At first I really didn't know what to make of Patrick. I was lost as to why he was a point-of-view character when everyone else was much more dynamic. For awhile, I was unconvinced that he would even turn out to be the protagonist but by the end of the novel it was obvious that he had earned the mantle. The Patrick we meet when he is a young man and still new to Toronto is vastly different from the felon we admire who goes to bomb the water filtration plant.It seems that with each added interaction with the other characters in Ondaatje's novel, Patrick grows and synthesizes into a fully fleshed out person. He was aimless, working as a "searcher" until Clara entered his life. Up until that point, Patrick didn't even appear to be that concerned with finding anything. Though he knew that Clara would could lead him to Ambrose Small, Patrick was instead caught up in a torrid love affair.
After Clara left him, Patrick grew listless once again. He still maintained even composure to hold down a job at a lumber yard but he was closed off and didn't have any friends. "He had reduced himself to almost nothing" (113) by the time he began to acquaint himself with his neighbours. Even though he had been living among them for two years, his neighbours knew little about Patrick and he knew even less about them. It wasn't until the community of immigrants reached out to him and invited him to a proto-labour union gathering and he becomes reacquainted with Alice Gull that he becomes a part of the fabric of society again.
It is really only through Alice that we as readers begin to see glimpses of Patrick as more than a flat character through their discussions on justice for the working man, forgiveness, and compassion (123). Through Alice's daughter, Hana, Patrick learns about her father Cato, who was a political activist in Eastern Europe before immigrating to Canada. Once he arrived, he took on the mantle of activist once more after seeing the terrible working conditions in place and was murdered for it. Juxtaposing himself with Cato, Patrick realises that "He is the one born in this country who knows nothing of the place...He was a watcher, a correcter...a searcher gazing into the darkness of his own country, a blind man dressing the heroine" (157).
Despite all these influences which get Patrick to start thinking about his place in the country and what his life is about, it isn't until Alice's gruesome death that he truly emerges as an character with agency. Patrick's development in the novel reminds me of our adventures in this course. I didn't come in knowing about literature in Canada but through my interactions with King and Ondaatje as well as Coupland, Atwood, etc. peripherally, I've gained perspective. It's kind of murky and ephemeral but my knowledge of Canadian literature/literature in Canada and being in it has taken form. It may also be that literature in Canada in like Patrick: taking on the influences of those who enter it and constantly evolving into something more interesting as time goes on.
After Clara left him, Patrick grew listless once again. He still maintained even composure to hold down a job at a lumber yard but he was closed off and didn't have any friends. "He had reduced himself to almost nothing" (113) by the time he began to acquaint himself with his neighbours. Even though he had been living among them for two years, his neighbours knew little about Patrick and he knew even less about them. It wasn't until the community of immigrants reached out to him and invited him to a proto-labour union gathering and he becomes reacquainted with Alice Gull that he becomes a part of the fabric of society again.
It is really only through Alice that we as readers begin to see glimpses of Patrick as more than a flat character through their discussions on justice for the working man, forgiveness, and compassion (123). Through Alice's daughter, Hana, Patrick learns about her father Cato, who was a political activist in Eastern Europe before immigrating to Canada. Once he arrived, he took on the mantle of activist once more after seeing the terrible working conditions in place and was murdered for it. Juxtaposing himself with Cato, Patrick realises that "He is the one born in this country who knows nothing of the place...He was a watcher, a correcter...a searcher gazing into the darkness of his own country, a blind man dressing the heroine" (157).
Despite all these influences which get Patrick to start thinking about his place in the country and what his life is about, it isn't until Alice's gruesome death that he truly emerges as an character with agency. Patrick's development in the novel reminds me of our adventures in this course. I didn't come in knowing about literature in Canada but through my interactions with King and Ondaatje as well as Coupland, Atwood, etc. peripherally, I've gained perspective. It's kind of murky and ephemeral but my knowledge of Canadian literature/literature in Canada and being in it has taken form. It may also be that literature in Canada in like Patrick: taking on the influences of those who enter it and constantly evolving into something more interesting as time goes on.
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