Go here to see Part One.
I liked this novel because I felt it did an incredible job showing how every single person is affected by the war. Whether they are working in the mine, a government official, a doctor, or a villager, every aspect of every one’s life is drastically altered. Doctors are stretched to the breaking point and on drugs themselves in order to keep up with the casualties and bodies coming through their door. They would send their interns/volunteers for supplies and not really care where they got them from. A lot of looting in nearby villages was by the hospital staff to get their hands on anything that would help save lives. Makeshift operating rooms were springing up around the country and doctors were kidnapped by all sides to operate on their fallen brothers. Anil faces this reality when she goes with Sarath to see his brother, a doctor in an emergency room.
No one trusts any one else. Families brake apart with distrust and a need for individual preservation. There really is a feeling of every man for himself. Anil does not trust Sarath, and it is not clear until the end who he is working for and where his allegiance lies. In the meantime Anil is having difficulty relating to her surroundings. Although she grew up there, she sees England and the United States as her home. Perhaps because they were her salvation. She left this war torn country and was introduced to bowling, lovers, friends, movies…all the things that we take for granted as Canadians and Americans. It is important that she begins to identify with Sri Lanka because she is treating the situation without the respect it deserves. She forgets how things work and is dangerously close to getting herself into trouble. If it weren’t for Sarath, she would have said something that would have got her killed a long time ago.
Anil tries to use modern techniques to reconstruct the skeleton’s face and body, but is finds it is difficult because she doesn’t have access to the appropriate equipment. She is frustrated that she has to work with minimal tools and constantly on the move, but remains determined to do her job. I think this represents the struggle between western ideals and the realities facing Sri Lankans. How do you fight against a war that has no rules? Neither the government nor the insurgents follow any kind of rules and the reasons for the war are so complex that for an outsider to step in and try to apply all of these rules and regulations is nearly impossible. They go largely ignored.
Anil’s Ghost does deal with religious freedoms. In each ward of the hospital there are Buddha shrines that are lit up. Buddha’s are also erected all over the country-side, and Anil and Sarath go to visit a legendary anthropologist who has removed himself from society and is living in a forest grove formerly occupied by monks. At one point a Buddha in the country-side is looted and destroyed, not for religious purposes, but for money rumored to be inside. It is very representative of the Sri Lankan people who are in this war not because they want to be, but because the war affects everyone without prejudice. The original reasons for the war are being forgotten by the people as they are destroyed and torn apart, and the people begin to focus solely on their survival.
Anil and Sarath approach a man once renowned for painting the eyes on Buddhas to help them reconstruct the face of the skeleton they are trying to identify. Instead of reconstructing the face as it was, he reconstructs it with a peacefulness he wishes for his wife who passed away. Anil believes no one will recognize it because of the feeling of serenity, a feeling that has not existed since the before the war.
When reading more about this novel, I came across a very interesting point on Wikipedia. “Religious statues in Anil’s Ghost are representative of the Sri Lankan people’s struggle during the war. Buddha’s eyes and “sight” were important. Similarly, so long as Sri Lankans and westerners alike do not open their eyes and acknowledge the war and take a stand against the violations of human rights there will be no progress. There will be nothing. No name for victims, no identification of the enemy. The destruction will continue and human existence will be hindered.” (Anil’s Ghost). There is a central credo in the psychiatric community which states “You cannot help someone who does not want to be helped,” and I think that definitely applies here. Without acknowledging the problem, it is like it doesn’t exist. Instead it festers beneath the surface and explodes into consciousness in the most brutal of ways. It is everyone’s responsibility to raise awareness and to provide assistance, but without that first acceptance by the Sri Lankan government, that will never happen.
I can’t imagine not having the right to religious freedom. I cannot imagine living in a country that is so torn apart, where love is something that hardly exists anymore and those you do love are taken so brutally from you. I’m glad that MPW comes home and complains about the traffic and broken computers and not about the bomb that went off in the market killing his friends, or more horribly, not coming home at all. Having religious freedom means I don’t have to fight for it like those before me and those in other countries are doing now. Having religious freedom means I don’t have to live through atrocities that I only read about in books.
I’m giving this book 5 eh’s for being so thought provoking.
What does religious freedom mean to you?
