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Introduction
As an immigrant, one will inevitably face or has faced an array of challenges within a new community due to the sharp feeling of alienation and the wistful longing for one’s native land and its culture. In “The Ostrich,” Leila Aboulela relays masterfully the experience of being completely uprooted form her community after moving to the United Kingdom, with her once long-time acquaintance, the Ostrich. Viewed through the lens of Sumra’s experience of being detached and completely removed from her native community, the Ostrich symbolizes her home, native culture and community, therefore, becoming a metaphor for the importance of one’s homeland, with all its imperfections and limitations.
Analysis
Serving as the bridge between Sumra’s past and her current seemingly miserable present in a community that undervalues her, the Ostrich represents the nostalgia that the protagonist has for her homeland and her culture. The Ostrich’s symbolic representation of the past that Sumra lost, as well as her loss of the opportunity to reconnect with her culture, is portrayed in the description of Sumra’s immigrant life before the Ostrich was introduced to it: “Majdy slapped Sumra for not knowing polygamy is and then tells her to think modern, and bullied her appearance” (Aboulela, n.d., 5).
The specified description of the reality in which Sumra is forced to live as a part of the migrant community is rife with the depictions of the limitations that the protagonist must place on herself in terms of reconnecting with her culture and leading the life that she used to prior to immigration. Though the specified scene does not feature the Ostrich, it represents Sumra’s life as a migrant, which is, later on, juxtaposed to the memories of her past life in her native community as she meets the Ostrich.
In a broader sense, the Ostrich could be representative of freedom that Sumra has lost and that she has always strived to attain. Indeed, at some point, Aboulela mentions the concept of freedom as tethered to the Ostrich’s very character in Sumra’s eyes: “Alienated in his own hazy world, the Ostrich was free” (Aboulela, n.d., 7). Therefore, despite being portrayed as an outcast, who used to be thoroughly neglected at school, according to Sumra’s recollections o him, the Ostrich embodies the freedom to be himself. The specified freedom is something that Sumra has been deprived of since she had to adjust to an entirely new community with its specific rules, some o which were directly contradictory to the ones of her own community and its culture.
Indeed, the obvious contrast between Sumra’s need for maintaining her traditions and the unfriendliness of the local environment that does not seek to support these traditions in any way is evident from Sumra’s recollections of her past, particularly, her studying together with the Ostrich. Specifically, the unwillingness of one of the lecturers to recognize the needs of Sumra and other Muslim students to participate in their religious practice is described especially vividly: “One communist lecturer keen to assert his atheism ignored the rustling of the notebooks, the shuffling of restless feet, the screech of the Ostrich’s alarm” (Aboulela, n.d., 7).
In the specified scene, Sumra’s desperation at the possible failure to engage in her spiritual practice speaks volumes of the restrictions that she has to face in a new environment. In turn, the fact that the Ostrich establishes clear boundaries of his cultural beliefs by setting the alarm and indicating that he needs personal time for spiritual practice illustrates him being a symbolic representation of Sumra’s culture, as well as the freedom to retain his cultural beliefs even in the setting that is particularly hostile to these beliefs and traditions.
Finally, the fact that the Ostrich was never seen as someone worth appreciating is representative of the experience of ostracism and alienation that Sumra has been facing as an immigrant. Specifically, the following line illustrates how the Ostrich’s position at school as an outcast is transferred to Sumra and her experience in the UK: “Nobody was nice to the ostrich, even when he complimented Sumra saying she looked nice in blue she was cruel and responded rudely” (Aboulela, n.d., 4). Though the rudeness that Sumra is facing is of a slightly different nature, it still stems from the same place of hostility and rejection, which implies that the Ostrich as a character has a symbolic role in the narrative.
Remarkably, the author does not shy away from reminding that Sumra’s culture is far from being perfect. Quite the contrary, Aboulela mentions the problem of sex-based discrimination in Sumra’s native country quite directly, specifically, by detailing that the Ostrich was “Uncomfortable with how women were respected here, ie walking next to each other or hugging in public” (Aboulela, n.d., 3). The specified environment of minimized freedom is outlined in the story quite straightforwardly, making it evident that Aboulela is unapologetically direct about the imperfections of the protagonist’s native culture.
However, at the same time, the specified issue is represented as an unavoidable flaw that becomes all the less significant as Sumra becomes increasingly more detached from her original community. As a result, the Ostrich with his multiple imperfections that made Sumra dismiss his friendship when she was younger are symbolic of the problems within Sumra’s native community that used to make her uncomfortable but now are seen as endearing.
Furthermore, the Ostrich serves a crucial part of reminding Sumra of her past self. The specified character function has a profound effect on Sumra since it reinforces the sense of sadness at the loss of her native land. For example, as the Ostrich’s bride is mentioned, Sumra feels a pang of jealousy: “That night I dreamt of the Ostrich’s bride. She was, like she had told me in the aeroplane, at University with me” (Aboulela, n.d., 20). However, contrary to what one might think, Sumra’s feeling of being jealous is not directed at the Ostrich; quite the contrary, it is meant to indicate that Sumra is jealous of herself for her past compared to where she finds herself now. Therefore, the Ostrich’s role as the mediator between Sumra and the world that she lost after immigrating to the United Kingdom is confirmed.
Conclusion
Allowing Sumra, the protagonist, to reminisce about her past in her native community and therefore, serving as the mediator between the protagonist and her long-lost community, the Ostrich symbolizes home, native culture, and the wistful nostalgia for them that affects immigrants in a new sociocultural context. Exacerbated by the difficulties in being accepted, which often stem from the implicit biases within the target society, the specified feeling of being lost becomes particularly prominent in the narrative whenever the Ostrich is mentioned or starts interacting with Sumra. Therefore, the character in question represents the symbol of the lost community that immigrants miss so desperately in a new cultural environment. Though the specified memories are not necessarily happy, they do represent the complex elements of Sumra’s identity that is being gradually chipped away by the forces of the dominant culture.
Reference
Aboulela, L. (n.d.). The Ostrich. Intangible. Web.
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