Map Of The Invisible World Analysis

This paper reads Rani Manicka’s The Rice Mother and Tash Aw’s Map of the Invisible World as plots of bildung, following the protagonist’s journey in search of individual identity. The idea of a search in Map of the Invisible World is textualised in the plot: the capture of Karl becomes the inciting incident that pushes Adam into a physical journey that recovers the memory of his origins. In The Rice Mother, the multiple first person accounts reconstructs a genealogical account: an answer to Nisha’s search for family history. Family thus holds central position in both novels, which when read in relation to the topos of the bildung thematically links itself to the process of identity formation. Even so, definition of ‘family’ is problematized

Despite his pivotal position, Adam is largely passive throughout the novel. Much of the narrative is narrated by a heterodiegetic narrator, and the chapters are internally focalized by different characters, leaving Adam with little or no control over the diegetic present. Even when Adam is the focalizer as in him narrating Karl’s arrest, he is “hid[den] in the deep shade of the bushes” (3), remains “silent and unmoving” (Aw 3) and at “a distance” (Aw 3) throughout the episode – his diegetic presence is negated since he can neither be seen nor heard. The multiplicity of narration in the The Rice Mother does not accord for a single focal character, since equal weight is granted to each narrative. Characters largely focalize their personal narratives, without privileging a narrative over another – consequently, there is no singling of character that can be identified as the protagonist. I forward the view that Nisha is the protagonist of the bildungsroman, for her role as the implied-author figure effectuates the framing of the narrative and organizes the reading of the scattered narrative into one of a genealogical account, a role premised upon the plot device of her transcription of Dimple’s recorded tapes. As a narrative genre, the Bildungsroman charts the protagonist’s journey which aims to reconcile the desire for individuation and the demands of socialization, dealing with the relationship that the self shares with society. How that coming-of-age is made possible with the definition of family thus places family at the center of the