The short story "Squatter" by Rohinton Mistry is set in Firozsha Baag in India. The story centers on an old man, Nariman, known by the children of the A Block neighborhood as a slightly unpredictable, if funny, storyteller. Tell the children the story of Sarosh, a Parsi immigrant from their neighborhood in Toronto, determined to become Canadian in just ten years. However, once the ten-year mark approaches, he finds himself unable to claim he has completed the transition due to his persistent routine of squatting on toilets. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayThe squat is significant in this text considering that both the physical position and the allegorical meaning are used by Mistry to convey the feeling of being trapped by an ideal. The crouching symbol affirms the text's negative view of multiculturalism and presents Canadian immigrants as unwelcome if they cannot fully adhere to the customs of their new home. Mistry uses Sarosh as a vehicle to present a distrust of cross-culturalism in the text. The title of Mistry's story is ambiguous in the sense that Sarosh is physically squatting when using the toilet, and also metaphorically feels like he is squatting in Canada. This physical symbol manifests itself symbolically in more ways than one. First, in Sarosh's feeling of not being welcome because he is not a born Canadian, he sees himself as an intruder because of his peculiar habits. There is never any overt reaction or display of feeling from said Canadians to suggest that he is not welcome, Sarosh simply fabricates this impression based on his beliefs and opinions about himself. For example, “even poor, unhappy Sarosh could sense something foul-smelling in the air: the presence of xenophobia and hostility.” Sarosh literally feels like an alien in a country he has every legal right to be in. Mistry took the innocuous, physical action of the squat and gave it new meaning. The more he finds himself unable to satisfy his own needs as a “real Canadian,” the more his sense of alienation increases. As his sense of alienation increases, he feels more and more like a real squatter, in every sense of the word. Eventually, Sarosh is fired from his job due to the increasing amount of time he spends in the bathroom, locking himself in his house, ceasing to be an active member of society, essentially becoming what he feared he already was. Interestingly, at this moment, Sarosh's story stops and the story returns to Block A, where an angry neighbor interrupts Nariman's tale to express his displeasure at the children's gathering. Not surprisingly, he shouts “this is not a squatter colony” (Mistry, 168). The author uses subtle and specific ways like these to drive home the overall negative feelings towards multiracialism. The squatting analogy is key to demonstrating that Mistry wants to convey a sense of lack of receptivity towards immigrants under the veil of pluralism. This is highlighted in the text: “…ensure that ethnic cultures are able to thrive, so that Canadian society is made up of a mosaic of cultures – that's their favorite word, mosaic – instead of a uniform mix, like the American melting pot. in my opinion, mosaic and melting pot are both nonsense, and ethnic is a polite way of saying damn foreigner. At points like these, the negative attitude towards diversity turns into outright dismissal due to the pressure placed on emigrants towards complete conformity or towards.