The English Patient Essay, Research Paper
The Motif of the Desert in The English Patient
Michael Ondaatje & # 8217 ; s The English Patient is the narrative of four different people & # 8217 ; s experiences and how they came to populate together in a little Villa in Italy during World War II. The novel is abundant in symbolism, and the imagination brings the scenes to life. The novel is besides filled with motives. Probably the most frequent motive Ondaatje uses is the desert. The motive of the desert appears in the novel to carry through one of two things: to stand for features of English patient, or to reenforce the subject of states.
The most frequently usage of the desert motive is to typify an facet or feature of the English patient. On several occasions, the enormousness of the desert is emphasized. The English patient remarks that & # 8220 ; If a adult male leaned back a few inches he would vanish into darkness & # 8221 ; ( 143 ; ch. 4 ) . He besides mentions that & # 8220 ; The desert was ever among us & # 8221 ; ( 145 ; ch. 4 ) . The construct of the great sweep of the desert represents multiple facets of the English patient. Both his apparently infinite cognition base and incredible life experiences could be described as huge. Possibly this is because of the ways in which the English patient has been influenced by the desert. In the desert & # 8220 ; . . . it is easy to lose a sense of limit & # 8221 ; and to be greatly changed by tracking its great distances ( 18 ; ch. 1 ) . The desert is subsequently described as a topographic point where
& # 8220 ; . . . nil was strapped down or lasting, everything drifted. . . & # 8221 ; ( 22 ; ch. 1 ) . This is so descriptive of the English patient & # 8217 ; s being for in his life-time he loses many thing near to him: Katherine, whom he love greatly, Madox, a close friend, and even his individuality is lost to the desert. Another statement made about the desert asserts that it & # 8220 ; . . . could non be claimed or owned & # 8221 ; ( 138 ; ch. 4 ) . The English patient excessively can non be claimed or owned because he does non even cognize who he his: his individuality is a enigma to all. However, the desert has caused the English patient to lose more than his name: he has been drastically changed by it.
After passing ten old ages in the desert, the English patient is a shadow of his former ego. Of class, he is still really intelligent and observant ; nevertheless, much of himself has been lost. The English patient himself says that & # 8220 ; . . . in the emptiness of comeuppances you are ever surrounded by lost history & # 8221 ; ( 135 ; ch. 4 ) . While he was mentioning to the many mobile folks that pass through the part, this can besides be applied to the burned plane and Clifton & # 8217 ; s and Katherine & # 8217 ; s organic structures which are everlastingly lost in history. That is, really few will of all time hear their narrative. Everything the English patient experiences in the desert is really short lived, and this is compared to the trouble in happening an ample sum of H2O. The English patie
nt speaks of H2O as the ” . . . shade between your custodies and your mouth” and notes that “In the desert you celebrate nil but water” ( 19 ; ch. 1 | 23 ; ch. 1 ) . This strengthens the thought that nil in the desert is lasting, and everything is valuable. In this sense, the desert represents non merely the English patient’s life, but life in general. At least, it speaks to the fact that many things in life are non lasting and that life is invariably altering, much like the desert. After one of the English patient’s long and hard journeys through the desert, he arrives at a metropolis and receives “ . . . this new universe easy, as if coming out of a drowning” ( 138 ; ch. 4 ) . Even now, marks that the desert is altering him are going more and more evident. However, the greatest alteration that the English patient exhibits is loss in the religion of states. The English patient is a adult male who one time lived for states. He was a undercover agent for Germany, after all, so states were his occupation. The complex diplomatic negotiations and political relations that were a portion of the web of confederations that were pulled into World War II, were subjects that he concerned himself with. However, the desert alterations that wholly. The English patient says that “ . . . after 10 old ages in the desert, it was easy for me to steal across boundary lines, non to belong to anyone, to any nation” ( 139 ; ch. 4 ) . He besides says straight, “I came to detest nations” ( 138 ; ch. 4 ) . This shows that he so has been changed by states: a complete reversal of his old function. Not merely the English patient, but besides his friend Madox loses involvement in states and finally kills himself because of it. The English patient remarks that “Madox died because of nations” ( 138 ; ch. 4 ) . He becomes enchanted by the desert: by both the alien names of unusual land characteristics and the assortment of mobile groups that travel its apparently eternal sweep. He is besides tired of the war and is get downing to see its futility. At one point, he exclaims “Erase the household name! Erase nations! I was taught such things by the desert” ( 139 ; ch. 4 ) . This is what genuinely causes the English patient to lose his individuality, non the plane clang or his extended Burnss, but the alteration he undergoes through his stay in the desert.
The motive of the desert appears legion times and with different readings. However, it is clear that the desert is seen as a topographic point with the power to alter work forces wholly. The intent of the desert was to stress the English patient & # 8217 ; s hard life experiences, to demo how he was changed, and to assist depict why he acts as he does in the present. Hana, Caravaggio, and Kip believe that the English patient has amnesia or that his traumatic experience has caused his memory loss ; nevertheless, as Caravaggio notes, why does he so retrieve his whole life narrative. The fact is, the English patient ne’er forgets who he is: he merely wishes he would.
