Running In The Family Ondaatje Analysis

In my opinion, the central theme of Running in the Family is that a person's environment builds their identity; because, throughout the entire memoir, Ondaatje clearly values his memories and family as he wrote, "I realized I would be travelling back to the family I had grown from- those relations from my parent's generation who stood in my memory like a frozen opera," which hints the reader that the author always has his past in mind.
Ondaatje puts great importance in his family history and therefore romanticizes characters such as his father and his grandmother to portray the theme of environment affecting one's identity. An example of the author idealizing his family is his grandmother: Lalla; despite Lalla hiding a body from the authorities,