Kushagra Gupta

Literature

27-September-2011

The sound of one hand clapping is a novel by Richard Flanagan about the migrant experience. It reflects on new beginnings since the populate or perish period that shattered the myth of Australia as the blessed country in the minds of immigrants. The novel does not shy away from presenting white Australians as rude, uncultured and racist at a period in the country's history at which immigration was running at an all-time high. It reflects on the difficulty people have adapting to new cultures in a new nation fraught with racism and few opportunities. The novel oscillates between two timeframes. The earlier location stretches from mid-fifties to mid-sixties, post world war two, whilst the latter stretches from the late-eighties to early-nineties. These values and ideologies are represented through the resolution of a strained relationship between a child and father from Slovenia living in Tasmania.

I grew up in a small mining town in a remote part of Tasmania, full of immigrants. And from a very young age, I remember their most extraordinary stories. It never ceased to astonish me how they imprinted upon one's soul in such a remote place. Flanagan himself was born in Tasmania, the former penal colony and saw migrants during his childhood on a daily basis slogging through the day. These had a significant emotional impact on Flanagan and he conceded in an interview that this is what inspired him to write a novel. He justifies his choice of a Slovenian migrant by commenting that it is the migrant experience he knows the best given that he has a Slovenian wife. This then reflects the authenticity of migrant experience conveyed in the novel.

After World War II ended, a new enemy threatened to invade Australia, the communists. The Australian Prime Minister recognized that Australia needed a long-term strategy to ensure that the Australians could defend themselves against another potential invasion. The Australian economy had suffered under the strains of total war and conscription so he delivered an ultimatum, Australia needs to populate or perish. World War Two had destroyed Europe. There were millions of displaced people who had lost their homes and possessions. As Europe was divided by communism in the post-war years, a large number of people left Europe for other countries. The White Australia policy, an act that encouraged the migration of Europeans over non-Europeans, was influential. The Australian government clearly wanted Europeans to immigrate to Australia.

The migrant program was overseen by the Australian and the British governments collectively. Upon the migrants' arrival in Australia, the government organized reception, accommodation and eventual employment. There were several different types of accommodation for migrants, including transit camps, holding centers and workers' hostels. Five families were accommodated in each dormitory. Dormitories were huts constructed of corrugated iron. Floors were bare timber. The huts were uncomfortable in hot

Kushagra Gupta

Literature

27-September-2011

and cold weather. The men themselves were faced with difficult working conditions: they worked long hours on strenuous jobs that Australian workers simply refused to do at wages a fraction of those payable to the Australian workers. This was a feasible situation for the Australian government so this torture continued for several decades. These families then had little time to learn the new language or adapt to local cultures and develop new identities and hence remained marginalized from the society for what seems to me like an eternity from Flanagans novel. The loss that families endured was overlooked in this and it is this loss that I see in Flanagans novel.

It is this marginalization I think that led to Maria Buloh, the wife of Bojan to walk out away from the camp never to be seen again. The life of despair of all migrants is testament to this. All migrants have seen death and violence first hand as they have watched relatives and loved ones brutally killed in wars in their own nations. She it seems to me simply couldnt bear the pains of the marginalization she suffered on the hand of the condescending Australians coupled with the losses that brought her to Australia and simply gave up on finding meaning and happiness in life. For a world that might be ordered with the hope that the order would last long enough to build a home and raise a family without having to suffer cataclysmic wars. This reflects that Bojan and her came to Australia in hope of building a home and a structured life in the land of promises but were disappointed to the fullest and this grief it seems took the life out of Mariah buloh. The loss then as a result of racism and marginalization is akin to the loss of being killed in a war Her death then meant that Sonja had to spend several years as a boarder with two families for several years before being returned to her father. This led her to becoming depressed and viewing life much like her mother did. This is seen in the way she reacts to life: And nothing can help the dead...If you do no hope then nothing can disappoint for tomorrow only ever brought worse things. She From this I can then see the marginalization of the migrants due to the racism they suffered on the part of Australians eroded entire families in a wheel of destruction. I then see this destruction of identity to be equal in terms to the deaths in Slovenia and the home countries of other migrants as both involve the degradation of an entire race of people, their values and also their ideologies.

Kushagra Gupta

Literature

27-September-2011

Adjustment is partially physical - the light, the sounds, the smell. Adjustment is also cultural, finding a place in a new society.