In pages 207 through 302 of The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, the English patient confirms that he is Almasy. Almasy reveals he met Katherine two week after she married Geoffrey, falling in love with her while she read Herodotus with him , and began their affair a year later. He also tells us Madox shot himself while in a church service. When Almasy left the cave to go for help, he was arrested for being a spy in El Taj.
Caravaggio reveals to Almasy that he and Geoffrey worked for British Intelligence and the agency was planning on assassinating him. Kip reveals how fearless he is when it comes to disarming bombs, feeling like he is defending himself like an "animal." When Kip hears about the nuclear bombs hitting Japan, he takes a rifle and threatens to kill Almasy, blaming the British. Kip later leaves the villa and Hana behind, sparing Almasy's life. Fourteen years later, Kip is a married doctor with two children back in India, who wonders where Hana is and if she is happy.
They talk a lot about words and reading. Almasy feels he "has been governed by words" and insists to Caravaggio that "words have power." Almasy tells Caravaggio, the only way he could get Hana "to communicate was to ask her to read to me," breaking down her walls. When Caravaggio interrogates Almasy, he says "Am I just a book? Something to be read?"
The desert is a powerful and important place for Almasy, where he was burned, fell in love, and fought for survival. Almasy realizes, "A man shall be a rivers of water in a dry place," believe in man's effect on nature. Almasy believes the desert is the "theatre of war," "has been raped by war, shelled as if it were just sand, " and it "spoiled Madox."
No comments:
Post a Comment