Milli mála - 01.01.2013, Síða 136

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tionship with his “amah” (his servant Jenny) by raping her; sym-
bolically, this episode stands for the imperialist take-over of a colo-
ny and the following exploitation of its resources for the benefit of
the colonialist and Empire. Moreover, this incident highlights the
function of rape as a tool of oppression, and emphasises also the
importance of the discourse of rape in the context of both patriarchy
and Empire. Surprisingly, though, McDonald’s “drunken sprawling
upon this [Jenny’s] soft brown fragrant body” (Jenkins 1971: 60)
results in Jenny’s submissive and unconditional love for him. She
sees herself as McDonald’s “exclusive property, to be kept for him
in cold storage for ever, and for him alone, until she dies” (Jenkins
1971: 139). The novel shows Jenny as inferior to McDonald first
because she is an Eastern woman, culturally trained to view men as
superior beings, secondly because she is his servant, and thirdly
because she is a native of a former British colony. Her status of in-
feriority to McDonald is therefore threefold in nature, and their
relationship is clearly based on McDonald’s superiority, Jenny’s in-
feriority, and McDonald’s possession of Jenny as woman, servant,
and native. It follows, of course, that McDonald sees himself as
Jenny’s lord and master, since he reflects that he “had been, still
was, her lord as well as her lover” (Jenkins 1971: 176). The refer-
ence to McDonald as Lord Ronald, inspired by the Scottish ballad
“Leezie Lindsay” that he usually sings when in drunken expatriate
company, adds an ironic dimension to the power given to McDonald
over his mistress, as the ballad tells the story of a poor lass being
wooed by a Highland laird who promises her a life of riches if she
marries him. For McDonald and Jenny, however, there has been no
such happy outcome, as McDonald deserted Jenny and married a
white woman once he had returned to Scotland.
As can be seen from the above, therefore, The Expatriates can be
interpreted as reinforcing both the patriarchal and the imperial
structure, rather than opposing or deconstructing it. The novel’s
outcome, as discussed in more detail below, enforces this reading
still further. It has to be remembered, though, that Jenkins’s ap-
proach to the issue of inter-racial relations is satirical, as irony is a
major hallmark of his writing; indeed, the novel has a very strong
female focus in presenting major female characters, some of them
SURRENDER AND SACRIFICE