Michael Nonnative's The English Patient

The Role of the Villa San Giordano Symbolism adds layers of meaning to novels. It can either have a significant, insignificant or negative Impact on the progression of the novel. In Michael Nonnative’s The English Patient, the lives of four Individuals are scarred due to the destructiveness of the war. Four Individuals gather at one common area in Tuscany, Italy known as Villa San Giordano (hereafter cited as the Villa). Annotated represents the Villa in many ways.

As a representation of a Sanctuary, the Villa protects the lives f the characters, act as a holy place and as a place of refuge.

As well, the Villa represents a place where the theme of death and rebirth is present and helps them move past their war wounds. Lastly, the Villa provides a sense of belonging among the characters since they have all been affected by the war In a similar fashion. In the English Patient, Annotated uses the Villa to symbolize a healing aid to the following characters: Kip, Hanna, Aggravating and the English Patient (hereafter cited as AlmaҐsys) as it proves to be of greater use than Just a place of rest.

The Villa is a representation off Sanctuary that portrays itself as a safe haven, a holy place and a place for refuge. Kip, Hanna, Alms and Aggravating meet in the Walla. Hanna and AlmaҐsys room In what used to be a small nunnery before being invaded by German soldiers. As Hanna and AlmaҐsys begin their lives together In the Villa, the war Maniacs 2 has yet to conclude.

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Although not being its primary function, the Villa is providing protection for Hanna and AlmaҐsys from the outside world of war and violence. Annotated provides the readers a sense of the conditions in which they were living, “From outside, the place seemed devastated.

An outdoor staircase disappeared In midair, Its rallying hanging off. [Hanna and AlmaҐsys] life was a foraging and tentative safety [Hanna and AlmaҐsys] were protected by the simple fact that the villa seemed a ruin. But [Hanna] felt safe here” (Annotated,The English Patient, 14). Deeper into the novel the description continues: The Villa San Giordano … Had the look of a besieged fortress, the limbs of most of the statues blown off during the first days of shelling. There seemed little demarcation between house and landscape, between damaged building and the burned and the shelled remnants of the earth …

In spite of the burned earth, In pity of the lack of water. Someday there would be a bower of limes, rooms of green light. (Annotated 43) With Nonnative’s descriptions, the environment in which they are living appears harsh, unstable and uninhabitable. This provides protection as it would be unworthy for invasion. This allows Hanna to fully concentrate on Alms healing of the burns on his body rather than protecting themselves from war enemies. This also helps KIP to focus on disarming the bombs around the Villa. Secondly, ten Via Is valley as a only place Decease It NAS a strong resume the garden of Eden. In the biblical garden, Adam and Eve were given Maniacs 3 lance to much more than they needed. They had plentiful food and all the necessities for survival. In the villa, the inhabitants “… Had enough vegetation planted in the bombed out orchard above the house for them to survive … Some beans, some meats” (Annotated 7). Hanna spends most of her day in the garden gathering anything she can from the plants and tries to maintain whatever life the plants have.

When the Germans retreated, the Villa was used as a war hospital treating patients of their injuries and later became vacant. The Villa has plenty of first aid material making it easy for Hanna to tend to Alms injuries. Throughout the course of the novel, the characters in the Villa are not faced with destruction despite the many hidden, UN- detonated bombs. This can be God’s watchful eye over the recovering characters. With the given necessities, the characters in Villa have all the essentials needed to aid in their healing.

Lastly, the Villa is also seen as a place of refuge where the characters are safe and in a place of shelter from danger. The obvious danger in the novel is the passing war but a second danger in this novel is the former life of these characters. Hanna is desperately trying to remove the memory of the loss of her husband and unborn hill. Kip is trying to remove himself from his Indian heritage and become Westernizes. Aggravating is trying to remove the memory of captivity by the Germans as he was attempting to steal information. As well, Alms is trying to carry on his life with severe burns to his body. None of these fragile characters is whole in either body or soul; each is a casualty of this desperate age” (Williams, Canadian Literature. N. Page), Williams describes how the lives of these characters are at a breaking point. The fragility of these characters explains why they need a new beginning; a way to start anew. The Maniacs 4 sat life of these characters has been devastating and very tragic making them difficult to heal. They come together at the Villa, depicted as a vacation place from their past lives. The Villa helps begin a new chapter in their lives.

As a safe haven, the Villa provides protection and shelter from the passing war. As a representation of the garden of Eden, the Villa is viewed as a holy place. Lastly as a place of refuge, the characters are able to come together and help rid themselves of terrible memories. The Villa, presents these three qualities of a sanctuary that allows the characters to progressively heal over the course of the novel. The theme of death and rebirth is apparent in The English Patient. Rebirth is a term commonly used to describe a new beginning and is present in various ways in the novel.

The characters in the novel experience a death and rebirth scenario that forces them to take on a new life. Prior to his accident, Alms was a highly trained general in the army. As he is in flight with an old war plane, the plane is leaking oil and later ignites. The flames engulf Alms and he Jumpers out of the plane to try and save himself: [Alms] dug down towards the tarpaulin, and Madam’s old plane gradually emerged … The plane came out of the sand … He looks down and sees oil pouring onto Nils Knees en plots up an a ten 011 sees all over ten seat ..

I nerve was a spark from a short, and the twigs at her knee catches fire… Pivots upside down breaking free of glass, wind flinging his body back… And he is in air, bright not knowing why he is bright until he realizes he’s on fire. (Annotated 174-175) Maniacs 5 Although not physically experiencing death, this crash and burn is a figurative death of an old life, the life off soldier of war. Having sever burns, he is saved by a tribe named the Bedouin and is taken under the care of Hanna who believes he is too fragile to move.

Instead of leaving the Villa with the army, she decides not to move Alms, “She would remain with the one burned man the call ‘The English patient,’ who, it is now clear to her, should never be moved because of the fragility of his limbs” (Annotated 51). Alms begins his new life in the Villa under Henna’s care. Alms plane crash figuratively signifies his death and his rebirth brings him to the Villa. With the injuries sustained, he is no longer able to fight in the war. The rest allows his body to heal from his severe physical injuries.

Learning of her father’s passing from the war, Hanna experiences pain not many an relate to, “The way Hanna broke in Santa Chair Hospital when an official walked down the space between a hundred beds and gave her a letter that told her of the death of her father” (Annotated 41). When the opportunity arises to care for this fragile patient, she Jumps at the chance. She views Alms as a way to fill a void in her life by personally assigning the role to herself. With the role off full time nurse, she recognizes that she must to do everything in her power to care for the dying patient. She has nursed him for months and she knows the body well” (Annotated 1). At this point, Hanna experiences a death and rebirth. Henna’s father passes away and she is given no choice but to abort her baby. As she takes on the role of being the nurse of Alms, this is the start of her new life that begins at the Villa. Helping Alms with his Maniacs 6 injuries allows her to forget the loss of her father and child by taking her mind off of them, allowing her to heal mentally. Aggravating, a friend of Henna’s father, is on a mission to steal some information from the German army that later captures him.

Before escaping, they sever his thumbs as a way of punishment. After being in the hospital in bandages for four months, he goes in search of Hanna when he learns from the doctors that she is living in the Villa. Hanna is delighted to see Aggravating once again but fears there will not be enough food available for the three of them: We need some chickens. ‘ [Hanna] is looking at Aggravating, knowing his skills from the past, not quite saying it. ‘l lost my nerve,’ [Aggravating] says. ‘I’ll come with you, then,’ Hanna offers. We’ll do it together. You can teach me how to steal, show me what to do. You don’t understand. I lost my nerve. ‘ ‘l was caught. They nearly chopped off my bucking hands. ‘ (Annotated 33-34) Without the use of his thumbs, Aggravating believes he is useless and inadequate. Tater Telling Hanna, en access to remain In ten Via. In tens case, ten Tie AT a war soldier dies after the severing of his thumbs, since he would be of no use to the army. The life without the use of his thumbs begins at the Villa. Beginning his new life here helps him forget his injury and progressively heal mentally by not feeling useless anymore.

Finally, Kip, a British ‘sapper’ who does not fear death at all, makes his way to Maniacs 7 the Villa. A sapper is a name given to those skilled in diffusing bombs. One night, during a party in Alms room, there is an explosion outside. Kip does not think much of it until he examines the damage. He finds his friend Hardy, another sapper dead, “He had found the location of the death and what was left there and they had buried his second in-command, Hardy’ (Annotated. 113). At this point, Kip comes to the realization of how dangerous his Job really is.

This realization brings forward a new side of Kip, from being fearless of death to being fearful. This realization heals him mentally by making him see the danger in his Job placement which helps inhibit IM from taking risks. The characters in the novel all experience diverse deaths and rebirth as they congregate at the Villa to help represent the healing that occurs at the Villa. Furthermore, the Villa itself experiences a death and rebirth scenario. Ata point in time during the war, the Villa was the home of German soldiers. As the Germans were forced to retreat, the Villa became a war hospital and later became vacant.

After the destruction of the war subsides, nature fills this area with new life. The characters presently living in the Villa are forced to learn how to live again after the extraction of the war. In Learn Gјileitis’s paper she writes “the inhabitants of the villa are all displaced because they are exiles who have found new identities in a place other than their homeland” (Gјlittle Identity Crisis in Michael Nonnative’s The English Patient. N. Page). In other words, the characters in the Villa begin a new life and find new identities for themselves allowing them to live a new life.

A town that is scarred by war debris is now a new home. It’s a formation off new community. With the four characters involved, they too must learn how to adapt to the changes to their odd. The Maniacs 8 Villa, therefore, proves to be the starting point of new life by allowing the theme of death and rebirth to appear in The English Patient and for the characters to heal individually. Whether it is physical or mental damage, the characters are living through some kind of pain. The fact that the characters are living together under one roof provides a sense of belonging amongst them as a community.

With the traumatic injuries they experience, an individual may feel despair, but they are able to feel a part of a group. They each find their new life despite the wounds they carry. All four characters are able to relate to one another since they have all suffered from the war: “For the four inhabitants of the Villa San Giordano the only way out of their own suffering is through each other” (Historian In Near Ruins n. Page). Isolated from the war ravished world, the characters in the Villa can connect and support each other to be able to live their transforming lives.

The Villa allows the inhabitants to recognize that they are not alone in their suffering and many others share their wounds. It is through these wounds that new friendships and relationships are created, “The residents of en Via as Allspice Monolinguals Tar away Trot tenet melanoma nave unreal physical and psychological wounds … They try to heal themselves through their friendship while their old identities have dissolved” (Guillotine n. Page). Hanna loves Alms and Alms grows fond of Kip and Aggravating since all three played a part in the war. Also, a sexual partnership between Hanna and Kip is formed.

These relationships creates a more comfortable setting in the Villa aiding in recovery time for the characters. Maniacs 9 Annotated is able to portray the Villa as a community of diverse individuals that encourages their sense of nationality. After the news of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Kip realizes who he truly is, an Indian. Kip, who does not believe in Western aggression, discovers that it is still present through the bombings, “Never trust the Europeans, [Kip’s brother] said … When you start bombing the brown races of the world, you’re an Englishman …

They would never have dropped such a bomb on a white nation … A new war. The death of a civilization” (Annotated 284-286). Kip’s brother is very ‘anti-European’, he is a man who always stuck to his roots, unlike Kip. This shows that no matter how hard you try to remove yourself from your roots, they will always be apparent. Furthermore, Annotated reveals Alms identity as Hungarian spy and desert explorer who helps the Germans navigate through the deserts. By trying to not remember who he is, his identity was not known until the latter stages of the novel. The last person I expected to find here in the shelled nunnery was [Alms]” (Annotated 252) said by Aggravating. Annotated also uses the villa to reveal more information about the characters living in it. Hanna is constantly trying to erase the memory of war and hide from her adulthood. To erase the memory of the war, Hanna lives in the Villa and takes Alms under her care, viewing him as a defenseless child. She re-lives her childhood by playing hopscotch on her free time in the dark hall: She drops the chalk into the pocket of her dress.

She stands and pulls up the looseness of her skirt and ties it around her waist. She pulls from another pocket a piece of metal and flings it out in front of her so it falls Just beyond the farthest square. (Annotated 15) Maniacs 10 Hanna is constantly re-living her childhood by doing activities typically done by children because of the shell shock she experienced during the war. Lastly, Aggravating is trying to forget the memories of the torture he endures as a captive. The community-like atmosphere around the Villa provides a sense of belonging amongst them.

Along with this, the Villa allows the characters to become more comfortable with their fellow Villa- mates. It also provides a representation of a house of nations. The Villa is able to connect four individuals that share a common thread by their involvement in the war. These characters come together despite having different nationalities but the Villa is able to prove that no matter the race or nationality, people get along, as a family unit.

The villa is a place, once again,… A symbol of their friendship as they seem to disregard their national and racial origins … Here nations, races anything artificial that divides human beings is meaningless” (Guillotine n. Page). An example is the celebration of Henna’s 21st birthday In Alms room. Nonnative’s Is addle to relate ten lives AT Tour snatchers tongue a small Villa that aided in their healing process. Victoria Acidosis explains in her critical summary that, “In the Villa San Giordano in Italy, four shattered survivors cope with the physical and emotional suffering the war has brought about.

They come from different parts of Europe … UT they share similar kinds of pain” (Acidosis The English Patient n. Page). The Villa proves to be a major symbol in The English Patient. The story line of the novel is set in the Villa. In many ways, Annotated is able to use the Villa as a way of healing the injured. The Villa is able to heal the characters as a representation of a sanctuary by providing all the necessary items such as first aid materials as well as protecting them from any danger. The Villa Maniacs 11 also allows the theme of death and rebirth to occur by being the starting point of heir new life.