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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page essay that discusses the theme of nationalism in Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient, which tells a psychologically complex narrative in which the themes of nationality and identity are interwoven. The web of relationships, issues and circumstances that are associated with the theme of nationality, within the context of World War II, serves to interconnect the lives of the principal characters and also underscores the various ways in which they each perceive nationality, internationality and the roles of these concepts in their lives. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khengpn.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
nationality, within the context of World War II, serves to interconnect the lives of the principal characters and also underscores the various ways in which they each perceive nationality, internationality
and the roles of these concepts in their lives. In particular, Ondaatje focuses on his protagonist, the English patient, in exploring the complex nuances of nationalism. However, the narrative
and perspective of the minor characters also illuminate this novels thematic message. First of all, however, an examination of how this topic is handled in reference to the English patient
himself sets the parameters for the topic, in general, within the novel. Hana, his nurse, is the first to bring up the issue of nationality by referring to her
burn patient as the "English patient" due to the manner of his speech. This is indicative of the way in which nationality serves to define people, as it offers a
ready basis for identity. However, this identification is an assumption, as the man himself is a mystery. It is later revealed that he is, in fact, Hungarian. In
his analysis, Bill Fledderus points to the several instances where Ondaatje employs images drawn from Arthurian legend in order to illuminate the way in which the English patient becomes a
blank slate for the imaginings of those around him, particularly Hana. Myth "crosses international boundaries and offers apparently timeless or continually reinterpretable truths" (Fledderus 20). Myth is also "appealing to
those whose personal boundaries of identity and ethnicity are being re-drawn" due to migration (Fledderus 20). At the beginning of the novel, the English patient is an enigma, an unknown,
so he can easily become whoever the other characters imagine him to be. Hana, first of all, labels him as "English," but also imposes on him the romantic assumptions drawn
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