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english patient

            Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient focuses a great deal on the theme of identity. The destruction and reconstruction of the character's identities are found mainly through the physical bodies of the characters and the environments they reside in. The four main characters in Ondaatje's novel, Hana, Almasy, Kip and Carvaggio, all find that the absent personas they possess are revived through the mutual colonization of each other's bodies and the surroundings they all share. The body of each individual character becomes the defining features of their identities. They are defined by certain physical characteristics such as Carvaggio's lack of thumbs for example. He is first and foremost recognized for this because it is an immediate association to the loss of his youth and therefore part of his identity. Hana's self-identity is unrecognized in her own eyes. She is unable to celebrate and enjoy the beauty of her body. Her lack of identity in the beginning stems from her tragic past. She has lost all those whom she loves and as a result feels as though she herself has lost an identity, which would explain her refusal to look into any mirrors for over a year. Kip and the English Patient share many similar character traits. They are both "international bastards-born in one place and choosing to live elsewhere" (176) and they feel a loss of connection with their national identities. For Almasy, the desert becomes a place of refuge from his feelings of not belonging. Kip's rebellious character seeks answers to where he truly belongs because he feels as though he has abandoned his nationality. All the characters are dealing with the struggle to maintain and rebuild their identities after the traumas of war. They are brought together in the Italian villa in order to recapture their sense of belonging in the world and to regain an understanding of who they really are. .
             Identity and nationality tie the characters to certain places and times regardless of their repeated attempts to avoid such confinements.


Essays Related to english patient

1. English Patient

This is certainly a game that the reader of The English Patient can appreciate. ... The English patient is sweeping his tracks from his narrative even as he relates it. ... Yet he is less concerned with identifying the English patient than with the "meadows of civilisation" (294) he represents as the spokesman of "English" culture. ... And maps are the things that the English patient most wants to live without. ... This desire for erasure is present throughout the English patient's narrative, as he attempts to cover hi...

  • Word Count: 6215
  • Approx Pages: 25
  • Grade Level: High School

2. English Patient

In Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, the lives of several characters, particularly Hana (a Canadian nurse), Count Laszlo de Almasy (the English patient), Kip (a Sikh bomb dismanteler), and Caravaggio (a thief by profession) are shaped by their involvement in World War II (Italy 1944), and act as a catalyst for the relationships that develop between them. ... The novel actually contains two love stories - the sacred and the profane: one in the desperation of Italy at the end of World War II as Hana's devotion to the English patient reflects on a pure and worthy kind of love. .....

  • Word Count: 1594
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

3. National Identity in The English Patient

Throughout The English Patient, Kip struggles to choose whether he should follow his family's culture or adopt a new, more modern western lifestyle, while the English Patient chooses to abandon national identity as a whole and live a convoluted life of uncertainty. ... The English Patient's identity crisis is multidimensional, for he neglects to remember neither where he was from nor what he looked like. The English Patient seems to have no particular interest in national identity, and even finds it to be restrictive. ... Through this quote, it is evident that The English Patient i...

  • Word Count: 941
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. Cultural Issues in Patient Care

She builds trust with her patients by keeping eye contact, and paying very close attention to what the patient says. ... Patient comfort was also at the top of her agenda. ... Another example of her accommodating personality was when she had a patient who did not speak English. ... Nestor from greeting the patient as any other. ... In order to improve doctor-patient interactions, to better serve the patient, I feel it is necessary to hear the patient's side of the story. ...

  • Word Count: 1354
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography

5. Structure Created Through Confusion-The English Patient

At Central Queensland University, there is a Postmodern Literature course and one of the focused novels is The English Patient. ... The English patient allows Hana to care for him, and Hana needs to feel needed. ... The English patient relives his entire history through storytelling, and Ondaatje reveals Kip's future. ... In essence, many critics express that The English Patient lacks structure, but it is in fact the contrary. For example, Mary Weems critiques The English Patient, stating: "[there is] a complex, splintered structure as the action jumps between the North African deser...

  • Word Count: 1384
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

6. Cultural Issues in Patient Care

She builds trust with her patients by keeping eye contact and paying very close attention to what the patient says. ... When she was deciding on how to go about treating a patient she would always take into consideration the patient's feelings and opinions. ... Another example of her accommodating personality was when she had a patient who did not speak English. ... How can doctors create a safer environment for patients? ... In order to improve doctor-patient interactions to better serve the patient I feel it is necessary to get inside of the patients mind and hear their sides of the sto...

  • Word Count: 1431
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. English Patinet

"The English! ... The English patient is burned past any recognition and without any idea of who he is. ... Hana tends the English patient with supererogatory devotion, washing him, dressing his burns, giving him shots of morphine, listening to his stories, reading to him from the English books she finds in the villa library. ... The English patient's love to Katharine transcends past physical, and he feels insane when he is not with her. ... His identity follows him even after he is burned beyond recognition, when Caravaggio realizes that the English patient is not even English. ...

  • Word Count: 2010
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Learning English

Learning English Before I immigrated to USA, I believed that I would progress fast in my English when I live in this country because most Americans are native English speakers. ... He can speak real English even though he doesn't understand any English grammar rules and can't write and read any English words. ... I guess maybe I would improve my oral English quickly if I only model native English speakers without thinking of anything. When I read and write in English, I need more time to think. ... Nobody can patiently wait a long time for me to read and write something. ...

  • Word Count: 283
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

9. English in America: Should it be the Official Language?

A couple of years ago, I went to the grocery store with my uncle. After shopping around for whatever it was we were looking for, we ended up waiting in an unbearably long line because the store was so crowded. We found ourselves behind a middle-aged white man in front of us with a Hispanic mother w...

  • Word Count: 1886
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

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