Part 2 of RF

So, once again, I feel like I do not know that much about what is going on in the book, and I know nothing more about Mr. Michael Ondaatje. He seems more as if he is telling a story about where he is from, mainly Ceylon through all the poems, but more so about his family. I think it is really important for him to let us know as much about his family as possible. I hope that maybe later in the memoir, maybe collection of essays, that he will go further into himself.

To touch on what exactly this is, I am starting to feel that it is almost a collection of short stories. The poems kind of brought me to this conclusion, but also how it seems so disorganized. Ondaatje went from about 4 poems in a row about Ceylon, and kind of the culture going on in Ceylon, to talking about the Insurgence. It just seems in an odd order when reading, and that no chapter or story really goes off the one before.

I did like the Kegalle(ii). I feel like in this chapter we found a little bit about Michael and his family when he was growing up. The story is good too, because it relates to his trying to describe about Ceylon culture, while also talking about his family. The story is about how his stepmother and father had to shoot snakes that would sneak into their house with a shotgun. After his father died, an old silver cobra then comes periodically and everytime the stepmother tried to shoot it, the shotgun would misfire. After that, the Insurgence had to take the shotgun. But the story relates to Ceylon culture because they talk about how the snake is actually a reincarnation of their father as this old cobra to protect the family. You see, since the cobra started coming, other snakes stayed away for the most part, and this cobra never attacked. This is a short story, but it lets the reader know a lot of information about what was going on in Ceylon, to a little of how his family was.