Memory as Excavation of Gratitude and Guilt in Saroo Brierley's Lion: A Long Way Home

Abstract

This research work deals about the construction of the narrator's subjectivity through the help of opposing experience of memory- thankfulness and guilt- in Brierley's autobiographical fiction Lion: A Long Way Home. It shows the role of memory in the construction of his self. The issue of root culture is presented through autobiographical perspective. Lion: A Long Way Home's flashback narration brings the memory of the protagonist as the ultimate search for the self or identity. Memory plays important role to dig out the sense of rootedness and rootlessness in the narrator. Moreover this research shows the reconnection with root culture after twenty four years. Memory plays the role of excavator to dig out the thankfulness and guilt in the narrator Saroo. His sense of alienation and fragmented self is presented as the guilt whereas his regained connectivity with the root is taken as gratitude.