What Is The Significance Of Reef By Romesh Gunesekera

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This essay is about a novel titled Reef, authored by Romesh Gunesekera, this novel is but one of many of his works, he also authored ‘Monkfish Moon, The Sandglass, The match and many others. The novel has won him several awards. The title of the novel holds a meaning in itself, the word reef is defined as ‘a ridge of jagged rock or coral just above or below the surface of the sea’ (Oxford 2005). The novel entails of an eleven year old named Triton, he burned the roof of a heart in his school and his uncle sends him away to work as a houseboy for a man known as Mr. Salgado, a marine biologist in the island of Sri Lanka. The novel is written in the first person with Triton as the narrator, he tells the story is if it was pre-recorded, this helps him tell the story as it is, he outlays the activities as they occur. Triton goes through a ‘rite of passage’, a ‘rite of passage’ can be described as an event that that marks a significant change in one’s life. Triton went from being a kid that was dependent on his family, which was under his family’s guidance and protection to an independent young houseboy who had to face the world on his own and fight all the challenges he encountered on his own. Joseph (one of Mr. Salgado’s workers) was one of the people that gave him problems, Joseph did not like Triton at all we see this in the way he …show more content…

Salgado once found Triton with a dead bird in his and said to him “you know you must not take life, to destroy is easy, but you don’t have the gift to make life so easy”( Gunesekera )in this light one might assume that Mr. Salgado is fond of birds, However when Triton showed him the Oriole bird that was singing, he paid no mind to it , nothing troubled the Bird even though it knew that its time could come at any moment, One can say that Triton was trying to get Mr. Salgado’s mind off the problems he had with Miss Nili and rather focus on the beautiful sounds the bird was making and cherish the here and now as the bird was

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