The motif of dysfunction
Many of these observations are related in this way: they form a motif about dysfunction. The portrayal of dysfunction comes in depictions of alcoholism, chronic untreated mental health issues, unethical behavior, and chronic isolation. These form an enemy in Mervyn's mind out of his own loved ones. He doesn't know how to relate to people, dysfunctional as he is.
The symbol of alcohol
Alcohol represents a kind of religious fetish to Mervyn, because alcohol is his lone companion in his long days of processing guilt and trauma, not to mention his struggle for peace in the maelstrom of loneliness and depression. Alcohol symbolizes hope to Mervyn, but to the reader, it should symbolize the opposite. Alcohol is a jail cell that becomes more inescapable the more he depends on it.
The archetypal journey
This journey is archetypal, because it pertains to a son's attempt to re-encounter the spirit of his dead father, which is a mythic motif that goes back literally as far as human imagination. That is because one hundred percent of parents die. Ironically, for Ondaatje's journey, the journey is more about death than his father's life, per say, because death is the real frame for the whole endeavor in the first place.
Matisse
There is a symbolic allusion in the novel to the famous painter Henri Matisse. To a student of art, the allusion is clear: Just as Matisse saw layers of sublime meaning implied on the real world, so also, Ondaatje (and his prose) discover sublime layers of meaning on the same subject: the verdant Asian jungles of the East. The allusion is transcendental and sublime.
The symbolic betrayal
The verdict of Ondaatje against his father is that, sometimes his father would be so confused in his suffering that he would commit actions that a sensible person might find dishonorable, or at least irresponsible. Irresponsible of what responsibility? To sacrifice for one's family. The epitome of this is the symbolic betrayal of Mervyn against his parents, when he lies to them and takes their money for himself. As a symbol, this makes Mervyn a kind of "Prodigal Son," so to speak.
