The Impacts of Intergenerational Trauma and Colonialism

Chandin's anger and pain stem largely from the self-loathing he develops while living with the Thoroughlys. As an Indian Christian convert, Chandin feels distanced from his parents, his Indian peers from the barracks, and his heritage, but despite the best of his efforts, he cannot integrate himself into the world of the Thoroughlys, thus leaving him stuck between two realms, bitter, angry and hurt. The colonial project traps Chandin in this liminal space, never belonging among the Thoroughlys despite their insistence that he is family (though barring him from joining their family legitimately through a relationship to Lavinia) and feeling an aversion to his own people, ashamed of their ways.

Chandin perpetuates the cycle of oppression and violence that he is submitted to, separated as he is from his heritage and culture, and this aforementioned failure of his to adhere...