Good and evil in Anil's Ghost - Michael Ondaatje's exotic Sri Lanka

'Anil's Ghost' Michael Ondaatje's first novel, since his Booker Prize winning work, 'The English Patient' (1992), provides readers a vivid journey back to author's native country, Sri Lanka. In this novel, the brutality of the civil war that tore Sri Lanka apart in the mid 1980s to early 1990s is portrayed through l Ondaatje's standard lyrical prose.

"It is his extraordinary achievement to use magic in order to make the blood of his own country real," Richard Eder wrote of Ondaatje's novel in The New York Times Book Review (2000). The Sri Lankan civil war in the mid 1980s to early 1990s forms a part of the background of the novel.

In this paper, my aim is to provide a non-western perspective about Ondaatje's "country real", and to analyse how he has represented the clash of good and evil or more specifically, Eastern and Western cultural values as represented by two main protagonists-Sarath and Anil. It is evident that Ondaatje purposely constructed these two characters with opposing behaviour patterns that may be identified as symbols representing the East and West or good and evil traits respectively. In other words, Ondaatje attempts to represent two cultural perspectives and interpretations in the context of what Edward Said has articulated as Orientalism. In addition to Said's interpretation, I would like to bring a Buddhist perspective which Ondaatje seems to have grappled with in Anil's Ghost and to some extent in his latest poetry collection, Handwriting (1999). However, in this paper, I will not go into details of this Buddhist interpretation except to suggest a concept that may be useful to understand the term "good" deeds as found in Buddhist literature.

Michael Ondaatje

Anil's Ghost is a sad tale; a tragedy. What is Ondaatje's intention of telling this tragedy? Is it simply an account of a Westerner's observation of the horrors and evils that took place in Sri Lanka during a time of terror? Is it a representation of Good and Evil or the values from East and West? Is it a representation of Eastern and Western values associated with a brutal civil war which engulfed the entire fabric of a Third World country for over 20 years? In order to address at least some of these questions, it is important to provide a working definition on good and evil. This is also important to understand the sub-text and philosophy of Ondaatje's novel.

Beyond good and evil

Throughout the history of human civilization, various definitions have been proposed to interpret the notions of 'good' and 'evil'. Of these definitions, in recent times, Nietzsche's cardinal work, Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future, (German: Jenseits von Gut und Böse: Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft) has attracted philosophers and intellectuals alike and has been used as a framework, particularly the adoption of its terminology to examine and discuss events associated with the September 11 terror attacks. According to Nietzsche, good and evil may be interpreted as a question of the falseness of judgements and to what extent a judgement is "life-promoting, life-serving, species-preserving, perhaps even species-cultivating". My intention is to explore Nietzsche's selective words of embracing a judgment relating to life-promoting and life-serving purposes that I have identified in Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost.

I will first attempt to provide a working definitions of the terms; good and evil. Providing a definition of good and evil is a complex task as one could introduce theological, philosophical, cultural and even ethic-centric interpretations.

For the purpose of this article, I would embrace a simple view on these two contrasting phenomena by adopting "good" as acting in an altruistic manner, caring for others more than one's self, and acting as a "Good Samaritan" or other generic benevolent behaviour. On the other hand, "evil" will imply the opposite of "good" but may also carry other connotations, including murder, violence, or behaving with political or religious ideologies that may destroy human lives if the end justifies the means.

I would also like to link these definitions into a broader category of East and West which has a specific way of looking at individuals or nation state actions through a set of values commonly categorised as "developed" or "under developed" societies. For example, in the context of Anil's Ghost, the United States of America is represented a "developed" society whereas Guatemala and Sri Lanka are categorised as "under-developed" and as places where ongoing human atrocities take place.

These definitions can be viewed as an attempt or representation by Ondaatje to look at his native country as an Orientalist. I use the notion of Orientalism here to denote the discipline constructed by Edward Said in his book, Orientalism (1978). Although Said's study limits Orientalism to a discussion of how English, French, and American scholars have approached the Arab societies of North Africa and the Middle East, in this paper, I use the term Orientalism in a broader sense, primarily to suggest how a Western author might view a remote "exotic" culture such as Sri Lanka, and in particular to look at good and evil in a so-called third World country from a western perspective.

The female protagonist of Anil's Ghost is a forensic pathologist, Anil de Tissera, and she left her native country Sri Lanka, at the age of eighteen to study medicine in the United Kingdom. Anil specialised in forensic pathology and then moved from the United Kingdom to the United States.

The novel begins with a brief prologue set in Guatemala, where Anil is participating in a forensic anthropological project. The prologue describes an encounter with a woman who visits the project site to find out whether the bodies Anil and her team are working on belong to her missing relatives. In my view, this is a clever literary technique deviced by Ondaatje to symbolise the detachment and foreignness projected by Anil as a Westerner. The prologue also provides a stark dichotomy between the woman from Guatemala and Anil as representative symbols of two worlds: the Developed and a Developing world.

Extra judiciary killings

After 15 years abroad, Anil returns to her native Sri Lanka as a United Nations consultant to investigate the atrocities associated with the Civil War. Anil's mission for the United Nations is to find evidence of government involvement in atrocities including extra judiciary killings.

The difficulty of this task is the precariousness of Anil's situation. This is strongly represented as a Western intervention; and the Sri Lankan government's reluctant agreement to the mission to provide Anil with logistical support. Anil is assigned a local counterpart, Sarath Diyasena, whose real expertise is sixth century archaeology. Sarath is the government designated 'agent' who accompanies Anil on her journeys to various remote parts of Sri Lanka in search for evidence of terror. In her search for evidence of terror, most Westerners may identify that Anil's outlook as a search for "evil". In my view, these journeys are the media Ondaatje uses to provide multiple channels to deliver vivid descriptions of his native land, its mystical history, archaeology and above all, the terror and atrocities in a time of uncertainty.

Clash of two cultures

One of the crucial features of the novel is the representation of a clash of two cultures, the East and West. This is represented through the interaction between the main protagonists; Anil and Sarath. From the very first moment they meet, Ondaatje interjects two distinct cultural values associated with good and evil. Anil undoubtedly represents the western values and epitomises good. Because of Anil's western training, she has gone through a metamorphosis. She has not only changed her native values but also conditioned by foreign (western) codes:

"In her years abroad, during her European and North American education, Anil had courted foreignness ... she felt completely abroad. (Even now her brain held the area codes of Denver and Portland.)" (Ondaatje, 2000:54)

When Anil left Sri Lanka, she was a well-known athlete from a family with high connections but after leaving the country to study medicine, she returns as an outsider. When Anil is asked: "You have friends here, no?" her response is: "Not really" (p10). For someone who is aware of Sri Lankan customs and values, this is a difficult position to accept; Sri Lankans of all classes have connections with people and places everywhere especially in their native country.

Initially Anil displays the detachment of a Westerner on the loss of life, atrocities and terror in Sri Lanka. Such representations may not only be interpreted Western, but would not be acceptable to Sri Lankans who have had to suffer through a civil war in their country for over 23 years.

Ondaatje portrays Anil as a person who is no longer interested in the human elements behind the tragedies associated with the terror in her native Sri Lanka because of her acquired Western values. According to Elder:

"Anil comes with Western-bred investigative passion: the certainty that facts are there to be unearthed and that truth is to be constructed out of them." (Eder, 2000).

Anil with her acquired Western mode of thinking always questions Sarath Palipana's motives and approaches. This is well established during their first encounter in Sarath's office. As a normal and curious Sri Lankan, Sarath is interested in Anil's past as she comes from a well-known Sri Lankan family. When Sarath questions Anil about her past swimming records, Anil responds with an animosity: "Mr Diyasena ... let's not mention swimming again, okay? A lot of blood under the bridge since then." (16). Sarath questions her again in the usual Sri Lankan manner:

"Are you married? Got a family?"

"Not married. Not a swimmer."

"Right." (p17)

This animosity continues throughout the book, nevertheless, Anil vaguely displays sentimental patches of humanity towards Sarath. This includes her reaction to the suicide of Sarath's wife, his lonely life and his professional commitment to his work as an archaeologist. Anil develops sympathetic feelings, but continues to behave like an outsider; a westerner with a detached outlook.

Her only objective is to find the "truth" and "evidence" for her mission. In other words, Anil's aim is to examine the evil atrocities take place in a Third World country as a Westerner; an outsider. On the other hand, Sarath, can see the Western values in Anil's approach to work and life in Sri Lanka. As articulated by Richar Elder:

Anil comes with Western-bred investigative passion: the certainty that facts are there to be unearthed and that truth is to be constructed out of them. Sarath, a polymorphous spirit and the book's most memorable figure, cautions that the real truth of his country is ambiguous and unobtainable. (Elder, 2000)

Sarath perceives Anil's mission in Sri Lanka as an approach adopted by visiting foreign journalists and reporting local events from a five star hotel in Colombo:

"You know, I'd believe your arguments more if you lived here," he said. "You can't just slip in, make a discovery and leave."

"You want me to censor myself."

"I want you to understand the archaeological surround of a fact. Or you'll be like one of those journalists who file reports about flies and scabs while staying at the Galle Face Hotel. That false empathy and blame." (p.44)

The Government agent and Anil's investigation

For Sarath, Anil is no different to any other "outsider" who is totally devoid of any emotional attachments to her native country. Sarath's response is his way of comparing the deceitful aspects of visiting foreign journalists who reports 'events' of atrocities from their five star hotels

in Colombo. He compares these foreign journalists with Anil. On the other hand, Sarath also has a commitment to finding the truth. Despite being labelled as the "government agent", Sarath's contribution to Anil's investigation highlights aspects of "good" including his altruistic behaviour and finally sacrificing his life to help assist Anil to take a reliable evidence away to support her mission in Sri Lanka.

As part of the evidence gathering exercise of Anil's mission, she discovers a skeleton with the help of Sarath. Anil names the skeleton 'Sailor'.

There is evidence that the body had been moved from somewhere else into a secured archaeological site to which only government employees have access. The skeleton becomes the first specific piece of evidence disclosing a relationship between government operations and the suppression of those with opinions differing from the official story.

Anil's challenge is to identify the dead man and determine where he came from, under what circumstances he lost his life, and how and why his body had been moved from the place of death to a secured archaeological site. These questions take both Anil and Sarath to his old teacher and mentor, Palipana, a once eminent archaeologist who has now retired to an abandoned monastery and become a recluse.

The encounter with Palipana adds a different slant to the novel. In fact, a critical reader (with inside knowledge of the country) might question why Sarath takes Anil to see an archaeologist instead of another forensic pathologist, someone equipped to assist in determining the cause of the death of Sailor. On the other hand, it could be argued that the visit to the old archaeologist is a tactic on the part of Sarath to avoid (government) sabotage Anil's investigation. This point is left open and merits different interpretations.

Acquired Western values

The most important aspect of the novel is the 'alienness' of Anil who has been away from her native country for fifteen years. Anil's parents were killed in a car crash while she was studying abroad.

The novel does not reveal her interaction with any old friends or relatives, creating suspicion in the mind of a reader who has insights into the culture and ways of life in Sri Lanka. Anil's only personal contact is a meeting with an old servant woman whom she knew as a child. To a Sri Lankan, this particular aspect of Anil's behaviour is quite strange and unrealistic. Is it due to Anil's newly acquired Western values, including a reconditioned memory where foreign area codes are retained instead of local history, language, culture, or people of her native country? On her arrival in Sri Lanka the officer at the airport asks in Sri Lankan English:

"You were born here, no?" Her reply is convoluted: "Fifteen years." "You still speak Sinhala?" asks the officer. Anil's reply is just two words: "A little..." (p.9).

This reply in my view summarises Anil's attitude towards her home country and provides an insight into Ondaatje's orientalist approach to examine Sri Lanka.

Despite this alienness, Anil's comment to the driver while travelling from the airport to Colombo is "Maybe drink some toddy before it gets too late."

Toddy is a local brew, which is not normally consumed by young people, particularly not a youth of Anil's class! It is strange that a young person who left Sri Lanka at the age of 18 returns after fifteen years looking for this particular local brew. In my opinion, this is a representation of popular culture that Ondaatje intentionally interjects into Anil's extraordinary journeys in Sri Lanka projecting his ideas of an exotic country, representing his own native land, as an orientalist.

When Anil is finally interrogated by Sri Lankan officials, just prior to her escape from the country, it is no one else but Sarath who comes to her rescue by recovering the evidence for her story - the skeleton named Sailor - which had been stolen by the Government agents. However, Sarath's commitment to finding the truth contributes to his premature death, brought about by the government agents who wanted to create barriers to Anil's investigation.

At the end of the novel, when Anil finally finds the missing skeleton - Sailor - and the recorded message from Sarath telling her how to leave the country safely, her immediate reaction is to listen to his voice and everything again. There is no sign of emotion:

Anil made the tape roll back on the rewind. She walked away from the skeleton and paced up and down the hold listening to his voice again. Listening to everything again.

The key point about the novel is the portrayal of two different cultural perspectives - East and West - and the difference in values attached to each perspective by Sarath and Anil. Although Anil does not see it at the beginning, it is Sarath who finally makes a real sacrifice to find the truth representing good by sacrificing his own life.

Despite the title and the narratives about Anil, in my view, Sarath's character is crafted so well that he becomes the dominant protagonist in the novel. Sarath's character is represented in a manner reminiscent of the non-attachment qualities of a Bodhisattva (a sage making sacrifice).

There are other important questions to be asked about the narrative techniques by Ondaatje including questions such as "why Sarath did takes Anil to meet Palipana? "Have these journeys been used to describe Ondaatje's "country real?" Are these, an Orientlist's depiction of Sri Lanka's history and amazing archaeological wealth? What is the connection between archaeology and human rights investigations? What is the significance of Sarath's brother, Gamini's life and work? Whose stories are being told in the novel? Is it the story of Anil and her diminishing linkages to her native country? Is it the story of Sarath who finally pays the ultimate price to help a westernised Sri Lankan to reveal the truth to the West?

Despite all these difficult questions, Michael Ondaatje has once again delivered a great piece of work which is rich in poetic prose. The language in which it is written is as good as Ondaatje's poetry, leaving the reader to digest the sadness, the mysteries and beauty of a sad tale, which he tells as a gifted novelist. There is indeed a representation of Eastern and Western values in equal portion in this novel, where "Ondaatje tells us a fascinating story intertwined with past and present of this island where 'the darkest Greek tragedies [are] innocent compared with what is happening...' there." (Govinnage, 2000).

However, Michael Ondaatje's conception of history of Sri Lanka is an integration of many ingredients, developed around two cultures that he has inherited, and linking their historical, social, literary and political parameters but have projected these as an orientalist. Much of the ingredients chosen to write the novel can be categorised as Ondaatje's personal history of his native country, which may be not considered "real". I emphasised the word 'real' in summation that the Booker Prize winning novelist, Michael Ondaatje has represented Sri Lanka Anil's not only as homage to his homeland but may be as a documentary written from Canada. Despite the long list of people, he has interviewed for during the research phase of the book, Anil's Ghost should be read as a novel and not as a historical documentary representing a sad phase of Sri Lanka's history.

(This article is based on a presentation of a conference paper at Western Social Science Association 49th Conference held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, April, 2000).