Displacement and National Identities in The English Patient

Michael Ondaatje’s novel and Anthony Minghella’s subsequent screen adaptation of The English Patient may be, at first glance, considered a classic romance with a dramatic finale. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes evident that both the novel and the film adaptation are extremely preoccupied with questions about (voluntary) displacement and national identities during a period of crisis. Using World War II as a backdrop, the story questions the importance of one’s nationality, and how what is considered one’s country, is not necessarily connected with one’s feelings of national identity. It is this chosen displacement, which distinguishes these characters from all the heroes in literature and films who are forced to leave their countries because of the outbreak of wars or disease, that makes this story particularly interesting. To that end, this paper seeks to investigate the relations between the main characters of both novel and film and to highlight the crucially different approaches, especially in the story’s conclusion, that the two mediums adopt towards their subject matter with the hopes of understanding the motivations guiding these fictional characters