Previous
“Thanikama”
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Running in the Family, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory, History, and Story
Alcoholism
Ancestry, Homeland, and Identity
Irresponsibility in the 1920s
Colonialism
Summary
Analysis
Ondaatje records sensory details as he sits at a desk, staring into the black night. It feels like thanikama, or “aloneness.” He thinks of “devils,” feels the sweat running down his back. Outside in the garden, rain pours down.
Ondaatje’s feeling of isolation in the middle of a dark night parallels Mervyn’s existential loneliness as he sank deeper into depression.
Themes
