5 mini essays

Adrian Zarifis
1. An ultimately important theme in The English Patient is the idea of “hero’s journey.” It can be argued that each character in the story progresses through a personal hero’s journey. Kip stands out as the primary anti-hero for a few reasons. Kip’s life is defined by his profession. He disarms bombs and is in constant danger of death. His revealed past is one full of the loss of those close around him. From early on he grew up separated from his culture and family while he learned his trade. One landmark experience throughout this period of time was the loss of his teacher, Lord Suffolk. Kip is hardened by his history of loss and therefore creates an emotional barrier between himself and the world around him. Another anti-heroic quality that Kip faces is the natural fact that he is Indian. This unchangeable difference enforces this barrier between himself and his environment. In the conclusion of the novel, the Americans drop the atomic bomb on Japan, and Kip is forced to consider the relationship he has with all of the other white residents of the villa. He is unable to maintain a relationship with the other residents including his lover Hana after this event and at this point we see his anti-heroic downfall. Kip leaves the villa in a fit of anger and we see him in a future devoid of white people. He is comfortable living with his Indian wife and children but still has distant thoughts about the life he didn’t pursue.
2. The theme of isolation is prevalent throughout the novel. Isolation is everywhere, in each character and setting. The larger example of isolation is the villa itself. The villa is located in a war-torn section of Italy with “Florence and her lights in the distance.” Civilization is right around the corner yet the villa is still isolated in its own way. Mines are nearly everywhere and a lifestyle of isolation may be the only refuge from being blown apart. This idea of isolation is also important in terms of characterization. Each character is isolated in some way from his/her fellow characters. Kip is the most obvious example of this isolation but I already mentioned him so I will use Hana to exemplify this idea. Hana is isolated in the sense that her entire life is focused on caring for a man she hardly even knows. We don’t know anything about her past that may help to shed some light on her reasons until the end of the story. The mystery behind this fact is overwhelming and it is only when we realize that Hana’s father was a burn victim that we understand her reasons. She was separated from him during his time of suffering and it can be inferred that her caring for Almasy is her form of repentance for not being present to care for her father.
3. Caravaggio was constantly diverted by the human element during burglaries. Breaking into a house during Christmas, he would become annoyed if he noticed the Advent calendar had not been opened up to the date to which it should have been. He often had conversations with the various pets left alone in houses, rhetorically discussing meals with them, feeding them large helpings, and was often greeted by them with considerable pleasure if he returned to the scene of the crime.
This quote stands out as an incredible use of comical elements to create a vivid characterization. The reader is forced to completely align with Caravaggio from this point onward. Our original perceptions of this character were largely defined by the fact that he was a thief. It is often very easy to ignore the true personality of a character due to an initial idea of that character or their profession. There is nothing honorable from building a lifestyle around stealing things yet we gain a new perception of Caravaggio from this quote. Rather than looking at this character as only a thief, this quote allows the reader to look at the human qualities that are underneath the label of thief. This quote also brings up the larger theme in the novel of the inability to judge a person based upon their appearance. The English patient has the appearance of an extremely vulnerable man yet we learn of a history working for the Germans. Hana is largely motivated by elements that are unknown to those around her. Kip is distant from those around him not only because of his skin color but also because of his trade. These underlying aspects of each character fuel extremely interesting plot and interactions between them.
4. What I find to be most interesting about this book is the fact that Michael Ondaatje chose to take a historic figure and transform him into a fictional character. The English patient who we later discover to be Laszlo Almasy was an actual Hungarian-born explorer who had an actual role in World War II. Throughout his life Almasy was only loyal to one power and that was his home country of Hungary. His work done for the Germans was motivated by his own vast thirst for knowledge of the dessert. All historical accounts point out this fact yet Ondaatje chooses to focus mainly on Almasy’s work for the Germans. We consider Almasy a “bad guy” without really knowing too much about him. One fact I found interesting was his involvement in the saving of several Jewish families’ lives during the time of the concentration camps. It is easy to associate this character with the political views of those he was a mercenary to. Our ultimate idea of Almasy is largely based upon his personal relationship with Katharine in the dessert yet we never learn about his experiences after the war. This image of a mortally burned “black body” lying still on a cot under a painted “canopy of branches” is forever engrained in our minds as readers and it is interesting to consider an entirely different life for this man after the war.
5. After researching Michael Ondaatje a bit I was intrigued to find that there may be some additional personal motivation in the creation of his character Kip. Ondaatje was actually born in Sri Lanka and has Indian roots. He moved early in his life to England and then later to Canada. Each of these settings is incorporated into the novel in some way. I wonder if Ondaatje’s experience in England is somehow paralleled in his character Kip. It is a possibility that the themes of nationality and race were extremely important to Ondaatje growing up and may have influenced his writing style. I was also surprised to find that the characters Hana and Caravaggio appear earlier in Ondaatje’s writing in what is considered the prequel to the English patient. The roots of Caravaggio’s thievery are exposed but neither he nor Hana are the main characters of the earlier novel.