have better and proud life. Through confessing his origin, he admits himself as part of the inferior natives with their culture.
As a result, his resistance to the natives’ culture shows his attitude to fight against his own origin for his better hope and future. Referring to Thiong’o that
“to control a people’s culture is to control their tools of self-definition in relationship to others,”
90
the main character uses the colonizers’ assumptions as the tool to define his self and Belitung-Malays people. Thus, he finds that the
natives’ culture is inferior. Then, as part of the natives he does not want to be part of the inferior culture which is defined as conventional, pessimistic as well as
without hope and future. To confront that inferiority, he asserts his resistance to the natives’ culture.
B. Europeanized “Native”
Ikal’s resistance to the natives’ culture makes him sweep aside the local values and behaves in quite the opposite way. On his view, natives’ culture does
not support him to liberate from the threat of inferiority. By seeing the company people, he includes himself as a poor village boy and others. Moreover, how the
company people treat the natives, put them as the oppressed. They are the lowest position in the company and the poorest in the island. Then, to free himself from
the characteristics of the natives as the lowest clas, he needs a role model to motivate him. Thus, Ikal tries to find his guidance to reveal his inferiority.
1. Impression and Adoration
There are two processes that Ikal has passed on his journey for choosing Europe as his absolute pole, namely impression and adoration. In The Laskar
Pelangi Quartet, Ikal knows about Europe from a novel. It happens when A Ling,
90
Thiong’o, p. 16
his first love in elementary school, leaves him. Then, she gives him a novel If Only They Could Talk by James Herriot. Edensor village in England is the setting
of the novel. He is enormously impressed by the description of Edensor. Curing his broken heart, he reads it and imagines himself in Edensor:
Miraculously, I was suddenly cured. I had a new love right inside my worn out bag. That love was Edensor. After 480 hours, 37 minutes, and 12 seconds of
mourning my loss of A Ling, I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and dwelling on my first love
.
TRT: 271
His imagination puts Edensor as an escape solution when he feels desperate with his life struggle:
Whenever faced with uncertainty, I often ran to the most beautiful place I knew—the one I had discovered in childhood when an enormous love attacked
me for the very first time. The place is a beautiful village with flower gardens surrounded by grey stone fences and trails in the woods shaded by plum tree
branches. Oh, Edensor, the nirvana of my imagination.[…]That village is the cure for my broken heart. The more difficult my life became, the more
frequently I re-read Herriot’s book. I often visited Edensor in my dreams. TRT: 420-421
By imagining Edensor, he gains a positive spirit because his real life in his own country is disappointing, as he states:
Poverty, my lifelong friend. We had been close buddies ever since I was in my mother’s womb. I was a poor baby, a poor child, a poor teenager, and now a
poor adult. I was as accustomed to poverty as I was to taking my daily bath.[…] Living life alone, ignored, working ten-hour days, and falling within the 20-30
year old age range was my demographic. But my psychographic identity was: a lonely man desperately starving for attention. …. The world didn’t care about
me and the country only knew me through my nine-digit employment number at the state-owned postal company: 967275337. TRT: 421-422
Through the novel that he reads he makes Edensor the best place for him to run away from reality that he does not want to face. By imagining Edensor, he gains
spirit to struggle with all matters that he usually faces off. Then, when he enters senior high school, he meets Mr. Balia, his teacher.
He gains some knowledge about European superiority from him. Mr. Balia also encourages him about living a life and shaping identity. He relates it to people’s
life mosaics:
“What we do in life…,” said Pak Balia with theatrical flair,” …echoes in eternity… Every occurrence in this universe is pieces of mosaic. It spreads
everywhere, extends in time and spaces. Yet, gradually it will unite into configuration as Antoni Gaudi’s montage. Those mosaics will shape who you
are when you are grown up. Then, anything that you do in this life, will echo in eternity[…]“Hence, roam about this earth to find your mosaic”
91
[My translation]
“Echo in eternity” is one of the intentions of life. By doing something in life, it will make someone become unforgettable person in the world. Then, he
completes his speech with these sentences:
Explore the glorious of Europe till the exotic Africa. Discover the diamond of culture till France. Take a step on the sacred altar of the greatest alma mater of
all time: Sorbonne. Pursue the paths of Sartre, Louis Pasteur, Montesquieu, Voltaire. Right there, people study science, literature, and art until they change
civilization …
92
[My translation]
Those sentences explain about the way to reach the “echo in eternity”. It can be achieved by exploring, discovering and studying, in Europe since they are
Europeans, who are able to change civilization. That is another way how his teacher promotes the superiority of Europe to Ikal. Therefore, his teacher’s
statements influence him to begin a journey and to shape his life mosaics. He crystallizes it as his aspiration and an ambitious dream. Then, he wishes to make it
comes true.
2. Pursuing Education
In relation to how the colonizers impart their values to the colonized, Ashcroft et al. argues that education becomes a technology of colonialist
subjectification in two ways: firstly, establishing the normative values claimed as universal, achieved through what is taught, how it is taught and secondly,
91
“What we do in life…,” kata Pak Balia teatrikal,”…echoes in eternity… Setiap peristiwa di jagat raya ini adalah potongan-potongan mozaik. Terserak disana sini, tersebar dalam rentang waktu dan ruang-ruang. Namun, perlahan-lahan ia
akan bersatu membentuk sosok seperti montase Antoni Gaudi. Mozaik-mozaik itu akan membangun siapa dirimu dewasa nanti. Lalu apa pun yang kau kerjakan dalam hidup ini, akan bergema dalam keabadian…“Maka berkelanalah di atas muka
bumi ini untuk menemukan mozaikmu”SP: 72
92
Jelajahi kemegahan Eropa sampai ke Afrika yang eksotis. Temukan berliannya budaya sampai ke Prancis. Langkahkan kakimu di atas altar suci almamater terhebat tiada tara: Sorbonne. Ikuti jejak-jejak Sartre, Louis Pasteur, Montesquieu,
Voltaire. Disanalah orang belajar science, sastra, dan seni hingga mengubah peradaban…SP: 73
representing the colonized to themselves as inherently inferior, barbarous, and uncivilized beings.
93
As Anderson argues colonial educational policies with their purpose is to create Europeanized native.
94
Such is what Macaulay envisiones Europeanized native through the Indians as being,”a class of persons, Indian in
blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinion, in morals and in intellect.”
95
Europeanized native is included in hybridity in Loomba as intellectual hybridities.
96
Rather than physically, Anderson then completes Loomba’s term with “mental miscegenation”
97
that is happened through colonial educational policies. Europeanized native in the context of hybridity shows that the natives
can mimic but never exactly reproduce European values. Colonial “hybridity” in this context is a strategy to stabilize their domination through the colonizers’
cultural purity. In relation to identity, Europeanized “native” is a kind of identity that is envisioned in the main character as a postcolonial Belitungese who
physically is a Belitungese, but imitates the European values. Thus, hybridity shows that the relationship between the colonizers and the colonized is ambivalent
because the colonial subjects never simply and completely oppose to the colonizers. In short, they have been contaminated by the colonizers’ values.
However, Anderson’s term on Europeanized native is not adequate to explain the complexity of the Belitungese identity and hybridity process in The
Laskar Pelangi Quartet. Colonialism happens in Belitung is not only because of
93
Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Post-Colonial: Studies Reader London and New York: Routledge, 1995 p. 426
94
Anderson relates his argument to mental miscegenation through Englilsh educational system in India under the British colonization, as he states: “Parliament allocated 100,000 rupees a year for the promotion of native education, both
‘oriental’ and ‘Western’. In 1823, a Committee of Public Instruction was set up in Bengal; and in 1834, Thomas Babington Macaulay became president of this committee.” Anderson, p. 91
95
Thomas Babington Macaulay as the president of the committee introduced English educational system in his notorious “Minute on Education” and he stated that statement. Thomas Macaulay, “Minute on Indian Education” in Bill Ashcroft,
Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Post-Colonial: Studies Reader London and New York: Routledge, 1995 p. 430
96
See Loomba, pp. 145-146
97
Ibid.
the Dutch colonization, as the representation of European colonialism. It is also the colonial extension which is done by the Indonesian government through PN
Timah as the state-owned company. Then, it is represented by Java as the centre of the Indonesian government that controls the company. Therefore, Ikal as the
natives of Belitung passes two displacements: the first is within the country, particularly in Java and the second is outside the country, especially in Europe.
Those two displacements influence his hybridity process for becoming a Europeanized “native”.
Thus, after Ikal gains the adoration and impression on Europe from his teacher in senior high school and makes his decision to pursue education, he
leaves Belitung. Then, to gain the best education he goes to the “centre” as the place which provides qualified education, namely: Java and Europe. He decides to
roam around Java to make his dream comes true after graduates from the senior high school: “We wanted to visit Java, as the prosperous island and to speculate
on our destiny.”
98
[My translation] Java becomes his choice because he knows that mostly PN Timah’s staffs are Javanese. They graduate from excellent universities
in Java and also from abroad. In addition, the centre of Indonesian government as the owner of PN Timah is also in Java, in particular Jakarta.
Java is seen as the colonial extension through PN Timah. The company exploits the Belitung’s natural resources and the Belitung people who work as
PN’s coolies. Furthermore, their prosperity as the coolie is being ignored. Thus, colonialism happens not only because of the expansion from other countries, but
in its development it also happens within the country. In The Laskar Pelangi Quartet, colonialism occurs because PN Timah as a state-owned company
98
Kami ingin mengunjungi Pulau Jawa yang gemah ripah loh jinawi itu dan berspekulasi dengan nasib kami. SP: 216
controls and dominates the natives of Belitung. The company gives privilege only to the executives and staffs. Hence, they become the one who live as a wealthy
people with their exclusive and complete facilities in Belitung. As for the Belitungese, the company’s policy discriminates them. They do not have the same
acces to the company’s facilities, such as: the settlement area and the PN School. Ikal, who is familiar with that reality, decides to experience Java himself to
pursue education. Going to Java becomes his way to pursue education as well as to shape his life mosaics.
Going to Java, Jakarta becomes his target. However, he is stranded in Bogor. Fortunately, he rents a room near Bogor Agricultural University. Living
near students’ community provokes him to struggle more to gain his dream: “When they talked about calculus, […], my great yearning for pursuing education
became stronger”
99
[My translation]. After a bitter struggle to get proper job to survive, Ikal becomes a civil
servant as a postal worker at the state-owned postal company in Bogor. He is also able to continue his study in University of Indonesia, as he states:
Along my working experiences since I was in second grade of junior high school, became a postman was the peak of my career. Although my division was
mail sorter and I did not like it, but I was a civil servant.
100
On the next year, I was accepted at Indonesia University. I adapted my job schedule to suit my lecture’s schedule.
101
[My translation]
To compare his father profession with his profession, he is better based on the income level. His education accessibility also improves, since he enrols at one of
the prestigious universities in Indonesia. For a poor village boy who defines himself as a poor village boy, those achievements are incredible. Moreover,
99
Ketika mereka bicara tentang kalkulus,[…] rinduku akan bangku sekolah membuncah. SP: 235
100
Selama pengalamanku bekerja, sejak kelas dua SMP, menjadi pegawai Pos adalah puncak karierku. Meskipun hanya sebagai tukang sortir, dan ini tak kusukai, tapi aku adalah seorang pegawai jawatan SP: 243
101
Tahun berikutnya aku diterima di UI. Aku mengatur jadwal shift menyortir surat sesuai dengan kesibukan kuliah. SP: 246
University of Indonesia is famous as one of the best universities in Indonesia. Hundreds of qualified students compete to enrol to that prestigious university.
Thus, as the natives of Belitung, he proves his quality by going to Java and enters one of the prestigious universities in Indonesia.
His identity as a Belitungese is also influenced by the Javanese, particularly as well-educated person. It is shown when he meets his friend in
senior high school, Nurmala, who also studies in University of Indonesia. They talk about his cousin, Arai, which she is curious about:
“Oughh, integrity and loyality What can I expect more from a man?” “Do you mean, Arai? The most eligible bachelor in the whole world Is that
what you mean, Ikal?”
102
[My translation] […] Nurmala became flirtatious,”Okey, but don’t say gue sends regards.”
Gue? A Malays said gue. The demand to melt with the place where we live was incredible. Some people might lose their identity.
103
[My translation]
When Nurmala uses the word “gue”, Ikal said that she might lose her identity as Belitung-Malays. The word “gue” means I. It is from Betawi dialect.
104
Betawi is one of the local people in Jakarta. However, he does not give any explanation
when both of them use English which is shown in italic in the above quotation. When the Belitung-Malays use English along with Indonesian language,
Ikal does not see it as a sign of losing identity. It is different from his statement on using the word “gue” which is part of local language in Indonesia that may take
someone to lose hisher identity. Going to Java, the hybrid with the Betawi dialect as part of Indonesian language might endanger the Belitung-Malays identity.
However, using English does not threaten their identity. It shows that he becomes the colonial subjects because, as the ex-colonized, he thinks that his own language
102
“Oughh, integritas dan loyalitas What can I expect more from a man?” , “Arai, gitu? The most eligible bachelor in the whole world Begitukah maksudmu, Ikal?” SP: 248
103
Nurmala menjadi genit,”Oke, tapi jangan bilang ada salam dari gue. Gue? Anak Melayu bilang gue. Sungguh besar tuntutan pergaulan. Beberapa orang sampai harus kehilangan identitas. SP: 249
104
http:www.kamusslang.com Accessed: 19
th
March 2015
cannot “voice” or represent the image of well-educated person, and then he prefers using English to Malay language.
Taking a step to Java is a part of his journey to shape his life mosaics as well as shape his identity, as Mr. Balia says: “Those mosaics will shape who you
are when you are grown up. Then, anything that you do in this life will echo in eternity”
105
[My translation]. Therefore, his decision to go to Java is a way to define his “self” by shaping his life mosaics. However, going to Java is not his
ambitious dream, which is to study to Europe. Java becomes his stepping stone to reach his dream.
Thus, despite his achievements in Java, he feels that his life is still a failure:
That was my life now. My future was unclear and I no longer had any notion of what it would hold. Everything was uncertain. The one thing I knew for sure
was that I was a failure. I cursed myself every time I had to stand in the post office’s yard on the 17th day of every month for the Indonesian Government
Employee Corps flag ceremony. TRT: 423
Those achievements become nothing for him since he has his own ambitious dream. An ambitious dream that is inspired by Mr. Balia is his measurement of
better life. For that reason, he decides to join a graduate scholarship program from The European Union.
He studies hard and feels excited to get the scholarship: “I have to get that scholarship. There is no other option. I have to get it Those were the words that
rang in my heart everytime I stood in front of the mirror. That scholarship was a ticket out of a life I couldn’t be proud of.” TRT: 435. Neglecting his previous
achievement and saying that to get the scholarship is a ticket to gain a life, which
105
Mozaik-mozaik itu akan membangun siapa dirimu dewasa nanti. Lalu apa pun yang kau kerjakan dalam hidup ini, akan bergema dalam keabadian…SP: 72
he can be proud of, supports his ambitious dream. It also confirms that his criteria of proud life are defined by studying abroad.
The effect of education, which is referred to Gramsci in Loomba, is a “domination by consent”.
106
It means willingly being controlled through what and how the colonialist values are taught. Through Mr. Balia’s speech in his class
about the glorious progress of Europe, it becomes the way to establish the normative values claimed as universal. It refers to European ideas, ideals and
experiences. Although his intention is to motivate his students to struggle and to gain better future, but for Ikal, it gives him deep impression about the superiority
of Europe. Then, he becomes more convinced about European superiority. Beginning with the impression from his previous experience about Europe
before he enters senior high school, it is improving through his teacher’s speech in the senior high school. Thus, it proves that education becomes a technology of
colonialist subjectification through Mr. Balia’s way on motivating his students. By establishing the superiority of Europe, which also means convincing the
natives’ inferiority, he creates a Europeanized “native”. A Belitung-Malay boy who reinforces the European values as universal and normal. Referring to
Thiong’o, the main character’s attitudes show the way colonialism imposes its control towards natives on defining and representing their culture. Then, based on
his concept of decolonizing the mind, the main character does not challenge the colonialist values but maintains it in his mind. He adores Europe with her values
and takes it as his role model. Afterwards, his adoration makes him admit the European superiority. His
reinforcement improves when he achieves his ambitious dream. He joins the
106
Loomba, p. 30
European Union Scholarship for a master program, which he says as: “The scholarship offered a sort of turning point for my life, the kind of chance that
possible for people who always try to find themselves.” EDE: 46 Fortunately, he is accepted in Sorbonne University in France, which happens to be Mr. Balia’s
example on his speech. That becomes the opened gate for Ikal to interact with people from many countries.
Then, in his class at Sorbonne University, he states that his class is like a laboratory for human behavior and also a university of life because it consists of
students from different countries. Besides Indonesia, where he comes from, other students come from India, Georgia, Britain, German, Holland, France and
America. Then, there are also Jewish and Chinese students. As he has stated, the scholarship is a chance for him to find himself. He begins to join the ranks of the
students from different countries. He includes himself in a group that he calls “The Pathetic Four”. The
group is a place for everything that is marginalized. There are four students in that group. The leader is Pablo Arian Gonzales from Guadalajara, North America.
Three other members are Monahar Vikram Raj Chauduri Manooj from Punjab, India, Ninochka Stronovsky from Georgia and Ikal from Belitung, Indonesia. His
view about all of the students’ character and traits is presented in a table in the appendix.
107
The students’ attitude which is shown in the table represents the country that they come from as well as their characters. In addition, Ikal says:
Great nations are nations that honor their heroes, and great nations pass on that disposition to their citizens. … Dig a hole, fill a hole, just like the character of
their motherlands. EDE: 103
107
See, Appendix, p. 102
“Great nations pass on that disposition to their citizens,” therefore students who have good intelligence and achievement come from great nations. On the
contrary, for other nations that “dig a hole, fill a hole” are group of students who are always “late, messy, uneasy and trying frantically to catch up”. EDE: 94
From Ikal’s description about students in his class, it shows his view about people from Britain, German, Holland, France, America, India, and also the
Jewish and Chinese. In relation to the colonialist ideology, Ikal shows the superiority of some Europeans and Americans intelligent students who have ideas
to change the world. Meanwhile, some Asian students and those who come from a pocket of poverty in developing countries, are described as having the opposite
quality, and their ideas pass the subjects albeit the minimum passing score. As a result, he becomes the member of “The Pathetic Four” and characterizes its
members as the ones who are “always late, messy, uneasy and trying frantically to catch up”. This description is in line with the construction of the colonized
inferiority as being savage, backward and undeveloped based on the colonizers superiority assumptions.
However, there is one activity that can unite them all, i.e. pub crawling. As Ikal states:
Although we always competed, it was only academically. After the deathly battle, we leapt into student’s café, Brigandi et Bougreesses. The meaning of the
café’s name, more or less was Mr. Brigandi and his mistresses. It was located at the corner of Sorbonne. At that café we joked and laughed asone family. Every
Friday, we tried to forget all of the lecture’s assignments and did the ritual, pub crawling. We crawled from one pub to another pub around Paris until three
o’clock in the morning.
108
[My translation]
108
Meskipun kami saling bersaing tajam, semuanya hanya secara akademik. Setelah pertempuran habis-habisan, kami menghambur ke kafe mahasiswa Brigandi et Bougreesses, artinya kurang lebih Pak Brigandi dan gundik-gundiknya, di
pojok Sorbonne. Disana kami bercanda laksana satu keluarga. Setiap Jumat, kami melupakan tugas kuliah yang menggunung dengan melakukan ritual pub crawling: merayap dari pub ke pub seputar Paris, sampai pukul tiga pagi. EDI:
112
On pub crawling ritual, he also takes American and European as the leading students. Although they ignored the usual accepted ways of behaving which is
always dictated in his life, they are outstanding students in class. Meanwhile he himself, a student who always tries to become obedience with a good character, is
rarely able to be equal with them academically. He explains this through his own contemplation:
Sometimes, I was amazed at the Brit, the Yankee, the German and Holland friends. They were the leading pub crawler and really loved to get drunk. Got
drunk since Friday evening and stayed sober on Monday morning. Most of their lifestylewas like a bohemian, such as nose piercing, a drug addict, trash metal
music and unusual sex orientation. I never saw them study seriously. But, they got sterling achievements. Conversely, I…who lived appropriately based on
Dasa Dharma Pramuka, Ten Commandments for the Indonesian Scout to behave, and obeyed my parents’ order, always studied hard and never forgot to
drink milk, rarely got better grade than them.
109
[My translation]
Therefore, whether it is academic or pub crawling, the superior is always the European and American. Then, he considers rethinking about a proper “self” for
him to be an outstanding student, since good behaviour based on his culture as a Belitung natives does not really support him to be an excellent student in
Sorbonne. Although Ikal concludes himself not as an outstanding student, he praises
women warmly. He describes himself as a man who understands about women’s weaknesses and how to adore them. He tells about a British woman with her
obnoxious behaviour, Naomi Stansfield who is also the prominent figure in British students group:
The swing of her hips, every time when she entered the classroom, I regarded her intently. I knew that she enjoyed the way I regarded her fashion style.
Because she walked by smiling cheerfully. … Others were curious because I could get along with her, who had obnoxious behavior. Whereas the secret is
109
Sering aku heran. Kawan-kawanku The Brits, Yankee, kelompok Jerman, dan Belanda adalah para pub crawler kawakan. Mereka senang bermabuk-mabukan. Tak jarang mereka mabuk mulai Jumat sore dan baru sadar Senin pagi. Sebagian
hidup seperti bohemian, mengaitkan anting di hidung, mencandu drugs, music trash metal, berorientasi seks ganjil, dan tak pernah terlihat tekun belajar, namun mereka sangat unggul di kelas. Aku yang hidup sesuai dengan tuntutan Dasa Dharma
Pramuka, taat pada perintah orang tua, selalu belajar dengan giat dan tak lupa minum susu, jarang dapat melebihi nilai mereka. EDI: 112
simple: compliment. For some women, compliment became the spot of their weakness. It was like an armpit hair in Benyamin’s movie Tarzan Kota that
became his weakness. When it was shaved, the muscular strength of his body was gone.
110
[My translation]
Moreover, an idol in his class chooses him to be her lover. She is Katja from German. Many men are madly in love with her, but she makes her choice to Ikal.
Then, he willingly and proudly accepts her:
All this time I had only watched over people fight over Katja. … I myself couldn’t believe it, much less could they. I hadn’t joined in battle and yet had
won the war. I was like a little child finding a diamond ring in a pack of watermelon seeds. Ah, this wasn’t real, wasn’t possible.” EDE: 107- 108
Ikal really enjoys having a love-relationship with Katja and knowing the jealous gaze from other men:
For weeks I worked on controlling myself around Katja. After I was pretty well trained, and along with the jealous gaze of MVRJ Manooj and Gonzales, I
routinely bezooked her at her apartment, accompanying her as she watched Tom and Jerry cartoons, her favourite activity. We enjoyed the appeal of turning a
friend into a lover, it turned out to be an exhilarating process. Moreover, she always called me my man, making me feel handsome, feel as if I had become a
Celtic Knight in the highlander legend, protector of the farmers from villains. I called her, God I can’t believe it, baby. When I said it, my stomach felt like it
was being tickled. EDE: 110
It becomes his victory as marginalized natives and as the member of the marginalized group. Although academically he is not an excellent student, he
defeats all men from many countries on becoming the lover of the woman idol in his class, who is a European woman. She becomes the symbol of victory that
shows the hybrid in the context of interbreeding between the “white” and the native Belitung-Malay since he is a Europeanized “native”.
Ikal’s displacement takes him into the “in-betwenness” condition. As a native who lives in Europe, he falls in cross-cultural exchange. Having his
impression and adoration of Europe, his consciousness as a native is subjugated.
110
Setiap melenggang ke dalam kelas, aku tahu, Stansfield menikmati tatapan kagumku pada pakaiannya. Ia tersenyum berbunga-bunga.…Banyak yang heran bagaimana aku bisa akrab dengan Stansfield yang sengak itu. Padahal rahasianya
gampang, yaitu pujian.Pujian bagi wanita tertentu, tak ubahnya ketiak Benyamin Tarzan Kota, di situlah titik lemahnya. EDI:97
His condition refers to hybridity as Bhabha states: “[..] it is the name for the strategic reversal of the process of domination through disavowal”.
111
There is not the “pure” and original identity because colonialism has contaminated the
identity of the colonizers and also the colonized. Thus, the hybrid is between his origin as a Belitung-Malays and the European values that he adopts. He faces the
two choices: for having a double consciousness or having his originality as a native. The main character’s hybridity shows the relationship between the
colonizers and the colonized which is ambivalent. Since as the colonial subject, he never simply and completely opposes to the colonizer.
Meanwhile, although Ikal classifies himself as part of the marginalized and the inferior colonized when he studies in Sorbonne, he makes his ambitious
dream comes true. Then, when he returns home, he is able to overvalue himself compared to other natives. He has seen the world outside Belitung and gained
something to be proud of. Because of his experience of life and education outside Belitung, he feels proud of himself. He assumes himself as a superior contrasted
to mostly natives. This is the result of his hybridity process. He chooses to adopt the European values for becoming superior over the natives.
Furthermore, in completing his life mosaics based on Mr. Balia’s statement in the senior high school, he pursues his paths by following European
scientists who are able to change civilization. By exploring, discovering, and studying in Europe to pursue the paths of people who are able to change
civilization, are the way to achieve the echo in eternity. Since they could change civilization, their achievements always become a reminiscence of the world
development.
111
Bhabha, p. 112
Therefore, the result of his journey on shaping his life mosaics is, becoming a Europeanized “native”. Physically, he is a Belitung-Malay, but
ideologically he affirms the European ideas, ideals and experiences as the normal and the universal. It shows the hybrid life of the main character through “mental
miscegenation” that he gets from his formal education. Furthermore, based on Orientalism, the construction of European thinking about the East is controlled by
a certain power to create and maintain the construction. Hence, the education becomes means of colonialist control.
3. The Journey Aftermath
