The role of the narrator in ‘The Shadow Lines’

‘The Shadow Lines’ is one of Amitav Ghosh’s most outstanding novels and may be regarded as one of the masterpieces in the field of Indo-Anglican fiction. The novel focuses on the meaning of political freedom and the force of nationalism as well as the personal experiences of the narrator of the novel.

Told in first person, the story of ‘The Shadow Lines’ is of a growing boy who lives in the shadow of the man he idolizes and of an individual drawn into history as well as social and political turbulence. Tridib gives the boy who is the narrator of the novel “worlds to travel in and ……. eyes to see them with”. The narrator’s grandmother, Tha’mma, is the third central character to the structure of the novel. As an eight-year-old child, the narrator sees England through the eyes of Ila and Tridib. As a twenty six year old, he realizes the truth when he merges from the shadows of Ila, Tridib and Tha’mma.

The anonymous narrator who refers to himself as ‘I’ is apparently relating the experiences of the past that involves his father’s aunt’s son- Tridib, his cousin Ila, his uncle Robi, his grandmother, Tha’mma, May Price and others in the period between 1939 and 1964. By skillfully manipulating the narrator’s developing social consciousness and his interactions with multicultural representatives in fictional reconstruct, Amitav Ghosh makes ‘The Shadow Lines’ a subtle medium of sophisticated comment on current realities.

Fifteen years after Tridib’s death, the narrator is still haunted by ‘the impenetrability of its banality’ because, in a way, Tridib and he are inseparable. Tridib taught him in childhood to see things clearly without the shadows of inhabitations or illusions. A strange bond exists between the two. The young narrator considers it his ‘unique privilege to understand Tridib.’ In this sense, Tridib is also a narrator. He tells the story of his journey to the narrator ‘in installments.’ 

The narrator not only appears a mirror of Tridib, he also serves as a mirror to reflect times, places and people. What Tridib had wanted is finally realized by his mirror image fifteen years after Tridib’s death when he meets May Price and finds that she too has remained pinned down to the past. The story of ‘The Shadow Lines’ moves backwards and forwards here with the narrator recalling his youth and the grandmother’s memories and the setting shifts back and forth from Calcutta to London to Dhaka.

‘The Shadow Lines’ has two narrators, instead of one, and both of them are more or less without an identity. We learn of Tridib’s personality from the narrator. The narrator, who plays a vital role in the novel, remains ‘neutral, impersonal’ throughout his growing up years as he relates the multi-layered, complex story.