Ransom Riggs And Michael Ondaatje: An Analysis

Everyone ask the question ‘who am I’ this question has no black and white answer, but is answered through how people act in situation, opinions, thoughts and perspective as well as actions and feelings, but there is infinite possibilities to why someone is who they are, all very personal realization the individual has to explore. Both Ransom Riggs and Michael Ondaatje explore this in their novels Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children and The Cat’s Table as they both tell a story about their childhood and life experiences that have impacted who they are and developed into. Riggs born in 1979, grew up on a two hundred year old farm, growing his creative mind through home movies, photography and blogging. From his early years he was always …show more content…
Michael is placed on a ship alone, no guidance, no surveillance but soon develops relationships with many of the other characters.Upon spending over a week on the ship, and figuring the way of things: where everyone sits, why that is, etc. he realizes that everyone at the cat’s table is “ only minor characters, there to watch how those with real power progressed or failed in the world.” (Ondaatje 69), this includes his friends and himself. This realization was brought on through many synopsis of each character at the cat’s table, and noticing that they are a little different in the sense that appear to be grown but upon directing who they really are, hearing their stories, thoughts, opinions and advice it’s seen that they are in a sense still immature children this also being the reason for their so called failures in the world. This is because of the way children and adults are perceived, children being oblivious, wild, creative, immature, dreamers and adults the opposite, informed, realistic, put together. “What is interesting and important happens mostly in secret, in places where there is no power.” (Ondaatje 78), secrets hold much power, they are often information that is sensitive, mature, important or interesting or all of the above. Children are often the ones to be impacted by this concept as it is presumed they don’t have enough qualifications such life experiences, maturity or just general understanding to completely handle this information appropriately. Adults usually use the excuse that it is to protect the young undeveloped mind from corruption and dark information, when in reality it is only to feel like they are in a position of power of the child. This is slightly obscure as it is quite biased expecting a child to meet the