Survival

Nicole Bernabei ENG 4U1 Mrs. Salvatore 06-05-2009 Survival in the English Patient The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje is a novel in which four extremely withdrawn people are forced to live in a villa and to depend on one another in order to survive during World War II.  Ondaatje uses flashback sequences, direct questioning and heavy doses of morphine to allow his characters to travel back and forth in time in order to reveal the plot of the novel. By using these techniques, Ondaatje's characters are more open to reveal their true selves to each other. Ondaatje allows the characters to come to the realization that in order to survive they must trust those around them, which can only be achieved by first trusting themselves. Ondaatje opens the novel with a shell-shocked nurse, named Hanna, caring for an extremely wounded man in a small villa. Not knowing what to call the man, he is referred to as the English patient. Ondaatje uses the English patient as a way for Hanna to both avoid and deal with her past. As we travel back and forth through Hanna's memories, we discover that she has lost her father, her husband, and unborn child to the war. We soon discover that the pain of these losses drives Hanna to terminate her pregnancy, which kills a piece of her soul. "I lost the child. I mean I had to lose it. The father was already dead. There was a war" (Ondaatje 82). She becomes hard and cold as a way to protect herself from further losses. "I will survive this. I won't fall apart at this" (48). Believing she can hide from her pain, Hanna consumes herself with her vow to care for the English patient. Hanna's plan of avoidance is soon foiled with the arrival of more people. With their presence, Hanna comes to terms with the fact that she needs other people. "She needed an uncle, a member of the family" (85).  In Caravaggio, she finds a bridge to her past and all of her fears that are hiding there. The English patient serves as an outlet for her desire to be needed. She cannot fail him because he is helpless and will die unless she devotes all of her time to his recovery. In Kip, the sapper, Hanna discovers emotional support, compassion, and intimacy, which are commiserated in the physical sense as well as on an emotional level. The remembrance of Katherine, the English patient's lover, re-ignites a love of life in Hanna and all it has to offer. In the end, Hanna has come to terms with the war and its casualties and has decided to return home to be with her stepmother. Next, we have Caravaggio, a thief turned spy. He comes into Ondaatje's story after hearing that Hanna, a child he knew before the war, is in a small villa caring for a wounded man. Ondaatje uses several flashback sequences with Caravaggio in order to reveal the friendship Caravaggio had with Hanna's father. "Gelato for tonsils, he remembered.  Accompanying a girl and her father to have her tonsils out" (29). This sparks a need to protect Hanna and to save her from herself. Believing that he knows the English and needing to confront the man who has haunted him for many years, Caravaggio flees to the villa. It is here, at the villa, that Caravaggio becomes obsessed with the English patient and revealing his true identity to Hanna and Kip.  Ondaatje uses the spilling of the wine to reveal to the reader that Caravaggio needs a purpose in life or his life becomes worthless. "They assumed he could be useful. So they saved him, but when he was no longer useful they left him" (45).  Through conversations with Hanna, Caravaggio discovers his fear of intimacy and reveals how he lost his thumbs during the war. Through knowledge of Katharine and the true identity of the English patient, Caravaggio learns to forgive the English patient and himself for past crimes. Then we meet Kip, a sapper. He joins this group by simply following the sound of a piano.  Ondaatje reveals Kip's suspicious nature by having him follow Caravaggio. "But two days later Caravaggio stops him and says, Don't follow me again" (73). As Kip deals with the everyday dangers of disarming bombs, he relives childhood memories of his father. He tells of a time when his father would disguise his hands and have Kip distinguish between the different fingers. Ondaatje uses these flashbacks to reveal Kip's strong family bond and his desire to honor them. When his older brother is put in jail, Kip sees no other choice than to join the army in his brother's place. Even after the war, Kip defenses remain up. He feels that he is the only thing that is safe and never allows himself to become attached to anyone. "Later she will realize he never allowed himself to be beholden to her, or her to him" (128). He views his relationship with Hanna to be a temporary arrangement to pass the time. By the end of the war, Kip comes to terms with the fact that the English are never going to change and he feels betrayed.  Not being able to withstand it any longer, Kip gathers his belongings and leaves the villa, traveling against the movement of the war to return home. Ondaatje uses the English patient as a way to tie all of his characters together. They are all at the villa because of him. If Hanna had refused to care for the English patient, Caravaggio never would have went looking for her, Kip would have never heard Hanna playing the piano, and Katherine would never have been introduced to the characters who did not know of her. With the realization that he is out of time, Ondaatje uses the English patient's death bed as a confessional booth. In order to make this transition fluid, Ondaatje adds the existence of the Herodotus, the author of a book in which Almasy has been jotting notes. As the pages are turned, the English patient relives his journey and contemplates the legend he is leaving behind. "It is when we are old, concerned with our name, our legend, what our lives will mean to the future. We become vain" (141).  Ondaatje again continues this confessional by adding in the sedation of morphine mixed with alcohol. The English patient needs to tell this story almost as much as its need to be heard. The English patient longs for his death and the release from his sins. "Do it, Kip. I don't want to hear any more" (285). The reader is introduced to Katharine, our last character, only through the memories of the English patient. At the time she is first mentioned, we learn that she is dead.  Ondaatje uses her death this to show that even in death one can still have a profound effect on the living. Katherine's death goes further to drive the English patient's obsession with her. Not only is he completely in love with her and responsible for the demise of her marriage, but now he is also responsible for her death. "It had been planned as a suicide-murder by her husband that would involve all three of us" (171).  Through the English patient's memories of her we learn of Katherine love for life and her desire to gain new knowledge. We also learn of a woman's need to be seduced not only in the emotional sense, but also in the physical. "She had always wanted words, she loved them, grew up on them" (238). Ondaatje uses the memories of Katharine to bring passion and desire to the novel. He reveals that the only true release from this overwhelming passion is the death of Katherine, and yet, even then he is haunted by her memory. The characters in Ondaatje's novel survive the war by discovering that they each had a story to tell and a past they were hiding from. In order to come to terms with their secrets they had to face them and learn to forgive not only themselves, but each other as well. They learned that along with weapons, food, and shelter of the spirit and the body it also takes a desire to survive: a physical need to live in order to truly do so.