EXEMPLE ORAL LELE

"Travels, iniciatory journey and exile"

INTRO:  Travel litterature dates back to time inmemorial. It's one of the world's oldest literary tradition, starting from The Bible 'Book of Exodus' narrating Moses journey to the Promise land, or Homer's Ulysee and his voyage from Troy to Ithaca. Not only were those physical journeys, but also philosophical ones, because they led the to dicovery of the self of those two heroes. The theme of initiatory journeys have been portrayed throughout the years in lots of novels. In order to illustrate this notion, we will first deal, thanks to Daniel Defoes's Robinson Crusoe, with the story of the most famous castaway of our time, then, through Hanif Kureishi's Buddha of Suburbia, with the odysee of a young English boy towards adulthood. Finally, we will see with J.K Rowlings's Harry Potter series that those journeys are often very long and always filled with struggles.

I) First of all, we can see that the discovery of the self often comes in times when man feels helpless. It is clearly depicted in Daniel Defoes's Robinson Crusoe, the first very first British novel published in 1719.

→ RC is the story of a man who is marroned on a desert island. The story tells how the main character uses faith, determination, intelligence and courage in order to overcome all the dangers that comes across his way, and how he has to start from scratch so as to survive. Written in a first person narrative, the story sounds very realistic, but somehow, the vision is still very limited, because not only does Robinson master his environment but also another human being, which is far less praise worthy: indeed, he has a very disturbing master-to-slave relationship with a native.

=> Written right in the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment, this first “robinsonade” shows us the development of civilization as well as the expression of European Imperialism at the same time as it describes the journey of Robinson towards a better understanding of his self.

II) Robinsonades have inspired numerous writers throughout the years, as iniciatory journeys are a very relatable theme. The Buddha Of Suburbia, a post colinal novel written by hanif Kureishi in 1990, is a perfect example of how this theme is still very up-to-date.

→ This novel dealing with multiculturalism as well as the quest of identidy of the main character, is also semi-autobiographical. The author depicts a young Brtish-Indian boy's identity crisis and the fact that he's always feeling in between : not really European, but also not really Asian, not from the coity nor from the countryside, and not a child but also not really an adult. His odysee from adolescence to adulthood is portrayed using the metaphor of his physical journey from the suburb to the city and how he'll finally manage to find himslef at some point.

=> Karim's story is really in the wake of traditional heroes searching for answers to the fundamental question that is “Who am I?”

I) However it's very important to take into account the fact that these journeys are often very long and always fraught with pitfalls. The Harry Potter saga, a series of fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling and published in 1997, is a very good example of this side of iniciatory journeys.

→ The saga of Harry Potter is a long one, and Harry will come into his own throughout all the seven books. Harry's coming of age marks not only the discovery that he's a wizard, but the realization that he doesn't have to be normal, and there are people who believe in the power of what he can become. The more the story goes on, the more Harry's general mood becomes darker and angryer, which is kind of normal since he's a teenager and he's truly starting to question the world around him and not accepting things at face value. Harry reaches the age where he no longer wants to hear adults tell him what is in his best interest and would rather decide for himself. All along his journey, Harry will also have to face social and political injustice, and form his own opinion in topics that are becoming more and more serious the more he's growing up. The end of the series of novels is also another beginning for a sequel in a form a play, showing that indeed, even though Harry's been through a lot, he still has lots of things to learn about himself.

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