Warfare not only results in majority of casualties but also affect individuals both physically and psychologically. This can damage their sense of purpose and identity which can lead to difficulties in the way they relate to others. Art and religion proves to be the saviour of these individuals by helping them respond to the effects and aftermath of war with valour and resilience which not only helps them cope with stress and grief but also gives them the opportunity to interact and connect with others. David Roxborough argues that “Ondaatje’s method of alternating mythical identity allows the efficient construction of a panoramic religious framework with widespread mythical significance.” Similarly, Alice Brittan claims that “Ondaatje’s novel is filled with [……] scenes of reading and writing, and characters who delight in marginalia.” Both the authors agree that Ondaatje’s novel The English Patient utilizes imagery and mythology to explain the atrocities of the Second World War, and to explicate that religion and the admiration of art attempts to defy the violent human displacements enabled by war, and helps to transcend the crude realities of the world.
The novel The English Patient harbours four central characters namely Almasy, Hana, Caravaggio and Kip whose lives are devastated by the Second World War and British colonialism. Almasy, the English patient, receives austere burns during an escape from a “blazing aircraft” which makes him resemble “a [burnt] animal, taut and dark” (Ondaatje 6, 41). His injuries hinder him in making any kind of movement. Hana, a twenty years old Canadian nurse, is forced to leave her adolescence and step into adulthood at an early age. She loses her father, and has to suffer the pain of an aborti...
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Roxborough, David. “The Gospel of Almasy: Christian Mythology in Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient.” Essays on Canadian Writing 67 (1999): 236. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17. Apr. 2012.
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In the novel All quiet on the western front by Erich Maria Remarque one of the major themes he illustrates is the effects of war on a soldier 's humanity. Paul the protagonist is a German soldier who is forced into war with his comrades that go through dehumanizing violence. War is a very horrid situation that causes soldiers like Paul to lose their innocence by stripping them from happiness and joy in life. The symbols Remarque uses to enhance this theme is Paul 's books and the potato pancakes to depict the great scar war has seared on him taking all his connections to life. Through these symbols they deepen the theme by visually depicting war’s impact on Paul. Paul’s books represent the shadow war that is casted upon Paul and his loss of innocence. This symbol helps the theme by depicting how the war locked his heart to old values by taking his innocence. The last symbol that helps the theme are the potato pancakes. The potato pancakes symbolize love and sacrifice by Paul’s mother that reveal Paul emotional state damaged by the war with his lack of happiness and gratitude.
After an event of large magnitude, it still began to take its toll on the protagonist as they often “carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die” during the war (O’Brien 1187). The travesties that occurred with the brutality of war did not subside and began to affect those involved in a deeply emotional way. The multitude of disastrous happenings influenced the narrator to develop a psychological handicap to death by being “afraid of dying” although being “even more afraid to show it” (O’Brien 1187). The burden caused by the war creates fear inside the protagonist’s mind, yet if he were to display his sense of distress it would cause a deeper fear for those around him, thus making the thought of exposing the fear even more frightening. The emotional battle taking place in the psyche of the narrator is directly repressed by the war.
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