Mimicry

Why is mimicry important? What is this theme all about?
(sub topics - mimicry symbolism, cultural mimicry, false identities - "acting" like someone else, nature or landscaping performing mimicry, etc.)

**__Quotations and Analysis__**
"...the frozen cars hunched like sheep..." (Ondaatje 21)
 * Cars covered in snow mimic sheep.

"It was two and a half years later, after several modest letters about his successful academic career, that his parents discovered he had not even passed the entrance exam and was living off their money in England." (Ondaatje, 31)
 * This is Mervyn and his parents mimicing because early in this chapter, Mervyn had been causing trouble at home so, by getting into school he pulled himself out of the streak of bad behaviour. However, he hadn't actually gotten into school so by pretending to do so it made it seem like he wasn't a trouble maker anymore. He used his parents money to make them think he was no longer in a bad behaviour streak, but used the moeny to continue this streak.

"Both my grandmothers lived cautiously, at least until their husbands died. Then they blossomed, especially Lalla who managed to persuade all those she met into chaos." (Ondaatje, 41)
 * This is an example of mimicry because it seems that their husbands kept the women from living their lives and also the women acted false in front of their husbands by not representing their true self, but now that the grandmother's husbands are dead they are having the time of their life with being their true self.

"I became conscious again brittle air outside the windows searing and howling through the streets and over the frozen cars hunched like sheep..."(Ondaatje, 21)
 * This is an example of mimicry because the author is causing the brittle air to mimic the sheeps behaviours.

"The pendant, once its shape stood still, became a mirror" (Ondaatje, 64)
 * This is mimicry because it is showing the pendant mimicing the events that took place in history through a mirror to show us the depth of the incidents and events that have occured.

"Like some other Odaatjes, Bampa had a weekness for pretending to be 'English' and, in his starched collars and grey suits, was determined in his customs." (Ondaatje, 56) "Sweet runs with its own tangible life down a body as if a giant egg has been broken onto our shoulders." (Ondaajte, 79)
 * This shows how Bampa is mimicing the English in hope that he will gain power and dominance. The English are over ruling and minicry is coming into effect as a way of survival.
 * This is showing mimicry by relating the sweetness of sugar to the same feeling as a egg being broken on your shoulder.

" For twenty five years he has not lived in this country, though up to the age of eleven he slept in rooms like this- with no curtains, just delicate bars across the windows so no one could break in. And the floors of red cement polished smooth, cool against bare feet." (Ondaatje, 17)
 * This is proof of mimicry on the first page of the novel by relating the living arrangements he currently lives in to that of the ones he once had lived in when he was much younger.

"During quiet afternoons i spread maps on the floor and searched out possible routes to ceylon" (Ondaatje, 22)
 * I am really thinking outside the box on this quote. I believe the act of reviewing maps to find new ways to Ceylon would be much like early settlers trying to find new routes through maps and adding on to their own maps by taking different routes. So Michael is mimicking early settlers by trying to find new simpler routes to Ceylon.

"Like some other Odaatjes, Bampa had a weekness for pretending to be 'English' and, in his starched collars and grey suits, was determined in his customs." (Ondaatje, 56)
 * This quote is all about Bampa mimicking the English because he wants to become powerful and dominate much like the English have done in the past. A follow up quote to provide proof of this is at the beginning of the novel with the quote "The Americans were able to put a man on the moon because they knew English. The Sinhalese and Tamils whose knowledge of English was poor, thought that the earth was flat." (Douglas Amarasekera, Ceylon Sunday times, 29.1.78) This quote acknowledges the fact that many people believed that other nations of the world who were fluent in the English language were much more capable of becoming successful and gaining power and control. Bampa Mimics the "English" because he wants to posses the power and control that he stereotypes with English speaking nations.

" Most Ondaatjes liked liquor, sometimes to excess. Most of them were hot tempered- though they blamed diabetes for this when- ever possible." (Ondaatje, 57)
 * The fact that a lot of members of the Ondaatje family were alcoholics with short tempers is proof of mimicry. The traits of the family had been passed down through generations. The children mimicked the ways of their parents and became just like them. Copying their alcoholism and the moods of anger. After all most children grow up and behave with what they know which is mostly their parents behaviors.

"This pendant, once its shape stood still, became a mirror. It pretended to reflect each European power till newer ships arrived and spilled their nationalities," (Ondaatje, 64)
 * This quote provides mimicry by conveying the ideology that the land would mirror each new European power that settled on the island. I realized that it said "it pretended to reflect each European power" but this is still mimicking the nations in my books.

"I watch my sister who alternatively reminds me of my father, mother and brother." (Ondaatje, 69)
 * The reason his sister reminds him of his mother, father and brother is physically and mentally. Since she is Michaels' father and mothers daughter, she resembles them physically by looking alike. But mentally she behaves the same way as all three. Basically a mimic of Michaels' mother, father and brother.

"The guests, the children, everyone is laughing and Gillian is no doubt exaggerating Yasmine's account in her usual style, her long arms miming the capture and scrub of five year olds. (Ondaatje, 138)
 * This is proof of mimicry because she is acting out the way that the children had struggled when they were younger and being bathed.

" What does the this wild pig want soap for? Visions begin to form of the creature returning to his friends with pears transparent soapand then all of them bathing and scrubbing their armpits in the rain in a foul parody of us." (Ondaatje, 143)
 * This is a very humorous part in the book where Michael describes boars bathing in the rain much like they had been doing a few minutes earlier. This is definitely an example of mimicry because the boars are mimicking the actions of humans.

"And a sourceless light that seems to brighten the landscape from underneath, as if yellow flowers in the garden are leaking into wet air." (Ondaatje, 166)
 * This is mimicry due to the lighting that looks like yellow flowers in the garden. The light mimics the flowers.

"I have been thinking that if she has Ondaatje blood and no Gratien blood then obviously it is from my mother's side that we got a sense of the dramatic, the tall stories, the determination to now and then hold the floor. The ham in us. While from my father, in spite of his temporary manic public behavior, we got our sense of secrecy, the desire to be reclusive." (Ondaatje,168) "Like some othe Odaatje, Bampa had weakness for pretending to be "english" and, in his stretched collars and grey suits, was determined in his customes."(Ondaatje, 56)
 * This is once again mimicry because it is his sister and she mimics the ways of her mother and father. She takes both of her mother and fathers personality traits and together creates a person with both of these traits.
 * Bampa mimicing the englsih, and following their customes.

"My body must remember everything, this brief insect bite, smell of wet fruit, the slow snail light, rain, rian, rian, and underneath the hint of volours a sound of furious wet birdds whose range of mimicry includes what one imagines to be large beasts, trains, burnign electricity." (Ondanntje, 184) "Leaving the car door open like a white broken wing on the lawn"(Ondaatje, 188)
 * This quote is significant because he is using his memory to minic the images he remembers. Through out the story he learns alot about his families history through his experiences and he doesn' want to forget what everything felt like.
 * The cars door totally mimics that of a bird with a broken wing.

"Visions begin to form of the creature returning to his friends with Pears Transparent Soap and all of the bathing and scrubbing their armpits in the rain in a foul parody of us." (Ondaatje 143)
 * A vision of the pigs moacking and mimicing the humans action. The pigs have stole their soap and are now using it, in the same way as humans would

"...For a bear comes regularly each night, climbs the stairs slowly..." (Ondaatje 142)
 * This is mimicry because the quote is about bears mimicing the actions of humans by going into the cabins, sneaking around and taking food.

"My father's pupils droop to the south-west corner of his sockets. His jaw falls and resettles into a groan that is half idiot, half shock. (All this emphasized by his dark suit and well combed hair.) My mother in white has twisted her lovely features and stuck out her jaw and upper lip so that her profile is in posture of a monkey." (Ondaajte 161)
 * Ondaajte looking at the first picture he has seen of his parents. This is the only picture from their wedding and his father is mimicing and "idiots" face and his mother mimicing a monkey. They are both being rediculous in a picture that everyone will see of them together. They clearly don't care about what other people will think of them

My body must remeber everything, this brief insect bite, smell of wet fruit, the slow snail light, rain, rain and underneath the hint of colours a sound of furious wet birds whose range of mimicry includes what one imagines to be large beast, trains, burning electricity." (Ondaajte 202)
 * Ondaajte is stating how nature is mimicing huma, the economy, and imperialism.

" "Thanikama." "Aloneness." "Birdless." The sound of an animal passing through the garden" (Ondaajte 190)
 * A bird, a feeling, and a place all representing and mimicing the same thing. "An Animal passing through the garden"

"Midnight and noon and dawn and dusk are the hours of danger, susceptibility to the "grahayas" - planetary spirit of malignant character"(Ondaajte 190)
 * These times of day representing, and mimicing danger to these spirits and animals.

"The room was being thrown around and they were shouting. Like Giants." (Ondaajte, 176)
 * Stating that by having lots of loud things happening at once, or having lots of people in a small space at the same time, that the room was being thrown around. Also, "like giants" mimicing how lots of small things can turn into oone giant thing."

"They had come along way in fourteen years from being the products of two of the most best known and wealthiest familes in Ceylon: my father now owning only a chicken farm at Rock Hill, my mother working in a hotel. (Ondaajte, 172) "I never met his second wife, Maureen, until the day of his funeral. (Ondaajte, 177) "I want to sit down with someone and talk with utter diretness, want to talk to all the lost history like that deserving lover. (Ondaajte, 54)
 * How his parents have come from very well-off families and now they are just getting by with owning a chicken farm and working at a hotel.
 * Mervyn kept his life private, up until the funeral, and then suddenly it was okay to let everyone meet his second wife.
 * history is lost however, it is still important and loved, you just don't see it.

"Pretending to visit departing relatives, they would board vessels in the harbour and stumble off gangplanks in the early hours of the morning." (Ondaatje, 45)
 * To get the cheapest drinks from the ships for they were duty free alcohol, Mervyn and his friends pretended to visit the departing relatives.

"Gasanawa was the rubber estate where Francis worked and it became the base for most of their parties." (Ondaatje, 45)
 * The workplace where Francis worked, now acted as their party place as well. The identity of a workplace changes to party place.

"Some of the horses had become so inbred that jockey could no longer insure themselves." (Ondaatje, 50)
 * In this case, the horses are mimicing the country. The horses have become so inbred like people from different countries have lived in Ceylon for such generations that the country can not be known for one type.

"Every two years he would visit England, buy crystals, and learn the latest dances." (Ondaatje, 56)
 * Bampa mimiced western dance steps.

"All the women wore long black dresses and imported champagne was drunk surreptitiously from teacups." (Ondaatje, 57)
 * On the funeral of Bampa, all the women pretended to be sorrowful from their appearance, but in actual they were partyingsecretly.

"Once a week it would climb up and spend the morning eating the berries and come down drunk..." (Ondaatje, 59)
 * The polecat mimiced Mervyn. He, once in a while, would start drinking and would not stop for hours and sometimes days. This is animal mimicing human.

"She could be silent as a snake or flower. She loved the thunder; it spoke to her like a king. As if her mild dead husband had been transformed into a cosmic umpire, given the megaphone of nature." (Ondaatje, 125)
 * Lalla was a person who loved nature and did not find any danger towards nature. It can also be taken as that the nature mimiced Willy, Lalla's Husband, and she talked to nature the way she did to her husband.