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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

... author derives from a particular set of historical and cultural circumstances, variously connected with the rise of a "system of ownership for texts" (io8). Significantly for the discourse of the English patient, it is only when the "possibility of transgression" becomes inherent in what we would now call "literary" discourse that the Author Function is made a requirement of its dissemination ( ... how Foucault's theory of unconfined discourse might have its harbinger in this text which has swollen to "almost twice its original thickness" (94) with the various additions of the English pat...

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

2. Structure Created Through Confusion-The English Patient

... of knowledge of the events. This style is a strong technique that enables Ondaatje to incorporate historical events into the novel, through fictional characters. Through the four main characters, the English patient (Almásy), Hana, Caravaggio, and Kip, the reader learns about four separate characters, and their paths of bringing them together. Ondaatje intertwines these histories through the characters' ... that Ondaatje uses through the point of view is historical metafiction. Historical metafiction is a cross between "conventional history and pure fiction- (Adhikari). Although many as...

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

3. National Identity in The English Patient

... entirety, but identity goes beyond just ones physical traits. It envelops the roots of ones culture and establishes an individual sense of belonging in the world. The Kip and the English Patient, two prominent characters of the text, are portrayed in specific ways due to where they come from, but each possess numerous meaningful, yet convoluted pieces to a puzzle that when pieced ... different picture of him. It manifests his true feelings about being bounded to one particular culture and that he doesn't want to commit to revealing his true national identity. The English Patient's ident...

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

4. English Patinet

... knows nothing about how they died or where they died. She never obtains a sense of closure after their deaths because she was never able to attend a funeral or a wake. The English patient is burned past any recognition and without any idea of who he is. She initially cares for him so passionately because she believes there is a faint hope that he could ... just got married to a man named Geoffrey Clifton, but decided to start an affair with Almasy. Their love, which begins as purely physical, quickly progresses to something much deeper. The English patient's love to Katharine transcends...

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

5. English Patient

... 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 ... 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. Their story is even reinforced by their existence in a ruined palazzo surrounded by books and a nearby medieval ... us into its tale o...

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

6. The Perfect Medieval English Society

... He knew, and whether dry, cold, moist or hot, He knew their seat, their humor and condition He was a perfect practicing physician (424-432). The Doctor takes advantage of his patient by the mere fact that he is the only one who knows such "valuable knowledge." What's more important is that the Doctor has a clan of pharmacists at hand who, "[give ... with drugs he would prescribe/And each [makes] money from the other's guile"(436-437). What a great way to make easy money! All that the Doctor must do is tell a patient that he has the worst kind of illness and heavily overcharge the price ...

  • Word Count: 1489
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Cultural Issues in Patient Care

... of things preventing them from communicating clearly. Negotiating within a new culture, takes thought and understanding. A huge contributor to the lack of communication between doctor and patient is the cultural incompetence amongst doctors. It is quite apparent that culture plays a large role in shaping each individual's values, beliefs, and behaviors, with regards ... went on the hunt to get extra blankets and pillows for one particular patient, and even helped them adjust the TV station. Another example of her accommodating personality was when she had a patient who did not speak Engl...

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

8. Cultural Issues in Patient Care

... thought and understanding, facilities that go away first when people feel fear and confusion. A huge contributor to the lack of communication between doctor and patient is the cultural incompetence amongst doctors. It is quite apparent that culture plays a large role in shaping each individual's values, beliefs, and behaviors ... went on the hunt to get extra blankets and pillows for one particular patient and even helped them adjust the TV station. Another example of her accommodating personality was when she had a patient who did not speak English. Even with the presence of an interpr...

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

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

... just finished ringing up the woman's items and was trying to tell her the total and ask her payment method. The cashier was being very patient at first and spoke slowly and repeated herself a few times. But, the Hispanic mother was getting frustrated and began to yell at the girl ... you tend to get picked on and teased. School is tough for these kids. Here is what one of these students felt sitting in an all-English speaking classroom: I couldn't believe English could be my only language to use. I continued to mumble. I resisted the teacher's demands. Silent, waiting for the bell to so...

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

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