English Patient Mini-Essays

Novel to Film:
The novel and the film, although similar, have several differences, like most novel and film collations. The novel focuses more on the English Patient in the present while injured. The film tends to focus a great deal on the English patient before his crucial accident. The English patient, in the present or from the book, is suffering from an accident and is burned badly on his entire body. The accident happened while he was trying to get his lover, Katharine, out of the desert so that she could have a proper burial. Almásy is not very secretive about his past in the novel though. As time goes by, Almásy tells more and more about his background to Hana. This is another difference. In the film, the English patient does not tell very much about his background, but lets Hana read from his book that he has kept, and eventually tells Caravaggio the truth of his background in the end. Almásy is a very in depth character, and this is expressed in both the film and the novel.

Love:
One of the themes in the novel is Love. Love is shown in many situations. It is shown through Hana and Kip, Almásy and Katherine, Katherine and Geoffrey, Kip and his “family”, Hana and her patients, Hana and her father, and Hana and her fellow troops. Hana expresses love for many people, except different kinds of love. For her family, friends, and the English patient, it is a friendly love. But for Kip, she expresses and intimate love. Although this intimate love is eventually broken, I feel that this kind it is the strongest of all types. Although love that I feel is the strongest in the book, is the love between Almásy and Katherine. Even though their relationship breaks many rules, it is possibly the greatest love that I have ever seen. The fact that Almásy never gave up on Katherine was heart-warming. I feel that their relationship showed true love, unlike the relationship of Katherine and Geoffrey. Love can be expressed many different ways, but however it is expressed, it is still beautiful.

Motifs:
The novel displays several motifs such as fire and burning, gardens, and the desert. I feel that each motif represents a larger idea. Fire represents the end of life. When Almásy was burned in the plane fire, I feel his soul ended. Almásy “burned the acacia twig” in the cave for Katharine, which eventually went out, symbolizing Katherine while dying. Once the fire is out, life is ceased. Another motif, gardens, represents rebirth. In the beginning of the novel, Hana gardens as the war had just ended. This example shows rebirth to her life and soul as the war comes to an end and she moves on to a new chapter in her life. Also, when Katherine wants to be buried in her garden, she says that because she feels that this is where she once felt alive and free. Once again showing rebirth. The desert represents life and all of its sufferings. The sand storms represent all of life’s obstacles and how they are unpreventable, and unexpected. Walking through the desert may be hard, but it is just like living life day to day. Fire, gardens, and the desert, the book’s motifs, all represent something deeper than what they appear to be.