Vikki M.

Gaikwad
Research Student,
Dept. of English, SPPU, Pune.
vkeygaikwad@gmail.com
mob:7028559033

Identity in Funny Boy: a journey towards authentic existence.

Funny Boy is a coming-of-age novel by Canadian author Shyam Selvadurai. First

published in 1994, the novel is set in Srilanka where Selvadurai grew up. The novel is
constructed in the form of six stories about a boy, Arjie, coming to age within a wealthy Tamil
family in Colombo. Between the ages of seven and fourteen, he explores his Sexual identity and
encounters the Sinhala-Tamil tension leading up to the 1983 riots.
Searching for identity is one of the major themes in Postcolonial studies as well as in
Diaspora literature. Perhaps instead of thinking of identity as an already accomplished fact,
which the new cultural practices then represent, we should think, instead, of identity as a
'production', which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within, not
outside, representation. As Bhabha describes, ‘It is not given a priori, nor a finished product, it is
only ever the problematic process of access to an image of totality1’. This view problematises
the very authority and authenticity to which the term, 'cultural identity', lays claim. Therefore
Identity, in Funny Boy is not as transparent or unproblematic as we think.
The binary of ‘the one’ and the ‘other’ plays a vital role in postcolonial context. The
marginalization of the ‘native’ (the other) by the ‘settler’ (the one) who has authority engenders
from inability or sometimes the urge of ‘the other’ to identify with the one. ‘The evil eye’ of the
black man transforms in to an ‘I’ and becomes his identity; an identity that is pre-given by the
One. This assimilates with the subaltern in Gramsci’s conception: ‘a group lacking autonomy,
subjected to the influence or hegemony of another social group possessing one’s own hegemonic
position’. In Funny Boy the experience of the protagonist goes quiet near to this marginalization
but in different context. At his individual level we see him depersonalized due to his inability to
occupy two places at once, and his movement towards the authenticity i.e. recapturing of the self
through immigration.

1
Bhabha H.K:The Location of Culture,(London: Routledge, 1994),p.51.
 While discussing ‘being’ or Dasein, Heidegger claims that every human (every Dasein) is
completely shaped by his or her culture. To this he calls ‘das man’ i.e. ‘the One’ or ‘the They’.
‘the One’ consists other Dasein whose presence creates the world in which an individual Dasein
can act. The social practices established by ‘the one’ embody Dasein’s possibilities. For example
in Funny Boy, being a boy in Srilanka (where Homosexuality is ‘funny’) Arjie cannot play
‘bride-bride’ or being a Tamil arjie’s father has to be careful while dealing with Sinhala.
Having no control over the ‘thrown-ness’ of one’s social environment, one becomes part
of a culture, and all of one’s behaviours are consequently learned from that culture. To this he
calls ‘thrown-ness of the Dasein’. In short human beings are constituted or expected to be
constituted in terms of their environment. This expectation engenders stereotypes that prevail in
society. In the opening chapter of Funny Boy: ‘Pigs can’t fly’, because of the fear that Arjie
might turn out “funny” he is forbidden to play “bride-bride” with his cousin sisters when asked
‘why can’t he play with girls?’ he gets answer: ‘because the sky is so high and pigs can’t fly2’.
Such point of view causes an emergence of various protocols that force individuals to be like
what is expected from them according to their culture. Before Arjie is even aware of his
“tendencies”, his family makes sure that any un-stereotypical gender fondness would have been
eradicated in advance. On ‘spend the day’, boys play at front side of the house whereas girls play
in backyard. Arjie (unknowingly though) crosses this stereotype and plays with girls. This
becomes his first step towards the authentic identity which he will reveal in his teenage and
achieve probably in Canada.
To understand the identity formation and the doing away with the stereotypes, I propose
the three ways of existence coined by Heidegger. These ways of existing are something like the
attitude a person has towards the world he lives in. I think these attitudes are important in
understanding the continuous production of identity in the present novel; or rather every work of
Diaspora literature which contains exiled point of view or the issues regarding immigration.
The first of these is an ‘UNDIFFERENTIATED’ existence. In which ‘Dasein’ is thrown
in the world. He/She never questions the meaning of his/her life. Never recognizes the thrown-
ness of it. He/ she blindly accepts the existence that the One (family and community) has given
to her. In the initial chapters of the novel we see Arjie told to behave in proper way, prohibited
from playing with sari, he is transferred to a different school so he can be a man. His father,

2
Selvadurail Shyam, Funny Boy (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1994)p.23
brother, and relatives are afraid that he would turn ‘funny’. This concept of funniness is not made
clear to him (unless he reveals it himself). He does not question or rather is not allowed to
question the norms laid by ‘the One’. So he has an ‘undifferentiated’ identity.
The stereotypical tone of ‘pigs can’t fly’ echoes in Arjie’s father’s statement when he
says ‘as Tamils we must tread carefully…Jegan has to learn that. Even I have to be circumspect
when I’m talking to the staff. If I was Sinhalese, like Sena, I could say and do whatever I liked 3’
Along with Arjie, Radha Aunty, Jegan, His mother and His father too live in an undifferentiated
existence. His father being a Tamil cannot act as one. Radha aunty cannot get her love and same
with his mother. In short all of them have to accept their thrown-ness. This indicates the
confusion of identity caused by the thrown-ness of these characters in the novel. They are
compelled to be defined by the culture they exist in and identity is shaped accordingly. Arjie’s
father is an epitome of this notion. As a patriarchal man and a successful businessman he resides
in the mainstream but as a Tamil he experiences same ‘betweenness’ that is experienced by
Arjie.
In first chapter Gender stereotypes are enforced by families and society to demarcate the
separate worlds of boys and girls. When Arjie plays with boys he was called a “girlie boy”. This
separates him from the possibility of being a girl or a boy. This leaves Arjie “caught between the
boys’ and the girls’ worlds, not belonging or wanted either4”. His exclusion from both parties
suggests us that he inhabits some third space between these two. He starts questioning and
thinking about the description ‘funny’ he listens from his brother. He accepts to be a ‘funny boy’
and continues (secretly) to play with girls. His attraction towards male physic confuses as well as
relives him. At the end of ‘Pigs can’t fly’ Arjie becomes happy on his denial by both the parties.
He is quite happy ‘between’ the ‘us’ and ‘them’ laid by society. But though he is a funny boy he
cannot do away with the ‘boy’ in him. This ‘boy’ reflects in the way he treats Shehan initially.
After their first physical encounter he calls Shehan ‘the laughing-stock of the entire school5’. He
describes Shehan’s tendencies as ‘revolting’.
We as a reader hear the echo of ‘us’ or ‘the one’ trajectory in this conversation. Though
Arjie thinks he has moved towards his own self, ‘the One’ here is just substituted by the other
‘One’. This attitude is what Heidegger calls the ‘INAUTHENTIC’ way of existence. Almost

3
Ibid, p.190.
4
Ibid,p.25.
5
Ibid.p.265.
every character in the novel has this attitude towards life. Unknowingly or due to the situation
most of the characters are stuck in inauthentic identity. The realization that there is no escape
from the thrown-ness evokes the feeling of ‘anxiety’. The only way they have to eliminate this
pretension is as Sonali (Arjie’s sister) suggests ‘I wish I was a Sinhalese or a foreigner6’.
Whereas Arjie’s father is reluctant about leaving ‘this country’ Nalini feels that there is hope in
migration.
This notion of hope is what interests me most. Most of the time, the characters who
decide not to follow the social rules or everyday norms are secluded and alienated by their family
and country and people. For an example, Aunt Doris, the director of the stage play Arjie was
involved in chose to go against her Burgher family’s wishes and married a Tamil man. This of
course ended her relationship with her family. Even Arjie, after thwarting his principal and
realize who he is and who he wanted to be with, thought to himself, “As I gazed at Amma, I felt
a sudden sadness. What had happened between Shehan and me over the last few days had
changed my relationship with her forever. I was no longer a part of my family in the same way. I
now inhabited a world they didn’t understand and into which they couldn’t follow me7”. Here
Arjie is talking about his sexual awakening but his feelings also apply to those who made choices
that alienate them from the people and places they belong to.
Making choices takes one towards the authentic identification of the self. Arjie in the last
section accepts himself as he is, we see him delineating his sexuality openly. But being a
homosexual he would not be accepted by family/culture nor would being a Tamil (plus
Homosexual) is accepted in country like Srilanka. The option he has is the third space he chooses
to live in (i.e. accepting his homosexuality) and the third space he would live in after migration.
As Homi Bhabha suggests, “The third space is a mode of articulation, a way of describing a
productive and not merely reflective, space that engenders new possibility. It is an ‘interruptive,
interrogative, and enunciative’ space of new forms of cultural meaning and productive blurring
the limitation of existing boundaries and calling into question established categorizations of
culture and identity8”

6
Ibid.p.196
7
Ibid.p.284
8
Bhabha, H.K, The Location of Culture (London:Routledge, 1994), p.
 Hence the third space gives people like Arjie a chance to create a new identity. This third
space allows them to transcend their position and go against those who suppress and oppress
them. It gives them power and freedom to transcend boundaries of society rules. They get the
best of both worlds. It gives them self empowerment to move on in life and it’s a place where
they can voice out their opinions. Most of all the third space gives them sense of belonging and
identity. Though Arjie is seen afraid and worried about his life in foreign country he has, at
personal level, created a third space differentiated from the gendered spaces which would be
nurtured or accepted in the country he is migrating to. He is now being responsible or can be
responsible for his own existence (as a homosexual). He can openly define his own identity and
its possibilities. To which Heidegger would call an ‘AUTHENTIC’ way of existence. Where
Dasein becomes a being toward-death for he/ she is responsible for his own life.
Throughout the book, we follow Arjie’s journey growing up and attempting to search for
his identity. Arjie’s search for identity is similar to Sri Lanka’s own research for identity amidst
the warring ethnics. It also assimilates with the quest of those who disperse (Diaspora) from their
own country. Quest in latter emerges from the feeling of alienation and results in alienation. In
discussion of Diaspora literature one can assert this mostly in relation to the first generation
because they are the one who get names like David and Christine9 (changing their names) to
identify themselves with the new world/ the One. But to sum up one can say that eradicating the
stereotypes is the first step that is required to get one’s identity and that’s what characters do or
compelled to do in the present novel. It’s like If Pigs can fly, do they remain pigs, If not, why
should we care for them?

---------------

9
‘To my parents, Christine and David Selvadurai, for believing that pigs can fly’ – Shaym Selvadurai.
Works Cited
Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994.

Eric Limay, Jennifer Pitts. HEIDEGGER FOR BEGINNERS. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan,
2005.

Hall, Stuart. The question of Cultural Identity. DP&A Editora, 1992.

Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Trans. John Macquarrie & Edward Robinson. Blackwell
Publications, 2001.

Rao, R. Raj. "“Because Most People Marry Their Own Kind: A Reading of Shyam Selvadurai’s
Funny Boy.”." ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature 28.1 (1997): 117-28.

Selvadurai, Shyam. Funny Boy. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1994.

"www.thecannon.ca/.../shyam_selvadurai_funny_boy_on_campus."