Emotions and Ethnicity in the Short Story “Roti Seller from Sri Lanka” by Kanokphong Songsomphan

Abstract

This article aims to study the dimensions of emotions related to ethnicity that is expressed for the death of the Sri Lankan boy in the short story “The Roti Seller from Sri Lanka” by Kanokphong  Songsomphan. The results revealed that the passing away of the Sri Lankan boy showed the bias and oppression of ethnic groups through emotions and power relations. Being an ethnic in Thailand is not only controlled and monitored by the Thai government, but also by the emotion expressions. Therefore, emotions cannot be liberally expressed as an individual being, yet it relates to society and culture. The short story by Kanokphong represents the weight of oppressed emotions, which is the grief from losing a son, along with the narration that places the weight of guilt and sorrow from the side causing the loss. The weights of emotions from both sides intertwine and interact, creating an intense emotion tremor, leading to the fall of a hierarchy by creating the perception of ethnicity in unprejudiced view, awakening the death of ethnicity to reborn and revive.