An Analysis of Rohinton Mistry’s Such a Long Journey

Abstract

The novel manages brilliantly to portray Indian culture and family life, setting against the backdrop of the subcontinent’s volatile postcolonial politics. The microcosmic family dimension of the story line is not only played upon a political background: quite the contrary, the story shows to which degree political and personal realities are intertwined and how much the microcosm echoes the macrocosm, since the lives of the characters are deeply affected by local corruption and the government inadequacy. The novel itself is a manifestation of the Indian politics on the domestic life of Gustad Noble, thus Mistry mingles public with the private. This novel is a journey of Gustad through the path of sorrow, death, betrayal, disillusion and disappointment. Above all, Mistry’s novels are focused on community differences. Mistry has unfolded the postcolonial condition that affects the community’s identity. Apart from religious identity, historical awareness forms the collective identity of the community