Trauma Of War:An Interpretation Of Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient

The English Patient is a novel written by the famous Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje.This novel won the Booker Prize immediately since its publication,and the adapted film was rewarded nine awards in the 69th Oscar Award.This makes the novel a worldwide popular literary work.Since The English Patient has gained a huge success,many scholars have studied the novel and its adapted film.This thesis combines trauma theory with narratological approach to interpret the four main characters,focusing on their traumatic experiences of war and their final recovery from such experiences.The thesis also examines the roots of their trauma.Alm(?)sy as a paralyzed "patient",suffering from his burnt body and the loss of his lover Katharine,only survives with the care of Hana and the help of morphine,forgetting his real identity.Hana as an indifferent nurse loses her child and father and gains self-salvation by caring for the "English patient".Her love with Kip is torn apart by the war when her trauma is near recovery.Caravaggio as a mutilated thief,his former happy life is taken away by war and he sustains pain with his thumb cut.When he is gradually recovering from his trauma with the company of Hana,Alm(?)sy and Kip,they are parted again.Kip as a disoriented sapper,is confused with his national identity for he is caught between Western culture and Eastern culture while the bomb dropped by the western countries awakens his self-identity in the end.They are all tortured by the war.In the isolated Italian villa,they are curing their traumas of war by telling and hearing,solitude and company,love and friendship.However,when they are getting close to complete recovery,the ever-present war again breaks them down at the end of the story.By representing the traumas of war of the four characters,the author implants his hope for peace in this novel,which is a thought-provoking topic for the present world.