The English Patient

by Michael Ondaatje

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The English Patient

Caravaggio's cut thumbs in The English Patient symbolize the dehumanizing effects of World War II. His mutilation represents the physical and emotional scars inflicted by the war. The loss of thumbs,...

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The English Patient

The novel relates to postmodernism primarily through its narrative structure, which resembles a collage rather than a chronological sequence. It presents a series of non-sequential memories from four...

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The English Patient

The symbol of the desert in The English Patient represents László Almásy's lack of national identity. Gilf Kebir, a desert plateau in North Africa where Almásy spends much of the 1930s, cannot be...

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The English Patient

The author uses the recollections of each character, providing an insight into their private thoughts and emotions. The author is also able to present a dead character's voice giving us more...

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The English Patient

Explicit metafiction in The English Patient occurs when the author, Michael Ondaatje, disrupts the narrative reality, such as shifting narrative voices without clear indicators like quotation marks,...

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The English Patient

Hana's father's death is first revealed in chapter 2 of The English Patient. In chapter 3, Hana tells Caravaggio that her father died, and he reveals to her that he already knew. In chapter 4,...

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The English Patient

In The English Patient and Green Grass, Running Water, storytelling techniques such as fragmented narratives and multiple perspectives are employed. These techniques allow for a richer, more complex...

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The English Patient

Derrida's concepts of play and supplementation illuminate Ondaatje's The English Patient by exploring themes of identity and narrative structure. Supplementation is evident as Almásy's modified copy...

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