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Flaming Youth
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
In Ceylon, everyone gambles. The country’s leaders believe it's good for productivity, since men have to work in order to have money with which to gamble. The wealthy and the poor bet on horse races. Those who can't make it to the races place bets on which crow among a group will be the first to fly off his perch. In August, businesses close down for the entire month and the military even abandons its posts to watch the races. Many of Ondaatje’s relatives own horses, though they rarely win. People often pool their money together to own just a portion of a horse so that they can participate in the “ceremonial trappings.”
Gambling in Ceylon seems to transcend social classes, suggesting that much of the frivolity and irresponsibility of the 1920s is ubiquitous across the entire population. The government’s encouragement of gambling further suggests that such behavior is culturally and socially ingrained, a national pastime. Although Mervyn and Doris embody the irresponsibility of the 1920s, Ceylon’s gambling culture suggests that this attitude is not unique to them alone.
Themes
Everyone reads the local tabloid The Searchlight religiously, though nobody wants to be featured in it themselves. Francis and Mervyn’s crew travel around Ceylon, watching not just the August races but all the others which cycle year round. When the races are over, they find women and go dancing into the night and drink champagne on the beach. Deeper inland, people perform “devil dances” to cure illness or disability. The partiers swim drunkenly at night and drive home in drunken convoys, crashing into fields, ditches, or trees.
There is both a parallel and a contrast between Mervyn and Francis’s dancing and the people performing “devil dances.” On one hand, the parallel suggests that Ceylon’s culture is generally expressive, vibrant, and celebratory in this era. The contrast, however, suggests that while the devil dancers are seeking to cure illness and benefit others, Francis and Mervyn and company are mainly looking for simple debauchery.
Themes
