The English Patient

Michael Ondaatje

Get this SparkNote to go!

Study Questions and Essay Topics

How is the theme of nationality and nationhood expressed in the novel? Can nationality and ethnicity be transcended?


Describe the function of the body in the novel. How is the body used as a larger metaphor for the connection between people?


How is adultery addressed in the novel? Do the characters feel shame about their adultery? Why or why not?


Suggested Essay Topics

How does the motif of reading in The English Patient inform the novel as whole?

Describe the role of the desert in the novel. How is this setting intertwined with the themes of the story?

We do not learn Hana's name until Chapter II, Kip's name until Chapter III, and Almásy's name until Chapter IX. Why might Ondaatje have chosen to withhold the names of the characters? What larger implications does this have regarding the characters' identities?

Which characters change throughout the course of the novel? Which ones remain static? What does this personal growth or stagnation reveal about the nature of each character?

Compare Kip to Caravaggio. How do their different emotional reactions to the war emphasize the different types of "humanity" that emerge in wartime?

Readers' Notes allow users to add their own analysis and insights to our SparkNotes—and to discuss those ideas with one another. Have a novel take or think we left something out? Add a Readers' Note!

More Help

Buy the ebook of this SparkNote on BN.com

Easy to view on your iPod, phone, or ereader.

EVEN MORE HELP! ↓

Take a Study Break

SparkLife

Star Trek gets SEXY

Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana heat up the red carpet!

SparkLife

Are you afraid of relationships?

Auntie SparkNotes can help!

SparkLife

Wanna get JLaw's gorgeous glow?

Click here for simple, sexy makeup tricks!

SparkLife

Sexy starlet style

See every single look from the Met Gala!

SparkLife

Who'd be on your zombie-apocalypse crew?

We already dib'sed Genghis Khan.

Geek out!

The MindHut

Geeky Actors: Then and Now

Travel back in time!

The MindHut

Villains We Want These Actresses to Play

From super cute to super bad!

The MindHut

10 Movies Better Than Their Books

What do you think?

The MindHut

How To Look Like J-Law...

When you don't look like J-Law.

The MindHut

12 Scientific Inaccuracies in Into Darkness

What did Star Trek get wrong?

The Book

Cover image

Order The English Patient at BN.com

All the words, printed on paper. Classic!

Cover image

Read What You Love, Anywhere You Like

Get Our FREE NOOK Reading Apps