National Identity and Multiculturalism: A Critical Analysis of Lloyd Fernando’s Scorpion Orchid

Abstract

This paper is intended to examine the issue of identity in Malaya at the first half of the twentieth century as exposed in Lloyd Fernando’s Scorpion Orchid (1976). The novel centers on four friends from different races in Malaya mainly Malay, Indian, Chinese and European. The analysis is supposed to highlight the problems and issues of nationhood and nationalism that are reflected in the text. In other words, the research explores the characters’ sense of belonging as well as their national identity to their homelands and their suffering in the hostland, Malaya. The analysis of this study is theoretically framed based on Hami Bhabha’s Nation and Narration (1990). The discussions and analysis conclude that the issues of nationhood and nationalism have evidently been exposed in Fernando’s Scorpion Orchid. One of the characters—Sabran—attempts to unite the students from the different races in one union to liberate Malaya from the colonizers. He strengthens his relationships with his friends and confirms that all people from different races should accept each other and live together. Similarly, another character—Sally—can be seen as a symbol of the land for she loves all people who visits her the same way that Malaya loves the different races who inhabit it. Even though Sally and Malaya have happily welcomed the different races, both have not been given love in return. However, Peter’s suffering of racial prejudice symbolizes the Eurasians of Malaya at that time when they were discriminated and stereotyped as Europeans just because they were white. Due to that racial prejudice and alienation, Peter feels that he does not belong to Malaya and thus he decides to travel to England at the end of the novel. Just like Peter, Santinathan’s uncle and family leaves Malaya and return to their homeland, India. In short, the novel is one of the marvelous texts that portray the multicultural society of Malaya in the 1950s. It mirrors the experiences of the different races—the Malays, Indians, Chinese and Eurasians—who lived in Malaya. In other words, the novel uncovers the identity problem of those races including their sense of belonging and living in between spaces.