Themes Of Salt Fish Girl

Throughout the semester, we have read many different types of literature and examples of writing that cover many themes, the main ones being archives, colonialism, gender stereotypes, and diaspora. My favorite pieces from the course are ‘Salt Fish Girl’ by Larissa Lai, ‘Breathing With Zarah Hussain’ speech, and ‘i. will. cross.’ poem by Ather Zia. These pieces have been favorites of mine for many reasons, but mainly because I love learning about different cultures and how in those cultures similar themes continue to arise. In Larissa Lai’s novel, “Salt Fish Girl” she tells a story about a future world in which the protagonist is a girl named Miranda who is half girl, half fish. This novel demonstrates the presence of archives, empires, and

This novel presents archives through the presence of Nuwa throughout the storyline. Nuwa haunts Miranda throughout the novel and gives insight on her own life back in China to try and guide her. The empire theme is present in that Miranda is living in Canada and during this time period, Canada was a part of the British Empire. This impacted the storyline in that Miranda had to abide by the rules of the British Empire always, and it served as more of a hostile environment. The most prevalent theme in this novel is colonialism, Miranda is a Chinese immigrant living in Canada, and as a result, she is treated as a second class citizen. Overall, the themes of archives, empire, and colonialism are strong components of this novel that make the storyline and characters more distinct. These themes provoke deep thinking in the minds of readers and make a strong argument about those elements and how they are perceived in today's world. For example, archives and history are important guides for life. Knowing history is important for many reasons, but the way we evolve as a world is by taking our history

will. cross” by Ather Zia is an example of poetry about a first person perspective of trying to cross a country border to escape colonialism. This poem highlights a call for decolonization as the author explains the resistance to colonization by writing about escaping it and expressing the determination to do everything to cross the border. In the writing, Zia describes, “my love,/i am at the line of control—/inching—/tonight, the moon is graying/the darkness—perfecting itself/or so I hope—/the breeze is weakening/like the old tyrant’s hand/i. will. cross…i fear this year’s snow will again be sparse/our thirst will only grow, i should not wait/i am a lover who is labeled a terrorist anyway/i. will. cross.” (Zia). This part of the poem symbolizes the struggle of living in a colonized country and being viewed as an outsider, as well as the urge and determination to cross the ‘line of control’ (border) in order to escape colonization. This quote supports the argument made regarding the poem being a call for decolonization and resistance to colonization. Similar to “Salt Fish Girl’ as Lai describes Canada as being a controlled environment due to colonialism, this writing demonstrates a decolonial methodology in tracing history, archives, and ideas and setting them in the future. Lai proves this forward thinking writing as a way to take history and ideas and put it in a future setting to portray the poor living conditions of a colonized country, as a call for