The English Patient Written by Michael Ondaatje - Essay Example

? The English Patient The English Patient Every four days she washes his black body, beginning at the destroyed feet…Above the shins the burns are worst. Beyond purple. Bone. She has nursed him for months and she knows the body well, the penis sleeping like a sea horse, the thin tight hips. Hipbones of Christ, she thinks. He is her despairing saint. He lies flat on his back, no pillow, looking up at the foliage painted onto the ceiling, its canopy of branches, and above that, blue sky. Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient ‘The English Patient’ written by Michael Ondaatje is a story set against the backdrop of war and humanity. It talks about how Hana, a young nurse, spends most of her time with a patient whom she grows to care a lot about. Despite not knowing his name or his identity, she tries to heal his body which has been burned black in carnage by a plane crash. Little by little, as the story unfurls, the patient is revealed to be Almasy and his story consists of a desperate plea to hang on to his nationality while forging his identity so that he would not get caught during the war by the enemy. This paper helps to provide an insight into the story by harping on the meaning and importance of nationalism and identity as described by the author, with the help of suitable quotes and explanations. Identity is the way by which an individual understands his affiliation towards a particular way of life and thought process; it teaches a person about the gender, race or caste that he belongs to and helps him identify with other people belonging to the same. In the English Patient, the author’s writings against the backdrop of the Second World War in the 1990’s helps the reader to comprehend the very notion of identity by helping to understand how western imperialism and colonial domination disposed people belonging to different races and cultures around the world, and brought them to believe that being white and superior is the only way to living a substantial life. Throughout the story it may be witnessed that the characters have succumbed to such thinking and through the eyes of Almasy and Kip, they have thrown away their personal identities and nationalism just to be accepted by the western class. Almasy was forced to succumb to the desert however he does this only be forging his identity by way of his characteristics and interactions with the people around him. The isolated villa where the patient has been trapped, as well as the desert is a place where one would not care about personal identity as such because it is irrelevant. For Hana as well, it was not important to know who she was trying to heal or care about; all she knew was that she was doing her job as it involved taking care of sick patients. The actual identity of the ‘English Patient’ is not to be known to anyone because the colour of his skin has been burned away because of the crash and just like the desert, he is without fixed contours. In reality, the man is from Hungary even though he is mistaken to be English. The author writes, “He had rambled on, driving them mad, traitor or ally, leaving them never quite sure who he was” (p.96). Furthermore, Kip, the Indian Sikh bomb diffuser, was also caught up in the flurry of identity because he came from a country where at the time, people were forced to obey the rules laid down by the British and thus, he became extremely used to westernised ideas and a western way of living life - something he did at the cost of his own racial identity. The author has tried to explain through these circumstances that people change their identities because they feel that they will be accepted more in society. Kip was under the impression that Hana would only love him, or he would be accepted in her life only if he westernized his way of living for her. However, it is important to note that at a time like a war raging among various countries in the world, it is important to stay true to one’s national identity for the sake of patriotism. A man cannot escape from his nationality during such a crucial moment and should prize his nation above everything else. This is the reality that strikes both Almasy as well as Kip, in the desert and in the Italian villa, respectively. The characters take some time to realise that they are bound by their national identity and that it takes over their lives in a way that they have no control over the same. Kip hears about the news of the atomic bomb and that reminds him of the fact that western aggression has been crushing Asians and killing his people for a long time now and he must do something to stop the same instead of helping it further. Almasy at the same time gets into trouble because of his name and people find out that he is simply called the ‘English Patient’ whereas he is not even English in the first place. “We were German, English, Hungarian, African - all of us insignificant to them. Gradually we became nationless. I came to hate nations.” (p. 138) The desert, as discussed above, defies and transcends all boundaries because of its shapelessness. It cannot be claimed or owned by a single aspect of humanity and can only be defined by its in-definability. It helps to highlight the various notions of differences that persist among human beings and what separates their national characters from one another. He writes that people lost their sense of identity in the desert because of the helplessness that they were encompassed in the midst of. The English patient tells the readers that he lost all his sense of identity when he was lost in the desert and was not able to concentrate on anything but getting out of there. At that point thus, he found it imperative to adorn a different identity just so that he could escape from the clutches of recklessness. Kip on the other hand destroyed his own cultural and national identity by believing in the western culture and defying his own brother and family. Ondaatje writes, “Then he descended, down into the great white chalk horse of Westbury, into the whiteness of the horse, carved into the hill.” (p. 181) In conclusion, The English Patient truly helps the readers to come to a revelation as the identity of the patient is revealed slowly, with time. Along with the same, his spiritual as well as inner self is also revealed to the readers as he understands that he must never give up on his personal and national identity as he had done in the past. Ondaatje has slowly revealed secrets throughout the course of this book, in ‘flashes of lightning’. Despite this, the author has tried to provide some mystery within the novel as he does not reveal everything. He leaves the end up to the minds of the readers and lets them decide for themselves with regard to the personal identity of the English patient and whether or not he will revert back to his old ways. Thus, the author has, through the eyes of the various protagonists, tried to explain how it is difficult for some people to accept their identities with respect to society around them. Sometimes, people try to conform to the people around them and lose out on their own perspectives about life. However, through this story, one is taught how not to give up on himself, especially when it comes to a personal and national identity. . Works Cited Ondaatje, M. (1992). The English Patient. England: McClelland and Stewart. Read More