
even pointedly highlights Anil’s lack of “connection” to Sri Lanka (AG 24) and by
all this categorizes Anil as an outsider who does not belong there. While this certainly
mirrors Anil’s self-understanding upon initially arriving on the island, it is
now painful because it emphasizes a boundary between her and the woman whom
she loves like a mother (AG 23) and because Anil has finally decided that she
wants to cross the boundaries that separate her from Sri Lankan society but is