English Patient Thought 5~

Ondaatje is really stepping up the pace. At chapter 6 and 7, the background story behind the English patient and Kip is revealed to the reader. The English patient's affair with Katherine quickly turned sour as her husband, Geoffrey Clinton, attempted to murder both them by crashing a plane into them in the desert. However, Katherine survives, but with severe wounds. The patient was forced to leave her to find help only to return years later to find her dead body. Similarity, Kip also experienced a rough time at this time through enlistment; he had no friends because he was "brown", and when he did make new friends, they were blown up soon afterwards. The romantic story between Hana and Kip makes a sharp turn, as Kip's history foreshadows a tragic ending to their relationship. Further more Ondaatje at this point has finally "connected" the story pieces together for the readers: it all seems to make sense now. It isn't much mystery now that the English patient was indeed Almasy, and the fact that he was denied help to save Katherine because of his nationality rotates around a core theme of the story: nationhood. Almasy tried to transcend nationhood by exploring the desert, an isolated environment, but only backfired as he was taken prisoner because the war even spread to the deserts. Similarly, Kip's history presents to us that his nationhood caused him great grief and suffering, as he eventually portrays the west as white "racists".