Michael Ondaatje's Running In The Family

Michael Ondaatje uses the search for his father, in the memoir ‘Running in the Family’, as an excuse to find his own identity. He becomes frustrated when other people’s memories are seen to be unreliable because the stories are retold with imagination, judgement and individual perspective – he fears that he will not be able to find himself. Imagination plays a vital role in dealing with fragments that last forever so he uses it to fill in the gaps of missing pieces of his story in order to give a better understanding of the whole issue of identity. Michael Ondaatje uses magic realism in his semi-autobiographical novel ‘Running in the Family’ to incorporate elements of imagination when memories fail. Michael Ondaatje’s distance from his family …show more content…
Michael claims that Lalla died in a flood, the water would pull her “down like bait” (111) until “there was the great blue ahead of her, like a sheaf of blue wheat, like a large eye that peered towards her, and she hit it and was dead.” (111) Lalla is described as being alone while she experienced this therefore, there is no one to re-tell this story to Michael, making it clear that he is using magic realism. Lalla and Michael’s father, Mervyn were very similar although they were not blood-related. The chapter begins with confusion but once Michael accepts that aunt Lalla had nothing to say, he begins to realize that his aunt and his father have similar characteristics. Michael creates this imaginary story about Lalla because she reminds him of his father and he wishes he knew these details about his father’s …show more content…
Ironically in the chapter ‘How I was Bather,’ he is the one who cannot remember the specifications. This is one of the two chapters about Michael specifically. Gillian, Michael’s older sister, recalls a story of “Maratina [filling] a bucket with water and [flinging] the contents towards [their] covering screaming bodies.” (120) However, Michael questions why he would not remember this traumatic experience unless “Gillian is no doubt exaggerating Yasmine’s account in her usual style.” (120) This shows how many people use magic realism in real-life situations to add excitement or to entertain. This helps Michael realize how unreliable memory is, and how everyone uses their imagination to fill gaps in stories that they have

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