The Roaring Sea’: The Analysis of Material Agencies in Terms of Their Ecological Impacts in Romesh Gunesekera’s Reef

Abstract

This article focuses on the agency of the non-human environment and the ability of the non-human, whether animate or inanimate, to affect and change the human world in Romesh Gunesekera’s Reef. I discuss the agency of the food and the reef in the novel in their relationship to creating and shaping the identity of Triton by employing new materialist theory introduced by Karen Barad. I discuss that the agencies of the reef and the food are as crucial as human agencies since they have the power to shape humankind and culture, which is observable in the form of wrong post-colonial economic development policies, investments and, most importantly, the demise of the scientific research of Mr. Salgado in the novel. I also claim that Triton, who is not affected by the agency of the reef and the ocean. while they were visiting the research post of Mr. Salgado, will be an outstanding cook producing meals that would intoxicate Mr. Salgado and other characters, which will result in the disruption of Mr. Salgado’s research on the coral reef.