Danny's Narrative

Danny’s Narrative

            Amnesty by Aravind Adiga gives the reader a glimpse into the life of an undocumented immigrant in Australia. The narrative that Adiga creates humanizes Danny, the main character, and undocumented immigrants like him. I want to directly contrast the book’s narrative with the closing scene. The former creates a world for Danny. It places him within time and space. He may be undocumented, but he has an enriching life full of ups and downs, love, heartbreak, fear, and happiness. Adiga gives him a human experience. The latter creates a statistic. Danny is given one sentence. “The person who tipped off the police on the hotline confessed during questioning to being legally president in Australia and is now being processed for deportation to his home country” (Adiga, 253). 

            This sentence gives the reader the same ending as they were given through Danny’s eyes. We are quick to look for this end result and we can be even quicker in accepting it as the entire story. Through two hundred and fifty-three pages of writing, Adiga proves that this is not only false, but it strips the humanity and narrative from a human—documented or not. 

            The contrast between the novel and its ending show the importance of “owning a narrative”. When the narrative is imperative to the survival of a group (both “good” and “bad” groups), they become more human by controlling/owning it. With Danny, his story is his story from page one to page two hundred and fifty-two. When someone else takes control of the narrative, humanity is lost. Danny becomes “The person who tipped off the police” and Sri Lanka, his place of torture becomes “his home country” (Adiga, 253). He all but ceases to exist in time and space when someone else controls his narrative.

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