Self And Identity In Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient

A sociological approach to self and identity begins with the assumption that there is a reciprocal relationship between the self and society (Stryker, 1980). The self has an influence upon society via the actions of the individuals, consequently creating groups, organizations, networks, and institutions. Reciprocally, society has influence upon the self via its common language and meanings which enables a person to engage in a social interaction, and to assume the role of the other. Identity is determined by the relationship between the self and the other and it is through this sense of identity that we identify ourselves as members of various ethnic groups as well as social classes providing us with a sense of belonging. Nations, in their

The characters are all exiles from their homeland who have gathered together at the Villa San Girolamo at the end of World War II. The English Patient seeks to explore and analyze the problem of identity, experienced both by the colonizer and the colonized. The novel’s central figure is the English patient whose identity is already erased as he is burnt beyond recognition. The English Patient is in fact the Hungarian Count Almasy, a desert explorer who helped the Germans navigate the deserts. Although his duty is to name the unmapped desert, in the end his own identity, which is the map of his own features, has been erased and he is known only as the ‘English patient’. Since the novel questions colonial and anti-colonial nationalism, which shape their identities, it frequently breaks down colonial hierarchies, particularly the imperial conception of space through the mapping of the desert, and the desert’s elusiveness because of its vastness and uncontrollable sand storms. In fact, mapping a space means to name it and possess it as it becomes a place as seized territory, which will help invaders, explorers and traders to realize their plans and

However, when August comes and Kip hears the news of atomic bomb dropped on Japan, he becomes enraged, believing that a Western country would never commit such an atrocity against another Western country. Kip also threatens to kill the English Patient, whom he regards as a symbol of the West because he believes he is English. Unfortunately, Kip’s generalization against the West, particularly, against the English is racial and aggressive, which is a contrast with the Edenic and peaceful atmosphere of the Villa where racial boundaries do not exist. Kip’s anti-Western outburst and his readiness to abandon his Western friends is once again due to his sense of cultural displacement as a consequence of his disappointment with Western