Once Divided, Always Divided: On The Drawing of Lines and Divisions in The Moor's Last Sigh

In class, we discussed various dualities, such as appearance/reality, that unfold themselves within Rushdie’s work. While the book is centered on the notion of duality, it is also intimately concerned with the idea of drawing lines and boundaries. We, therefore, are introduced to a narrator that relates the saga of a family whose religious, political and cultural differences replicate the fault lines by which India is riven. Within such categories, the narrator situates himself as: “I was both, and nothing.” It is my contention, therefore, that another aspect of the exilic figure is his obsession with boundaries and lines, precisely because he, himself, has been placed outside of an arbitrarily drawn boundary line.

The first instance where the narrative discusses lines is when Belle asks the attorneys to divide the company – “Divide and maybe the sickness can be contained in one half only. If we do not live separately then we will die together.” Following the division of the business, the household is also divided - “she split the mansion, its contents, courtyards and gardens, right down the middle. She had sackfuls of spices piled high along her newly established frontiers.” The narrative here mocks the concept of amity lines that divides space into different nation states by replicating the division within the domestic sphere and representing the frontiers as being spotted with sacks of spices. The use of spices is interesting because while it remains something which both parts of the family are deeply related to, due to their spice business, Epiphania is allergic to spices. The idea here, thus, becomes that the lines, by virtue of their existence, set up categories of inclusion and exclusion. For the exilic figure, Aurora, however the lines become symbolic of a race to the finish: “Once divided, always divided; in that household it was a fight to the bloody finish.” The exilic figure, by virtue of being explicitly placed outside the boundary lines, becomes obsessed with their existence and his own exclusion.

When Abraham Zogoiby reaches the church after leaving his mother, before entering the place, he looks back to see a silhouette of young Flory Zogoiby, “can-canning her skirt and petticoat and uttering familiar sorceries as she challenged him to fight: Step across this line.” Flory Zogoiby is also depicted in her youth as being obsessed with drawing lines with a stick and challenging boys to cross them. Her lines, therefore, are similar to the ones that Emily Elphinstone, the widow, discusses with the priest – “A line must be drawn that is not easy to cross.” The idea here is that Flory draws these lines to tempt boys to cross them – the line, in this case, becomes perverted, being meant to be crossed. However, Flory soon discovers that the drawing of lines leaves her as a lonely figure. Therefore, the exilic figure soon discovers that the drawing of lines entails a profound solitude.

Lastly, Epiphania, in her dying curse to Aurora, states: “A house divided against itself cannot stand…may your house be forever partitioned, may its foundations turn to dust, may your children rise up against you, and may your fall be hard.” Therefore, for the characters in this novel, the idea of lines, division, and partition seem to be at the heart of the narrative; to the extent that even curses are constructed around them. What is even more telling, however, is the idea that a house once divided cannot stand on its own – which could refer to the Indian nation, which if divided would not be able to stand on its own. It could also refer to the exilic figure whom the divisions of the nation leave as someone outside the boundary – as someone divided against himself.