Whither is Bound Humanity: A Scrutiny of the Select Plays of Sharon Pollock

Abstract

A torchbearer of history and a dramatist awakening the humane self, buried deep in the quagmire of social evils, Sharon Pollock has won laurels in the realm of Canadian Literature. According to Pollock, Canadians think of themselves as a clique of cultured race who have never partaken in historical transgressions and atrocities. But that is a mistaken notion. Canadian history is bleak only because it has been dishonestly bowdlerized. This contention voiced forth by Pollock paves the way for subverting the myth of Canada. Her Plays Komagata Maru Incident and One Tiger to Hill present Canada in its true colours. Pollock unearths the archives of history in order to give an avant-garde explication about the Canadian past. The objective of the paper is to scrutinize the historical dossiers connected with the Komagata Maru Incident of 1914 and the New Westminster hostage-taking of 1975. An analysis of the plays relying upon the chronicles is attempted to find out the discrepancy between history and reality. Canada though glorified as a multicultural mosaic and a democratic union has in reality traces of internal colonialism, racism and Eurocentric attitude pushing the voiceless to the margins. The plays bear testimony of the unheard agonies of the minorities. The two epithets that captures the essence of the plays selected are “Brown Children” referring to the Indians who relocated to Canada and “Waste Paper Basket,” an appropriate synonym for ‘prison.’