Multiculturalism In Chinua Ayu's 'This End Of The Rainbow'

1.0 Overview of Multiculturalism

“I pray that all of us in our own ways will work towards the “pot of gold” on the other end of the rainbow; our shared dream of lasting harmony…”- Adibah Amin

Set in the 1950s, this novel partakes around a group of university students and their vibrant aspirations for the future. In this novel, the main character, Ayu uses a lot of her flashbacks to reminisce her childhood memories and experiences in narrating the story. Despite the fact that there are ample of crucial elements that are put forth in this novel, amongst it is multiculturalism. As mentioned by Ford and Dillard (1996), in order to achieve a truly multicultural self, deconstruction of internalized view of self as object and reconstruction of that

In this sense, multiculturalism is seen through the varieties of exquisite food differing from colour, texture and taste originating from various ethnicities. For example, during the celebration of Hari Raya Aidilfitri the Lims family is served with chicken rendang that is cooked slowly over a wood fire in coconut milk, dried chilies, garlic, ginger, galangal, lemon grass and salt and ketupat, the Malay version of the rice dumpling cooked inside a woven square coconut palm leave pouch. These are amongst the compulsory traditional Malay cuisine served on Hari Raya which further supports a plethora of studies that manifest how ethnic groups use food in festivals or in the family to maintain a historically validated ethnic identity (Holtzman, 2006). Often we see that gustatory acts as a central to the creation of memory. It acts as a rich arena in exploring and recollecting memories of childhood and family. By focusing on Ayu’s childhood, there is definitely a lot of gastronomic memories from her flashbacks and one of them was when Ayu is introduced to Malayali food which is perceptible in the line: “Nimmi’s mother and younger sister, Sheri kept heaping fresh helpings of fragrant steaming rice, fish curry, vegetables, yoghurt and crackers on Ayu’s plate. Ayu’s first taste of tairu, the yoghurt and of aviel, the vegetable

The part mentioned by Ayu’s neighbor regarding her friendship with Lin on page 31: “She may be your good friend now but in the next world you’ll be in heaven and she’ll be in hell.” exemplifies a perfect scenario of racial prejudice where differences are deplorably condemned rather than celebrated in regard to one’s beliefs and assumptions on race superiority. Another similar example that is closely related in correlation to this issue is on page 68: “Yes, I remember the Natrah riots. Religion. Somehow became race too.” in reference to the connection between religion and race. Although these differences occur, race prejudice is not deemed to be necessary as mentioned in this classic ‘stereotypes’ of cats and dogs: “Seeing Missie and Cher together had filled Ayu with joy at the thought that a kitten and a puppy could be completely unaffected by ‘race’ prejudice.” (page 114). All in all, at the essence of humanity is diversity as we unite on the basis of our collective differences. Those who try to make everyone the same are always those who cause unnecessary conflicts. Uniformity does not breed unity, diversity