Michael Ondaatje

The English Patient Film Compared with the Novel The Novel: The English Patient is a fantastic novel and is one of the few truly great novels written in the last century. The author, Sri Lankan Michael Ondaatje, switches wonderfully between several scenes: the desert, the Villa San Girolamo in Tuscany, Italy, Dorset in England and Cairo. Each one of these perfectly crafted scenes is brought into being in an exciting and thought provoking way. The book is centred on

I was asked to write about the metaphor heart of lion which i did not really understand, whether i was asked about the basic anatomy of a lion's heart, or what the metaphor means to me. Considering i was in your office looking to get put in a higher level class its probably safe to assume you wanted me to tell you about what lion hearts means to me. For example, the internet search of ‘’heart of a lion’’ would bring you to the Urban Dictionary's definition of ‘’Constantly challenging oneself. Knowing

Anil's ghost is an acclaimed novel written by a Sri Lankan born Canadian novelist Michael Ondaatje. The book focuses on major issues of civil war and its effects, human rights, and the nature of one's shifting identity. In this essay I will focus on the way in which the main character Anil Tissera's surroundings affect her cultural identity throughout the story. An article written by Kara Somerville in 2008 provides an interesting insight on the issue of transnational identity, and how different

Question #1 Michael Ondaatje is primarily interested in whose stories get told and whose names get remembered when historical events are recorded. The novel features the various immigrant communities that built the city of Toronto, particularly the waterworks. This passage enforces the idea of the important role of immigrant communities in Canada. Patrick writes that he is the one born in this country who knows nothing of the place. This line is important because it enforces the idea that just because

Michael Ondaatje uses the puppets as a metaphor for the immigrant population of Canada whose work often goes unnoticed and voices unheard. When Patrick visited the illegal gathering of a mixture of nationalities at the Waterworks, on stage he noticed a mob of puppets moving in unity, “Patrick looked up and saw the grid above them on the upper level, hardly visible, where the puppeteers must have been lying in darkness”. It is during this moment that John Berger’s quote is most relevant, for Patrick

1. Why do you think the nurse chose to stay with the English patient in the bombed out villa instead of leaving to safety with the others? We are aware that Hana had lost her father during the war while working as nurse in the hospital. Her father, who had been in an explosion, had burned to death at the scene. Hana may be so attached to the English patient as he reminds her of her deceased father. The English patient, who is also a burn victim lies lifeless in the villa and as Hana claims, was

In the novel Anil’s Ghost by Micheal Ondaatje, characters develop deep relationships and unveil dramatic secrets through a series of traumatic events. Anil’s Ghost is set in a time of political conflict in Sri Lanka, revealing unfolding mysteries, murders, and never-ending brutality. Each character uncovers the truth about one another, taking pieces of his or her own life, to reflect upon various hardships. During the civil war era, the protagonist, Anil Tissera, a high specialized anthropologist

Michael Ondaatje's Relationship with his Father in his Work, Running in the Family The jacket description embossed on the back cover of the Vintage publication of Michael Ondaatje's Running in the Family gives the reader a false sense of what the book is about. To some it is a "lyrical and witty" tale of "broken engagements, and drunken suicide attempts," and to some it may be "an inspired marriage of travel narrative and family memoir" (jacket). The front cover, however, provides the most

Plot Summary A Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist and poet, Philip Michael Ondaatje, wrote Running in the Family. He is best known for writing The English Patient. But this book is not a work of fiction; instead, it is a memoir from his youth in Sri Lanka. The events happening in the book can be classified as creative non-fiction. The book is written in postmodern style, with writing from the perspective of different real-life individuals and refraining from stringing narrative together in an orderly

The Influence of Machines in Michael Ondaatje’s The Collected Works of Billy the Kid Have you ever noticed the use of machines in the Western genre before? If so, wasn’t it violent? Whether it is not being able to capture essence in photographs, visually describing the use of guns, or referencing to pencils in the text, poets are able to effectively communicate their ideas and central messages to readers by incorporating all necessary elements. These aspects allow the reader to be drawn in and view