44 pages • 1 hour read
Michael OndaatjeIn the Skin of a Lion
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1987A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Creation of “History”
The most striking aspect of In the Skin of a Lion is its idiosyncratic, nonlinear, kaleidoscopic narrative style. The plot is developed in individual cells that are gradually pieced together to reveal a continuous whole. This narrative phenomenon is echoed by the characters themselves and in the individual plot lines. Most notably, as Patrick discovers Alice’s former identity as the unnamed nun who fell off the viaduct, he perceives that “his own life [is] no longer a single story but part of a mural” (145). Drawing an analogy to the performance of a street-band, he notes how gratifying it is to arrive at “an ending full of embraces after the solos had made everyone stronger, more delineated” (144-45). Single stories transform into history as they’re retold and contextualized within a broader narrative. Nicholas acknowledges this phenomenon when he is reminded of the episode with the nun on the bridge, as he discovers “the pleasure of recall. It is something new to him. This is what history means” (149). Also crucial to the development of this theme is the way the novel’s conclusion ties into its prologue: All these stories lead back to the beginning of a story. That a unified history is more precious and significant because of the distinctness, individuality, and complex interrelatedness of its constituent parts is the most important theme in the novel.
Identity, and the Role of Names in Manufacturing Identity
An important and complex theme in the novel is the notion of identity, the (sometimes artificial) construction of identity, and the role of names in creating an identity. (There is a close corollary theme of language and the ability to name things with words—creating structure out of disorder and familiarizing the unfamiliar.) Alice’s character is the most significant locus of this theme, since she first appears as an anonymous nun, and in her subsequent appearances her personality changes beyond recognition. Her name is one she chose—a false name for a false identity. The fact that both Alice and Clara are actresses—professional identity forgers—is also important in the novel’s dealings with the notion of identity. Patrick is enthralled by the artifice of both women’s personalities—actresses onstage and offstage. He even admits that, with Alice, “He wanted to be fooled by the person he felt could not fool him, who stopped three yards past the side curtain and became somebody else” (153). Another facet of the theme of identity is the way it can be defined without names, through physical attributes. The description of the Bertillon identification system, which is used in the search for Ambrose after his disappearance, is an important reference to the body as an identifier. But even the body can dissemble. As referenced in the title, In the Skin of a Lion, it is possible to assume a false skin in the same way one assumes a false name: One can put on the costume of another person and acquire all the power that comes with it.
The effect of Language, Genealogy, and Ethnicity on Human Connection and Community
One of the novel’s central principles is drawing together individual parts into a shared whole. This concept has an important analogy in the idea of an individual’s membership in a social group. The novel highlights several determining factors in creating groups, especially language, national origin, culture, ethnicity (skin color), and socioeconomic status. This theme plays out in particularly interesting ways with Patrick and Nicholas. Although Patrick is a native Canadian and a native English speaker, he struggles with language and conversation, preferring to listen in silence, and this prevents him from becoming a full participant in social groups. He cannot fully participate in the immigrant communities in which he lives in the latter half of the novel because he lacks a shared language, but he is welcomed to a certain degree as a passive member because he is from the same socioeconomic class and shares in their economic hardship. Nicholas is a Macedonian immigrant and a non-native English speaker, so when he is working on the viaduct among native English speakers, they perceive him as abnormal because of his idiosyncratic, non-native speech patterns. However, when he is within his community of Macedonian immigrants, he enjoys full membership and participation in that group.
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