Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of English, Avinashilingam University for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
The process of colonisation has brought about several changes in the socio-cultural condition of the colonised countries as the imperialistic policy of waging wars against the third-world countries induced millions of people to migrate from their homeland to distant lands. In the novel ‘In the Skin of a Lion’, Ondaatje traces the inception of the process of migration to Canada and explicates the condition that leads to the multicultural social and cultural scenario of Canada. Moreover, he portrays the bourgeois tendency of colonisers who utilised the manual labour of the migrants and rarely provided suitable living and working conditions. This article has made a scrupulous study on the interconnection between the socio-cultural condition and the identity of an individual. This study claims that as the stable self represents the psychological wellbeing, individuals should strive hard to maintain their mental health and thereby play a significant role in the social development of the country. Ondaatje insists the government of the countries to acknowledge the contributions of all races and afford healthy living conditions to foster social eudemonia of the immigrants in ‘the new world’. He believes that the discouragement of ghettoisation, violence and racial discrimination would create endearing circumstances for the peaceful coexistence of various cultural groups. He affirms the need for the insistence on the value and dignity of all people regardless of their racial or ethnic origins, language or their religious affiliation.
Social Eudemonia, Michael Ondaatje, In the Skin of a Lion, Canada, Multiculturalism
