Who Is Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient

The short story, “Interpreter of Maladies,” written by Jhumpa Lahiri, is about an Indian tour guide who has an epiphany once he realizes that one of his clients finds his side job, an interpreter for the doctor, romantic. Mrs. Das, the one who appears to show interest in the tour guide’s occupation, struggles throughout her married life to remain loyal and loving to her husband. This characteristic of Mrs. Das’ is highlighted through the author’s use of tone, which is defined as the way the author feels about a certain character. As well, the use of tone, seen specifically in the diction, syntax, and detail of this story, helps to identify and support various themes. Lahiri’s use of a condescending tone towards Mrs. Das bolsters the theme that unfaithfulness causes someone to become alienated from their family.

People can be quick to judge others without knowing the struggles and challenges they have faced. In the novel Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich, the characters are quick to judge June Kashpaw without understanding the challenges she has faced and her resilience against these challenges. The author uses her homeland, culture, family, physical description, psychological profile and her relationship with others to allow the readers to see a resilient and positive side of June Kashpaw. The author allows her readers to know the culture of June by describing the importance her cultural background throughout the novel. The author also demonstrates the loving side of June through her family members memories of her. Alike her family’s opinions of her, she is shown to have gone through many struggles in her life and her resilience is

Finally, the last aspect that caught my attention was, the story in general. The movie, The Physician, is based on the novel by Noah Gordon, The Physician. I had never heard of such a book, however, after watching the film, my curiosity for the book was awakened. The idea of medical practices during the 14th century, when there was no anesthetic or modern medical

Furthermore at the time of the writing of this novella, approximately within the 1800's, exploration was seen as a wonderful adventure and the period of mapping out the world was well under way.  Europeans saw Africa as a black place on the map waiting to be discovered.  When Marlow was young "[he] had a passion for maps.  [He] would look for hours at South

He also quotes from Ondaatje p.37 to develop his idea about maps “whose portraits have nothing to do with surface.” This coupled with his narrative about the explorers in the Age of Colonialism

Biographical criticism is used to identify and establish certain aspects of stories from an author’s experience. Most authors have demonstrated this theory by writing from their own personal memories. From Emily Dickinson to Stephen King, countless authors have either written from their own background or put him/herself into a story. Some have even re-written a terrible memory into the way they wanted that moment to turn out. John Updike and T.C. Boyle brought this theory to life in their works “A&P” and “Greasy Lake”. By reading these stories, one can feel a personal connection to them because they feel so profoundly relatable. Therefore, in “A&P” and “Greasy Lake”, one can grasp the actuality of the stories by putting themselves in the author’s shoes and remembering their youth.

In Without Apology, filmmaker Susan Hamovitch made me experience a wide range of emotions as I learned more and more about her brother Alan. Within the first minutes of the film, I began to feel despondent. It was difficult for me to wrap my head around the idea that in 1958 the advice given to Alan’s parents by the best medical professionals was to place their child in an institution and forget about him. From the moment they left Alan at Letchworth Village the family seldom spoke his name. Therefore, when Susan said “I didn’t see him as a real person” I thought how difficult it most have been for her to go on this journey. It was towards the end of the film that I started to feel hopeful. This journey that Susan decided to embark, which began by her going to a support group, then visiting Alan at Letchworth, and reading Alan’s records, was very inspiring. For me, the film evoked these feelings as sadness as well as feelings of joy. I knew that it was a real life story and if this was the experience of one family who knows how many more families went through the same or a similar situation and were broken up. By the end of the film I was hopeful because of many reasons. Alan was not alone in this world. There was someone that cared about him enough to have the courage to expose her most protected secret.

The “fear” of women is one of the novel’s most central features. As most of the male patients in the novel have been damaged by relationships with overpowering women. The hospital, run by women, treats only male patients, showing how women have the ability to emasculate even the most masculine of men. The narrator of the novel, Chief Bromden, witnesses the

From the story, William depicts the difficulties that people have towards separating their emotions and standards. The doctor’s behavior towards the girl and the young patient’s reaction emphasizes the subject of this discussion. However, the use of ethos, the narrator portrays his character as a credible doctor in the story. The character of both the patient and the doctor reveal a plausible issue comparable in real life. During this period there is and epidemic of diphtheria, which worsens the situation forcing the doctor to take aggressive measures in treating his patient. Revealed through his words, the doctor first tries kindness; “Awe, come on, I coaxed, just open your mouth wide and let me take a look.” (Williams, 1984) However, the reaction from the girl is repulsive, forcing the doctor to be firm. The young girl’s character shows the conflict of her role as a patient and that of her personality. This is revealed by the fact the she is spoiled and

Doctor Adams goes to a place distant from civilization to deliver a baby. Darkness, wilderness, and dirtiness are images presented throughout the story that apply to the appearance of the India Camp. The description of the Indian Camp highlights racial inequality between the two cultures. After Dr. Adams delivers the baby, he feels exalted: A word that connotates a rise in status, dignity, power, honor, and wealth (Strong 23). This usage of the text is an example of how Dr. Adams sees himself superior than everyone in the room. In addition, he has an immediate desire to record thee operation into the medical journal. His medical journal symbolizes an ultimate authority: a removed, consecrated sign of medical, legal, and institutional power (Strong 23).

Marino displays Hypophora in his writing, causing his readers to become curious about those who made sacrifices for their families and worked jobs that were not part of their dreams, but could lead to their dreams coming true. A hypophora normally begins with a question, which make the reader interested, and provides the answer to that question. Many times, we wonder why Marino included a quote about something that seemed entirely opposite of what he was trying to come across. How did making assumptions about a doctor changing his path relate to the title or how does one forget about his or her talent to indulge in pleasure? Marino himself writes, “But is it ethical for a doctor to put

Originally, it Napoleon Bonaparte of the Napoleonic Wars, Adolf Hitler of the Holocaust, and then Gaëtan Dugas of the AIDS Epidemic. However, one, of these men was falsely accused for being the starting point for the death of revolting amounts of people. This man is Gaëtan Dugas who is also infamously known as Patient Zero. The “Patient Zero” story initially portrayed Dugas as the man who single handedly springing forth the AIDS epidemic. This in turn lead to the viral massacre of millions of people. Over the course of this class, however, we have learned how to decipher between the fabricated accounts of history and the irrefutable truth of reality. The analysis of both sides of the spectrum really opened my eyes to the whole Dugas situation, and showed me how imperative it is to have all the pieces of one story before making any judgment. This is also why I enjoyed reading and listening to the three sources that were given to us in class. These three sources are the article, “Patient Zero: The Absence of the Patient’s View of Eearly North American AIDS Epidemic,” by Richard A. McKay, the podcast “Patient Zero” by Radio Lab, and the science article “’Patient Zero’ No More,” by Jon Cohen. These sources gave me tremendous insight into the “Patient Zero” situation and really revealed more truthfulness to the matter.

However instead of employing historical contexts to create the tension, Ondaatje makes subtle but explicit comments on historical oblivion to individuals and their stories. History is implicitly considered as a master narrative that allows no space to articulate local narratives and to account for the richness, variety and complexity of human experience. To counterbalance the

       As the tale begins we immediately can sympathize with the repressive plight of the protagonist.  Her romantic imagination is obvious as she describes the "hereditary estate" (Gilman, Wallpaper 170) or the "haunted house" (170) as she would like it to be.  She tells us of her husband, John, who "scoffs" (170) at her romantic sentiments and is "practical to the extreme" (170).  However, in a time

Though I have read Michael Ondaatje’s work before, this is my first time viewing him as a postcolonial writer. Having studied his book Anil’s Ghost for crime fiction during my HSC, it is quite interesting to view him from a postcolonial perspective, particularly when I began to see similarities between the two books. In the Running in the Family, Ondaatje refer to the book as “not a history but a portrait or ‘gesture’, which I feel can also be applied to Anil’s Ghost (1820). In these texts, Ondaatje seems to ‘blur’ the line between fact and fiction by taking things like memories and history and fictionalising them. For this reason, I find it difficult (and often frustrating) to classify his works in set genres. Should Running in the Family