Cultural Archetypes in the works of Rohinton Mistry

Abstract

Abstract The present research paper attempts to explore the archetypical elements in the works of Indo-Canadian author Rohinton Mistry. As a member of a racial minority, Rohinton Mistry’s work strive to put forward the lives, beliefs, culture and practices of his community, whose members are now limited to a few. The Parsee community stands tall in terms of cultural and racial preservation against the storms and sands of time. With hardly any significant number of inter-caste marriage associations, this race is considered to be one of the purest among the lot. Genetic Studies over the past years have shown that the purity of their lineage is still maintained. As such they are still as closer to their forefathers as they were in 7th Century before migration. Their racial closeness to the human beings several centuries back proves cultural preservation over time and space. Thus, the cultural archetypes transferred from generation to generation through unconscious effort of collective unconscious, invariably find manifestation in the literature from this community. Archetypal figures and myths can be easily traced in the works of Rohinton Mistry. In a sense, an obvious result of preservation of culture is preservation of these cultural archetypes. And this will constitute the subject matter of the present study.