Hanas Isolation
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Hana's Isolation
In The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, the character of Hana emanates isolation and detachment. She is alone at the beginning, alone at the end. A lack of fulfillment surrounds her throughout the novel set as World War II winds down to an end. For Hana, closure is achingly far away. The war devours all the people she loves.
As a nurse, Hana treats an English patient who suffers from extensive burns on his body. Strangely, she directs all her spirit into nursing him. She performs various physical acts from bathing him to feeding him a plum from her mouth: "She pours calamine in stripes across his chest where he is less burned, where she can touch him....She unskins the plum with her teeth, withdraws the stone and passes the flesh of the fruit into his mouth" (4)..