Kazuo Ishiguro's 2000 novel When We Were Orphans, the first-person narrator, Christopher Banks, has established himself in London as an important Holmesian detective who does not solve the crimes no one else can, decides in 1937 to recover his past by solving the mystery of his parents' disappearance from the international settlement of Shanghai some thirty years earlier, and thus reconstruct his own history, save his parents and perhaps save the world from the impending catastrophe. It is an attempt to rearrange the past to fit the story he needs to tell, and is set against a backdrop of political and social unrest in 1937 Shanghai. I will look closely at his courageous but failed attempt to mend the wounds of his past. We begin to see, as Christopher's story develops, how his personal and intensely internal narrative of his attempt to recover his lost childhood is embedded in a larger narrative of searching for national, racial, and cultural identity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Of course, the orphanage is a central motif in this Ishiguro novel. The title of the novel provides our first clue to the final word of the statement. Through the use of the title, the author indicates the context and thematic structure of his narrative. “When We Were Orphans” refers to the retrospective narrative of the novel, referring to an earlier period “when” the central characters were orphans. On a deeper level, Ishiguro implies that this is an examination of a period in mid-20th century history in which "we", humanity, were lost and displaced as if we were the metaphorical orphans referred to in the title. The orphan archetype is illustrated in a surprisingly large number of mythical and legendary figures that suggest a familial connection between being an orphan and a hero. The orphan archetype is inextricably connected with the hero. Western literature is full of examples of the almost archetypal myth of the orphan figure. From Huckleberry Finn to Tom Jones to Harry Potter, the orphan as hero is familiar to readers of Western literature. Ishiguro uses this archetype as a central motif in his novel. Orphan characters are icons of autonomy; Described as resourceful, resilient and full of potential. For Anna Craycroft, they are also “ciphers, screens onto which we [readers] project our enduring fantasies of autonomy and control. ” (Orphan Theory) The orphan is often portrayed as the central protagonist whose orphanhood offers the opportunity to journey towards self-discovery and an independent identity despite the absence and stability of biological parents. The archetype of the orphan is, essentially, the most human story of self-knowledge and independence in the face of a hostile universe. The orphanage is the realization of an individual and independent self through the coexistence of adulthood and childhood; Craycroft refers to this as “regressive individuation.” He goes on to explain that “To be an orphan is to simultaneously embody the freedoms of childhood and the sophistications of adulthood.” and When We Were Orphans, Ishiguro explores the idea of ​​exile as an orphan, incorporating the broader themes of alienation and disconnection from the contemporary world. The protagonists of each novel are orphans searching for their lost parents, one literally and the 'other metaphorically. Ishiguro's protagonists are often exiled or out of tune with the world they find themselves in. This feeling of being out of place can..