The English Patient

Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient is the story of four different people's experiences and how they came to live together in a small villa in Italy during World War II. The novel is abundant in symbolism, and the imagery brings the settings to life. The novel is also filled with motifs. Probably the most frequent motif Ondaatje uses is the desert. The motif of the desert appears in the novel to accomplish one of two things: to represent characteristics of English patient, or to reinforce the theme of nations.

The most often use of the desert motif is to symbolize an aspect or characteristic of the English patient. On several occasions, the vastness of the desert is emphasized. The English patient comments that "If a man leaned back a few inches he would disappear into darkness" (143; ch. 4). He also mentions that "The desert was always among us" (145; ch. 4). The concept of the great expanse of the desert represents multiple aspects of the English patient. Both his seemingly infinite knowledge base and unbelievable life experiences could be described as vast. Perhaps this is because of the ways in which the English patient has been influenced by the desert. In the

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Some common words found in the essay are:
War II, Clifton's Katherine's, english patient, Caravaggio Kip, ch 4, English Patient, english patient's, ch 1, 138 ch, 138 ch 4, motif desert, desert english, desert motif, World War, english patient lose, english patient's difficult, patient lose, lost history, english patient , story english patient,
Approximate Word count = 1067
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)