The English Patient

The Motif of the Desert in The English Patient Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient is the story of four different people's experiences and how they came to live together in a small villa in Italy during World War II. The novel is abundant in symbolism, and the imagery brings the settings to life. The novel is also filled with motifs. Probably the most frequent motif Ondaatje uses is the desert. The motif of the desert …

…the English patient's difficult life experiences, to show how he was changed, and to help describe why he acts as he does in the present. Hana, Caravaggio, and Kip believe that the English patient has amnesia or that his traumatic experience has caused his memory loss; however, as Caravaggio notes, why does he then remember his whole life story. The fact is, the English patient never forgets who he is: he just wishes he would.