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Art

The life of immigrant workers and the question of identity

Canadian society is divided into two categories of citizens: the native people also called first nations people, and the immigrant population who after their settlement worked as laborers and businessmen. In the 19th century most of the immigrants were English and Irish settlers who started carrying on their businesses that attracted many other ordinary workers. And at the beginning of the 20th century, immigrants flowed in from several European countries, such as Italy, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Poland among others; in search of new opportunities and a better life.

In this paper, I will firstly, focus on the life of an immigrant family from England; a family of artists and businessmen whose greed leads to their downfall and scars the landscape, and the life of immigrant laborers who invest their energy in the construction of Toronto to see how they acquire their identities. Finally, I will then address the question of identity of Patrick Lewis, Ondaatje's main protagonist who moves from the countryside to the city where he starts searching for his identity - how does he gain his identity and what kind of identity is it; and I will look at the connection and contrast between the two references: Jane Urquhart's A Map of Glass and Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion.

Urquhart's novel, A Map of Glass tells the story of Woodmans' business empire after Mr. Woodman migrates to Canada with his wife and settles on a small island at the eastern end of Canada's Lake Ontario which comes to be called Timber Island.

Joseph Woodman, the patriarch and a ferocious shipbuilder and timber trader immigrates to Canada in a fury after his plan to drain the bogs of Ireland was rejected by the parliamentarians because of the expense. Mr. Woodman and his wife settle on the island he was granted in recognition of his efforts. Soon after, he starts his timber and shipbuilding business. His two children: Branwell a fresco artist who scorns the family business; and Annabelle a plain, lonely and gifted painter who paints only shipwrecks, prefer their art to their father's money-making timber trade. Branwell's wife Marie and their son Maurice, the Badger, a crafty businessman and his grandfather's pride and joy, come to complete the family, hence, Woodmans.

Mr. Woodman's rafts and shipbuilding business flourishes to the extent that the island becomes a very busy place and it takes the name of Timber Island. And the success of Mr.Woodman's business brings strong competitors for him; the most important one is Oran Gilderson whom Woodman is chained to “by envy and a not inconsiderable amount of loathing and … Savoring the opportunity for potential humiliations of one kind or another.” (P.169-170). When Mr. Woodman keeps the line of traditional shipbuilding, “Ships would eventually carry not only timber but also animals, barrels, china, furniture, food, bolts and nail… cannonballs, and human beings.” (p. 161), his rival changes to the modern version - steam ships, “Gilderson was clever enough to change ...