Bringing Tony Home by Tissa Abeysekara

January 06, 2021

Tissa Ananda Abeysekara (7^th May 1939 – 18 April 2009)

He was a Sri Lankan actor, writer, director, screen play writer, film maker and political activist. His book Bringing Tony Home won the Gratian prize for the new creative writing in English. He was awarded the honorable award of SAARC literary award.

He was born in Maharagama a rail road town of southeast of Colombo. He grew up in Havelock town Colombo. Due to poor health Tissa did not attend school until 11 years old. Private classes were conducted to him and he had formal education at Dharampala Vidyalaya in Pannipitiya. He completed his education. He was married to Asanka Monarvilla and they have one Svetlana and one son Dimitra. He died on 18tth April 2009, at Colombo National Hospital after having been admitted for a heart condition.

Tissa began his career as a short –story writer writing in Sinhala and published some short stories in the Dinamina and Janatha national newspapers. He was chairman of the National film corporation from 1999 to 2001. In 2007 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by university of Colombo.

Study plan

Author’s Introduction

Plot review

Analysis

Style

Literary Devices

Plot review

The novel is structure in three different time periods of the narrator’s life. his life as a film maker, his teenage years as restless kid, and his life as a young youth.

He novel goes around the narrator and his faithful dog Tony. Their relation is a peaceful but they part away due to the poor economic situation in the family. The family leaves their home and moves to a different surrounding.

The first part is a dog abandoned by a family due to their difficult economic situation. Their parting away from their loving Tony. In this novel a boy (the narrator) returns to his old home to find. Tony his beloved dog who was abandoned when the family left due to their economic situation. This navel is a journey into the human’s emotions changes due different situations. Every part says about the sensitive feeling of humans.

Themes, structure, Language style

Bringing Tony Home a traditional Sri Lankan novel, like a movie, one could feel the visual images of the past era, nature, tradition and the people.

The novel is structured in three parts, reflecting adult life of the author, his teenage and his young youth age. The whole work takes place in a beautiful Sri Lankan traditional surrounding.

Themes in the Novel

The central idea in the novel is a sincere love and affection between the narrator and his loving dog Tony. This beautiful bondage spilt due to the difficult economic situation in the family. Both the dog and the small kid (the narrator) do not know how to part away and end their seven year strong close relationship for the family leave the dog behind and moves to a another different locality. This situation gives a turning point to the story.

The novel gives a beautiful picture of the past era of the Sri Lankan people. Their simple peaceful life style is well brought out in the story. The nature of Sri Lanka is painted so beautifully by his skillful description. Sri Lanka is beautified by the trees and waterways. Beautiful Sri Lanka is rich by the simple life style. The novel is about his parents’ grandparents, love and his mistakes and his life which he lived to the fullest. His love and bondage to his mother, love hate relationship with his father. Downfall due to difficult economic situations, his troubled young age, his love affairs failure. All are expressed in a simple language style. Now the author in his mid to late sixties, telling all about his village and its historical background, it is beauty natural landscape and its changes.

The book is full of his reminisces. Tissa is in love with nature and with the Kelani valley till his last breath. “Elsewhere” expresses his forbidden love for a schoolmate. It touches the bitter sweet memories. Grandmother’s tale pictures the love-hate relationship by a father and son. “Hark, the moaning pond” is about the narrator’s grandmother, the culture of Sri Lanka. Abeysekara’s skill to capture the inner emotions of the characters make ‘Bringing Tony Home’ a remarkable work.

Tissa Abeysekara’s language is not simple, it has the touch of Charles Dickens. His sentences are rich with deep meaning. His way of writing is completely different from other Sri Lankan writers in English. The novel also expresses the bondage between the children and parents. The mother is kind and loving. But father is for away emotionally and not sensitive enough. The narrator could understand that his life is associated with such different characters. Even the dog accepts the challenges of life to live with different human personalities. The narrator’s views are open to all. Because the past could not be taken away, it is hidden in our mind, and it would be taken out by just a sound or visual thought.