Essay Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient - 2406 Words

Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient World War II was a traumatic and life-changing experience for all who lived through the time period. Michael Ondaatje’s novel, The English Patient is set in the direct aftermath of this turbulent and violent era. Each of his characters is effected by the death and violence that go hand in hand with war; Hana in particular is profoundly changed by her experience as a nurse in an Italian hospital. Hana is a woman in ruins, both physically and mentally; by looking at her experiences with death and her relationships to the English Patient, Kip, and her surroundings, she can be seen as a representative of the victims of war, a complex human face on the backdrop of the†¦show more content†¦He also recalls an incident that hints to the future of her fears and doubts. He recalls that she was in the hospital to have her tonsils removed and she threw a fit when the operation was to begin and that â€Å"this, the most adaptable and genial of children, suddenly turned into a stone of refusal, adamant† (Ondaatje 30). Caravaggio thinks the incident an odd one, but it reflects her future fear of death. In his book, Richard Schulz, a scholar specializing in grief and the psychology of death, says that humans fear death because of the fear of not being, and that â€Å"the idea of nothingness can arouse anxiety so general that it influences our entire lives† (Schulz 20). Hana’s refusal to have her tonsils removed is not just a silly childish fear, but one that reflects her deep-rooted fear of death; it is a hint of what is to come. She will base her entire life on her fear/aversion to death after the war. When traumatic events happen to Hana, her fear of death is aroused, and it affects her deeply and psychologically. A normal twenty year old â€Å"girl†, Hana is traumatized by the death and violence she experiences as a nurse in the second World War. She is profoundly affected by the deaths of three loved ones and by the deaths of anonymous strangers who pass through her life daily. The first of these traumatic experiences is the separation from her family. Sibela Zvizdic, a Hungarian psychiatristShow MoreRelatedEssay on Michael Ondaatjes The English Patient971 Words   |  4 PagesMichael Ondaatjes The English Patient The limited character in Michael Ondaatje’s novel, The English Patient, was Almà ¡sy. Almà ¡sy was a man who was burned from head to toe, and whose identity is unrecognizable thus making him a limited character. The novel takes place in a villa where the man was being taken care of by Hana, a young nurse who stayed behind to take care of Almà ¡sy while the rest of the nurses escaped to a safer place to stay. 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