Green Is The Colour

13 Pages 3357 Words

A critic has made the following observation about Fernando’s Green is the Colour: Clearly, the central concern (of the novel) is how people of different races, the heirs of colonial and migrant histories, face the challenges of living side by side.”
Does this comment function, for you, as an adequate summation of the novel’s thematic concerns?

In Fernando’s Green is the Colour, there is no doubt that the central concern is about how people of different races face the challenges of living side by side. However, besides this, readers should also look beyond this central concern to unearth Fernando’s other concerns regarding the country’s future from various aspects. Although this novel was written in the setting of post 13 May 1969, its thematic concerns are also applicable to the Malaysian society of today. As long as Malaysia has not achieved true success in the formation of a common “Bangsa Malaysia” identity, the issues grappled by Fernando in this story will remain relevant to the Malaysians.
In this novel, Fernando brings out the problems that plague the three main races at that period of time. To Fernando, it is important to address the problems that all races are facing if we want to achieve a Malaysia that is united from every aspect. It is also Fernando’s intention to highlight these issues as he wants his readers of different races to understand the situation and also the plight of their fellow Malaysians who are of different backgrounds. Even for Malaysians of today, it would be good to understand the history of each other’s culture, so that better understanding among each other could be forged to open the way up for Fernando’s dialogic vision for the nation, which according to Mohammad A. Quayum in “Shaping a New Destiny with Dialogic Vision”, “accommodates widely different outlooks for the sake of promoting fellowship and peace” (169).
Through this novel, Fernando highlights the probl...