The Disappearing White Myth

The white myth or ethnocentrism in the West is represented by the superiority of the white. Westerners differentiate themselves as a superior race and other races as inferior, and believe that it is normal for the white to govern the"inferior races". Postcolonialism is committed to criticizing this kind of stubborn ethnocentrism and deconstructing the white myth.The English Patient is the most famous novel of Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. It is highly praised for its beautiful language, complex plot and multiple themes, of which the most interesting one is the post-colonialism proposed in this novel.This thesis focuses on The English Patient and intends to analyze it from the perspective of postcolonialism. It explores the four characters'different reactions to the war and their different attitude towards the Western ethnocentrism or the white myth by adopting postcolonialism. The four characters were seriously hurt, both physically and psychologically during the World War II. All of them were all the victims and patients of the war declared by the colonialist and imperialist. They hated the war, criticized the colonialism and imperialism, and doubted the white myth of"superiority of the white". In the novel, the colonizer and the colonized, the white and the non-white, the Western culture and the Eastern civilization reached mutual understanding at last after impact on each other. What the four characters thought and what they did in The English Patient reflected Ondaatje's attitude against the war and the colonialism, and illustrated his doubt about the white myth.The thesis consists of five parts. The first part gives a brief introduction to the author, the novel and the researches on this novel both abroad and at home. The second part is the theoretical background. The third and forth parts are the main body of the thesis. Chapter 2 of this paper illustrates the growing process of Kip, an Indian soldier. The fact that he, grown up from a silent"the other"to a brave man, who dared to challenge the superiority of the West shows that the white myth is disappearing in the colonies. Chapter 3 analyzes the three white characters from the West. As white people, they also suffered a lot in the war. They showed sympathy for"the other", understood"the other", and respected"the other"in the war. More importantly, they began to retrospect and criticize Western civilization, which illustrates the authority of the white myth is being doubted and challenged by the white people in the Western world now.