Event and Writing: Michael Ondaatje's Ethics of Peaceful Co-existence in Divisadero

In Divisadero Michael Ondaatje presents his ethics of co-existence through his characters' search for inner peace. Along with focusing on the characters' attempts to understand their intentionally or unintentionally suppressed pasts, he draws his readers' attention to the injustices done to socially marginalized people as well as to the neglected natural world. By presenting how a deeper understanding of a past depends upon the production of more resonations with that past, he argues for the endlessness of that production and the need for a constant care for what is excluded from people's representations of reality. Just as the search for inner peace does not come to an end, peaceful co-existence in the world must be based on people's everlasting respect and care for the unknown and their recognition of the interdependence among men, their fellow beings, and the natural world.