Reconstruction of History in Michael Ondaatje'sThe English Patient

Abstract

Ondaatje'sThe English Patient breaks away from the tyranny of chronology. It moves backward and forwards, in bits and pieces like natural motion of memory. By juxtapositioning history andpersonal history, he focuses the characters and their emotions. The fourshell-shocked human being began to gather the broken pieces of their lives. He subverts the traditional idea of viewing historyasa records of facts and absolute truth by presenting the fragmentsof history of characters. The scene of loss, devastation, trauma are portrayed in the novel. In their memory, the characters recreate the military and political events of 1942 the year before and after.The English Patient discloses the various truths of the characters that are hidden in traditional history.