Eighth Reflection on THE ENGLISH PATIENT

“No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.”

-       George S. Patton (US General during WWII)

The dictionary says that a war is a state of armed conflict between different nation, states, or groups. Yet, The English Patient elaborates the definition of war by depicting it as a battle due to greed and the hunger for power and domination with the sacrifice of not only countless lives, but also humanity.

War alters people…

From the very beginning of the novel, each character arrives at the Italian villa is either physically or emotionally wounded, or even both. The young nurse Hana is suffering from the sudden death of his father; Caravaggio’s thumbs are chopped off by the German army; Kip is undergoing the pain of losing both of his parents; most severely, the English patient loses his love, faith, hope…almost everything, except a merely pumping heart. Also, It is rather too difficult to not lose humanity as all the characters find it necessary to protect themselves not physically, but emotionally.

 Why should they bear all those pain and sacrifice their future?

…Because they are in the middle of a war, which severely, inevitably, and negatively affects everyone in any corner of the world, even if they are not fighting on the frontline.