The English Patient
Introduction
The English Patient is a prize winning novel in which the past and the present are intertwined in a series of flashbacks. It focuses primarily on four damaged lives who find themselves in each other’s company and attempts to remember the dark secrets of their pasts: a critically burned Hungarian man, Almasy who is the English patient, his Canadian nurse – Hana, a Sikh man, Kip and the Canadian thief, Caravaggio. The setting of the novel is during the Second World War and captures activities in abandoned Italian Villa. Ondaatje’s novel is reputed for winning many awards including the Canadian Governor’s award and Booker Prize for fictionally works. This perhaps explains why the novel was adapted in 1996 into the award winning film The English Patient. It combines factual and historical imaginations into a tale of love, misunderstanding, fate and healing. Ondaatje appears to be obsessed with multiculturalism and romantic exoticism in the manner he turns the romantic episodes into unlikely mystery bringing out the hidden traits of the characters as the narrative progresses.
Perception of Nursing in Novel “The English Patient”
Nursing role in the narrative is portrayed through Hana, the Canadian nurse. Only at twenty, Hana is a paradoxical character torn between adulthood and adolescence. Perhaps inadvertently, the author explores what it means to be a nursing professional, the loss and reclamation, and patience as epitomized through the relationship between Hana and Almasy. In essence, the nurse-patient relationship is presented as compassionate and sensual – a theme that is relevant to nursing students and practitioners.
In the novel, Hana tends to the badly burned Almasy in a room at the Italian Villa. Prior to her becoming a nurse in the war, reasonably, Hana is forced to grow up forgoing some youthful luxuries that get in her way while discharging her duties. For instance, just three days into the field, she shaves her long hair and refuses to look at herself in the mirror at least, during the period of the war. Hana’s rejection of mirrors reveals her inability to address and reconcile her fragmented identity, a reason why she remains stagnant in the abandoned rooms. Reasonably, she aspires to enjoy some illusory fixedness in the view of the happenings in her life. But her nursing prowess is evident from the way she interviews and collects data from the English patient. She enquires on how he was wounded to which he responds “fell burning into the desert” from a plane (p. 4). He informs her that he was part of an expedition out in search of lost oasis of Zerzura. After the plane crash, Almasy emerged naked from the burning remains and was saved by the nomadic Bedouins who were within the radius. He was in a sorry state and could not remember who he was, apart from being of English origin. Like in the real nursing practice, a thorough assessment of burn injuries including time and etiological information is recommended to determine the location of concomitant traumas. Here, Hana exploits her listening, understanding and exploring skills to no ends, but within useful limits to establish and build a relationship with Almasy in order to provide interventions that are context-specific and individualised to his needs.
With unsettling intelligence that comes with experience, Hana cares for the badly injured patient, washing his wounds with antiseptics and bringing him morphine for pain management. Interestingly, in the middle of her busy schedule, she still finds time in her innocence to go out in the garden and play hopscotch at night. Indeed, she is presented as dynamic nurse, and in many aspects, the author narrows to her journey of maturity into adulthood. Her job as a nurse however, alienates her as she is increasingly exposed to the realities of war. She says, “Every damn general damn general should have had my job. Every damn general. It should have been a prerequisite for any river crossing.” (p. 84). Through her, nursing is presented as calling. She is indeed, a true advocate for the patient. When Caravaggio reveals the patient’s history as being of an enemy, the past secrets do not change her perception of the patient. She responds by stating that “it doesn’t matter what side was on, does itthe war is over (pp. 165-166). In her view, what mattered most was her patient recovering from the burn traumas and that the patient’s side (ally or enemy) would have mattered if the war was still on. Hana recognizes some arbitrariness when it comes to discharging of duties regarding the distinction of an enemy and ally in line of duty. This dilemma is a consistent thread throughout the narrative.
Despite having lost her childhood early, Hana is a brilliant nurse who learns quickly emotional attachment with her patients would come in her way of delivering treatment and care. A good nurse, she calls all her patients “buddy” and almost immediately detaches herself once they die. On the contrary, when she learns of her father’s demise, she experiences a terrible emotional breakdown. Then she invests in her relationship with the English patient. In fact, even when the hospital is deserted, she refuses to leave her patient and stays put to take care of his wounds. Her love for Almasy in a non-sexual way is consistent throughout the novel. This in essence reveals some of the challenges that nurses experience in the nursing career; that in most times, they are forced to forgo their self-interests that may be impediment to care delivery.
Nurse’s perception of their clients seemingly plays a critical role in patient treatment and care. Nonetheless, this does not change the fact that nurses are humans, with their religious, cultural and personal beliefs. Hana feels that her Christian beliefs have been compromised by the war, which have made her even, refrain from praying regularly. However, the illusions she makes about her client as unmistakably religious. For instance, she sees the English patient as a “despairing saint” with “hipbones of Christ.” (p. 3). It is this perception that elevates her regard of the patient, of her thoughts about him, and the importance of her actions in helping him recover from the burns. It is reasonable to believe that she perceives the patient as having been a noble warrior and perhaps undeservedly suffered while on duty. In reality, however, the English patient has a tainted past of a spy and a promiscuous man involved with another man’s wife. This is a common scenario in nursing today, where nurses find themselves attending to patients whose injuries are product of their indecent dealings. Nevertheless, they are bound by the ethics of the profession to save lives. The perception and attachment they have with their patients determines the quality of care they offer.
The formal fragmentation of the novel parallels the reality that Hana has to face as a nurse in a war period – at the end of World War II. She takes refuge from the reality of the war in a bombed and ruined Italian Villa where she tends to Almasy’s burn injuries. While all the characters are shown to have identity crisis and difficulties in remembering their pasts, Hana directs her energy to her nursing role. Her relationship with the patient is of particular highlight and suggests that a lot of knowledge can be achieved from a critical examination of nursing perception in a popular culture.
Reference
Ondaatje, M. (2004). The English patient. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
