The Hopeless Liberal Colonial

By placing the liberal colonial figure in the novel, Forster is able to explore exile through the experiences of the British community and more importantly highlight the separations that exist within that community to shatter the notion of colonizers as a homogeneous entity. Each figure is a representation of a new kind of individuality, and furthermore an exile of sorts, an exile portrayed by Forster through the language and experiences of the characters. But perhaps the most displaced of these figures is the character of Adela, whose naivety in life is but a reflection of the deep rooted misconceptions that Indians and the British have towards each other. While both Mr. fielding and Mrs. Moore seem to find at least a semblance of a purpose, Mr. fielding as a humanist and Mrs. Moore as a mystic, Adela is a lost soul entangled in a land which in itself is in search for identity and more important someone to identify it. Hence I feel as though Adela is a representation of the struggle of India to find a place in the world and mirrors the fragmentation that will never allow it to be whole or unified just as Adela can never feel at peace with herself, and will instead slide by "unnoticed". Moreover just as India is in search for someone to identify it to claim it in a way, we see Adela as a character who needs to be attached emotionally to another in order for her thoughts to be given some meaning, and so she struggles between all those who try to influence her yet she stands in a state of isolation and the sort of exile that can only be removed through reconciliation, with one’s self and ones surroundings. A similar situation can be seen with the subcontinent as a land that many have tried to claim, but in that attempt to claim it and reform it we see even more disintegration than ever existed before. In my opinion Forster has used the liberal colonial, or in this case Adela, to show that the conflict between belonging to one place or the other, or attempting to reconcile the two just as Adela tries to reconcile the values of the community she is a part of with how she feels she should really behave, will be one that cannot be resolved. And I feel as though this idea epitomizes Forster’s own conflict over whether friendship between the British and the Indian people can ever be accomplished. And perhaps the purpose of the liberal colonial figure is to show that such a character cannot exist peacefully in any society. We see that Mr. fielding and Mrs. Moore will not find their place in society and will be surrounded by severed ties and hopeless relationships, like the Indian women who "sought for a new formula which neither the east not west could provide". And so the colonial rape is a failed attempt on Adela’s part to gain some sort of hold on her life, and the desperation that leads her to force herself into a place in society no matter what that place is. Hence Adela emerges an annoying character who needs to deal with her daddy issues and let the readers focus on the real problems in the novel that prove to be a little more complicated than her confused attractions towards Aziz and over dramatized depression over how she wants to see the “real India”, that she with her puny brain will never will be able to identify even if it smacked her right in the face.