2022 IB Diploma Extended Essays

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adult world problems. Their identities suffer from the lack of disparity between reality and imagination, leading to a lack of personal congruity. While both texts have irregular narrative structures which intertwine a personal narratives and flashbacks, Caswell and Adiga employ the resulting blur between reality and imagination to emphasise different immigrational consequences. Amnesty and Only the Heart both highlight the impact of trauma on perceptions of truth; however, Adiga’s narration suggests Danny’s paranoia resulting from his hybrid cultural identity, while Caswell emphasises the immigration’s impact on young characters. Both use narrative structure as a means to discuss immigration’s destructive effect on identity, which can lead to personal dissonance due to worldview hybridization. Buddhist and Hindu Religious Imagery Caswell and Adiga both employ aspects of religion throughout their texts; however, these references serve various purposes. While both focus on the impact of religion on identity, Caswell highlights how familial and traditional beliefs can limit personal growth in Only the Heart . Through Amnesty , in contrast, Adiga’s use of religion is coupled with a discussion of violence to emphasise internal conflict resulting from immigrant trauma. The use of religious allusions throughout Amnesty indicates Danny’s cognitive dissonance and the psychological impact his lack of self-unity. Throughout the text, Danny makes repeated references to the Hindu god of war, Murugan. Shortly after discovering that he knows the identity of client Radha Thomas’ murderer, Danny states “Murugan, god of minorities, protect me today, as you have for four years” (57). This god is widely known as ‘Kartikeya’, the god of war; yet Danny refers to the deity as ‘Murugan’. This indication that Danny is familiar with the god emphasises his connection between minorities and war; Adiga implies that Danny believes as a minority he requires the protection of a war god. Danny’s references to violence