An examination of two books suggests that certain character traits help inoculate people in time of war, better enabling them to withstand the assaults of war. It also suggests that the absence of certain traits makes people vulnerable when they are placed in threatening circumstances. In examining two literary works: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis and The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje three character traits that were necessary i

Faith, courage, discipline and loyalty preserve the soul, though not the body of Lewis’ anonymous hero. The absence of one or more of these traits weakens the spiritual immune system of each of Ondaatje’s leading English Patient characters. Carvaggio faces post-war life lacking confidence and faith. Kip returns to India hating the system that he has given his heart and soul for. At best, he can see himself as a helpless pawn, a victim or a fool. At worst, he can see himself as a willing agent of death and destruction. The English Patient, presumably, dies muddled as much by his own rationalisations as by his morphine. He clings to a love that he uses to excuse acts of personal and collective treachery. Hana finds herself in an extremely vulnerable position as she faces her post-war future. She has abandoned any faith that she ever had in God, her country and her civilisation. She has placed all of her faith, trust and loyalty in the hands of her patient and her lover. This has given her something to live for as the war winds to an end. But when these two abandon her, she has no faith in anything but herself to fall back on. She returns to Canada, completely distrustful of human relationships.

C.S. Lewis deals extensively with the dangers that war poses to the human psyche. In his wartime work entitled The Screwtape Letters, he presents an essentially hopeful view concerning the ability of the soul to survive the assaults of war. He proposes that having the right perspective is the key to the soul’s survival. Lewis deals with a wide variety of temptations that serve to undermine the integrity of man in his journey through life. All of these temptations assert their power to some degree in peacetime. Yet, their power is often strengthened by the pressures of war.

Lewis, C.S. The Screwtape Letters. Great Britain: Fontana Books, 1942

a burned and dying patient. There, he devotes his days to convincing Hana and Kip, the sapper whom Hana loves, to abandon their responsibilities. He urges Hana to leave her dying patient even though there is no one left to care for him. Referring to the Bedoin tribesmen who rescued the burning man, he says, “Those men in the desert were smarter than you. They assumed that he could be useful. So they saved him, but when he was no longer useful, they left him.”(Ondaatje pg. 45) Confiding to Kip, he blames the war on the rich who “ have to follow the rules of their…civilized world. They declare war, they have honour and they can’t leave. But you two. We three. We’re free. How many sappers die? Why aren’t you dead yet? Be irresponsible. Luck runs out.” (Ondaatje p.123) Caravaggio is portrayed as warm, human and very likable. Yet, he is a man who has lost his faith, his loyalty and his confidence.

In the work of C.S. Lewis, faithfulness to God is the factor that ensures the soul’s survival. Lewis describes the danger of being overwhelmed by “the stream of immediate sense experiences” (Lewis pg.12). A man’s tendency to focus on the immediate and the personal at the expense of the universal threatens his ability to survive in any spiritual sense. When focusing on his own inconvenience, hunger and pain, a man tends to lose sight of broader concerns, such as his spiritual wellbeing and the common good. Faith enables a man to focus on the spiritual and the eternal, to fa

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Approximate Word count = 2327
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)