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In the story “Squatter”, Rohinton Mistry's objection to Canadian multiculturalism is that, as a liberal framework, it functions to further consolidate the non-mainstream people’ minority position. As Smaro Kamboureli notes, "making such people visible only by viewing them as representative of their cultural groups does virtually nothing to dispel the 'marginality' attributed to those people" (Gabriel 3). In Kamboureli’s view, the Canadian policy of multiculturalism only exists as a political tool to satisfy the Canadian mainstream culture. Sarosh, the protagonist of the story, is an immigrant in the western world. He strongly desires to be integrated into, and accepted by, Canadian society. However, during his ten years in Canada, he is afflicted all the while by the process to adapt himself well to Canadian society. He is tormented by "the presence of xenophobia and hostility" (Mistry 331), because he persists in "a grotesquely aberrant" (338) and non-mainstream practice. Mistry mentions that, “mosaic and melting pot are both nonsense, and ethnic is a polite way of saying bloody foreigner” (335). In Mistry’s view, Canadian multiculturalism is merely a political ruse for discrimination and exclusion. Living under this political ruse, the Canadian immigrants will suffer from a series of cultural effects, such as losing their original cultural identity and encountering various daily frustrations and difficulties of adapting to a new circumstance.In general, the Canadian immigrants will gradually lose their original cultural identity in order to adapt well to Canadian society. Once an immigrant gets the citizenship, he will be a Canadian. However, obtaining the new citizenship does not mean that the immigrant will be assimilated into natural, mainstream and real Canadian culture. In the story “Squatter”, Sarosh promises his mother and himself that he will fully adapt to Canadian life within ten years or return to Bombay. Therefore he desperately pursues his assimilation into the national culture: Sarosh changes his name to Sid upon arrival in Canada, overwriting his connection to his Parsi community with this new name. Significantly, a name is actually a sign of culture: as Nilufer notes, “Savukshaw is a Parsi name, variously spelled as Savakshaw or Savaksha” (Nilufer 130). Therefore, this act of cultural erasure definitely set out his determination to be integrated into Canadian culture. With endless efforts, he succeeds in his adaptation in every way except one: he finds it impossible to adjust himself in the Canadian way—sitting instead of squatting. This immigration-related problem exists as the last barrier to prevent him from becoming “completely Canadian” (330). In this situation, he starts to conquer this last problem which is also his last remnant of Indian identity to completely achieve his fulfillment. Moreover, in the Indian Aid society, people who persist in a non-mainstream culture will be considered as “patients”. They are coerced into eating “Wonder Breed” (333) (Canadian bread) and drinking “unadulterated Canadian water” (334). Why can’t they eat their Indian food and drink Coca-Cola freely in such a multicultural country? Perhaps the only reason is that “Indian food” and “Coca-Cola” do not satisfy the Canadian mainstream culture. Consequently, to adapt themselves well in Canadian society, these immigrants have to eat Canadian bread with throwing up and drink unadulterated Canadian water with feeling of nausea meanwhile. They have to give up their original name, change their life-style into Canadian style, treat their “disease” defined by Canadian society and at last forgo any “retention of original citizenship” (334) in order to become a complete Canadian. As a result, after Sarosh comes back to India, Sarosh desperately searches for his old place in the pattern of life he had vacated ten years ago. Friends … gradually disappear … People who sit on the parapet while waves crash behind their backs are strangers … The old pattern is never found by Sarosh (342).Friends have gone; life which should belong to him has gone; the only thing he holds is a wistful recollection of youth. Is it because of his friends’ coldness and unconcern? Actually, it is not. The only issue is he has lost his all Indian culture identity “in the land of milk and honey” (343).
2007年03月27日 06点03分
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