2022 IB Diploma Extended Essays

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attention to hybridity” (Kràl, 2009). This concept of layered cultural identities is evident in both novels, and both Arvind and Caswell create texts which discuss the consequences of hybridity on sense of self. Adiga and Caswell each highlight various impacts of diaspora on identity; they emphasise consequential cultural incongruency and cognitive dissonance, self uncertainty, and lack of individualism. Through their employments of irregular narrative structures, religious references, the discussion of social expectations, and, finally, idolisation and glorification of legal citizens, Adiga and Caswell explore destructed identities resulting from immigration and cultural hybridization. Both Adiga’s Amnesty and Caswell’s Only the Heart employ irregular narrative structures, blurring reality and memory. While both emphasise ties to the past, Adiga extends this narration to suggest Danny’s paranoia, while Caswell uses a mix of past- and present-tense narration to emphasise his characters’ youth. When these messages are combined, readers can understand Adiga and Caswell’s complementary message regarding Asian-Australian immigrants’ internal struggles and identity conflicts. Adiga’s construction of Danny as an unreliable narrator leads readers to believe that his paranoia is a result of the dangers faced throughout his immigrant experience. The third person stream-of-consciousness narration and the lack of disparity between thoughts and dialogue fully immerse readers in Danny’s world. Furthermore, through the blend between Danny’s past-tense memories and present-tense experiences, Adiga creates a monotonous novel which mirrors Danny’s personal anxieties. The diurnal narrative structure fills the text with “life’s inevitable mundanities”, “edging into the perfunctory”; Adiga focuses on aspects of daily life which seem unimportant to the reader but are significant to Danny as they could place him in Main Body Irregular Narrative Structure and Voice