Who or what is the child in the novel

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A Imaginative Life An Imaginative Life An Imaginative Life

The Roman poet Ovid , the protagonist of the David Malouf 's novel An Imaginative Life narrates his encounter with a wild boy during his exile , raised among wolves /deers in the snow . The noel suggests that boy represents an evolution of primitive man to the civilized one with his communication patterns , linguistic skills and other social phenomenon Ovid consider himself as the protector of the child but this assumption changes with the evolution of the story and child proves himself as

br protector for Ovid as he frees him from the clutches of fabricated life and capacitates him to enter into a much natural life

The very first paragraph of the novel suggests the very character of the child . The Ovid in search of an individual and collective self-identity for himself and for humanity respectively , finds the boy as the incarnation of his true self . The protagonist of the novel saw a reflection of himself , his own being in the child . David Malouf introduces the boy in this way , When I first saw the child I cannot say . I see myself - I might be three or four years old - playing under the olives at the edge of our farm , just within call of the goatherd and I am talking to the child , whether for the first time or not I cannot tell at this distance . The goatherd is dozing against an olive bole , his head rolled back to show the dark line of his jaw and the sinews of his scraggy neck , the black mouth gaping (Malouf , 1996 )This clearly manifests that child is the primitive being of the protagonist devoid of posing and pretension of the civilized world

He further explains the phenomenon of self-reflection in the child as The child is there . I am three or four years old . It is late summer It is spring . I am six . I am eight . The child is always the same age . We speak to one another , but in a tongue of our own devising . My brother who is a year older , does not see him , even when he moves close between us (Malouf , 1996 ) This journey of self-identification is presented through the psychological and emotional struggle of protagonist in attempting to characterize , recognize and manipulate his natural surrounding and social milieu while in exile . The motif of his encounter enables the protagonist to discover his own Other ' in the wild child .The child epitomizes process of communication for David Malouf as once Ovid has been banished from Rome and is forced to live with a "barbarian " people . Element of the human capability to communicate is depicted in the form of a boy who has been reared by and among animals The journey of the child into social life of village of Tomis and the protagonist journey into the natural life , depict the evolution of communication pattern of human being . In addition to this representation of communication pattern , it further illustrates the...