In pages 1 through 106 of The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, we are introduced to four unique characters who are all living at this time at the Villa San Girolamo in Italy during World War II. Hana is a twenty year old reclusive nurse who likes to spend time reading and taking care of the English patient. Hana seems to be in love with all of her houseguests.
David Caravaggio is a thief who got his thumbs cut off, trying to steal a camera which held his photography, and was a friend of Hana's father. The English patient, who remains nameless at this time, whose plane went down in the African desert. He was rescued by members of the Bedouin tribe who used him to find buried weapons. We know little about him, besides the fact he is burned all over his body and wears a hearing aid. Kip, a Sikh, apparently can diffuse bombs.
Hana, so far, is the most interesting to me. The narrator tells us Hana loves the outdoors, because she wants the air to smell of "nothing human," being trapped in a world of blood and death. Hana reminds me of Harriet in Old Gringo. She won't look in the mirror like Harriet and believes a book "is a mirror walking down a road." She constantly is reading, because she "fell upon books as the only door out of her cell," so obviously she doesn't enjoy the sadness of her job. She hasn't made connections, calling every patient she treats, "Buddy," except for the people left in the villa. She feels "safe" in the villa, "half adult and half child," almost like she is playing house. These three men seem to have broken her shell, because deep down she wants attention and love.
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