The Time In Between was a "good read" for me. Somehow I connected with the character of Charles and I felt I could relate to his frustration with not being able to pinpoint what it was he was looking for. The image at the left was taken during the Vietnam war and perhaps it was similair to the images that haunted Charles and drove him to seek answers after all those years. Again, as in some of the other novels we have read in this class, this book causes the reader to ask himself what the point of war is and it also shows how normal people can do horrific acts during war. Another area that is explored is the idea that the effects of war can carry on through generations. In reading Anne's response, I have to say I differ on her analysis of Charles committing suicide. I think that a man who has sought for answers to his personal living hell that he cant escape, may choose suicide as an answer when he feels he has failed to find those answers and I believe this is the point Charles had reached when he chose to drown himself. This was made more clear to me when he left the note for Ada and Jon telling them of his pain and this to me was an admission to his inability to find answers , and an apology to them. I also found it interesting that Ada seemed to start to follow in the footsteps of her father in looking for him, but her answers were easier to find at least partial questions to and that is why she did not kill herself. This novel was sad but interesting and it helped to answer some questions I have had as to why my grandfather would not talk about his war memories; after all, who knows what attrocities he may have committed? War is hell. It doesnt make sense and I hope none of my family and/or descendants have to partake in it.

Final Essays

Hi class!
I was wondering if anyone knows if theres a list of possible essay topics that is going to be posted. Thanks!

Anne's response to The Time in Between

I have to say that I am neutral on this book.  I didn't find the plot, characters, or narrative overly interesting.  As far as Charles is concerned, I read him as a weak character of himself.  I didn't like that he killed himself -- there seemed to be very little driving him to that decision.  Yes, he saw horrors in Vietnam but I was expecting there to be more attempts on his part to reconcile his actions with the remaining villagers, not just the one try and then killing himself.  

I honestly did not see the point of the characters, Jack and Elaine Gouds.  At first it seemed like there was going to be more than a superficial relationship with Elaine and Charles but then he just turned himself off.  I would much rather have seen him bond with Elaine and perhaps achieve some healing through a relationship her.  It would have been more dramatic and appealing (to me) if Charles had become attached to her and then, despite attempts to reconcile his past with her help, he killed himself.  Also, his ghosts could have been more awful.  I found Kiet had more ghosts than Charles did and I felt more compassion towards Kiet.  But maybe the author wasnt' tryin to make us feel sorry for Charles.....

I thought Jon was a useless wimp who needed a huge reality check.  Ada should have dragged him back to the morgue and made him face his father's corpse.  I come from 'old school' stock that says if the father's gone, then the son needs to step up and be a man and support his family.  Jon did the opposite in Vietnam with Ada - he hid behind his fears and wasn't around when Ada needed him most.  Then he gets angry with her when she almost dies and doesn't have a chance to tell him that their father killed himself.  

Ada was an interesting character but I don't think she was fascinating.   I wasn't sure where she was coming from and I still don't know.  She was vague and closed off.  She maybe opened up a bit with Hoang Vu.  She was the reliable, sensible sibling so maybe that has something to do with it.  I would have like to have seen her get really angry with Jon and put him in his place instead of being passive with him.

Rachelle's Response to The English Patient

As a war novel, the English Patient deals with the post-war effects on both humans, and the landscape. This book did an excellent job of creating images of the landscape and of the villa which was turned into a make-shift hospital. All of the characters of this novel were fascinating and unique. I would have to agree with Holly that the novel is much better than the movie. But perhaps this is because, with the novel we were able to create the characters and the settings in our own minds, and when watching the movie they didn't meet up to our own individual expectations.

One distinct difference between the movie and the novel was Kip's reasoning for leaving. I felt as though his reasoning was understandable in the novel. He needed to get away from that place, and return home. He felt as though he had been supporting the wrong side, and as though he was almost responsible for the bombings. In the movie after his friend dies he just packs up and leaves, and you're left waiting for the rest of the story.

Hannah is an interesting character, she is clearly emotionally wounded at the loss of her father, friends, and the things she has witnessed. However, by taking care of the English Patient, it is as though she is healing herself, and regaining the aspects of who she is.

This book was a good read, however, I would argue that at points it was a bit flat, and I was waiting for something to happen, like a mine to go off inside the villa. I wasn't pleased with the ending either. Anne had warned me that she herself wasn't happy with it, and once I read it I understood why. If Kip was still longing for Hannah, why wouldn't he just go and find her? Instead of constantly being reminded of her and thinking about her even though he had married moved on and married another women, this was a frustrating element of the novel for me.

Jim's Respons to "The English Patient"

Two images: one horrific and one beautiful. How could anyone like the image on the left, yet what innocence and beauty portrayed by the image on the right. War is the image on the left and love the imge in the photo on the right. What a horrible way to die; in war , what a waste.

What a pointless endeavor.

This is one of the themes that I get from The English Patient. Kip realized the pointlessness of war starting on page 282. I find it hard to imagine what it would have been like risking your life every day defusing bombs to save lives and then finding out that two massive bombs had killed thousands of people instantly and they were dropped by those who he was disarming bombs for. To Kip a life was a life and it did not matter if you were Britsh, German, Italian, American, or Japanese; a life was a life.

The other theme that jumped out at me was one of an overall dislike of ownership and boundaries, or borders. On p.261, It states, "We are communal histories, communal books. We are not owned or monogamous in our taste or experience. All I desired was to walk upon an earth that had no maps." This is a very important passage in the novel and I believe it to be one of the main themes. It caused me to realize that most wars are fought over ownership of lands or possession of people an/or resources, and if we did not have boundaries and ownership as much a lot of war would be avoided.

This novel was beautifully written and time after time in the reading of it I came upon passages such as, " ...a tarpaulin to hold the rain of real life away from him."(p194) that added a beauty to the book just from the reading of it. This novel touched on many aspects of love and war and went deep into eexploring many of them. It is now one of my favorite reads, but I will have to soak it up at least a couple of more times to get more of what it yearns to give me.

Hollys Response to the English Patient

For starters...I had seen the movie before I read the book, and found it slow.
THE BOOK WAS BETTER!!
In saying that, The English Patient is still not one of my favorite books that we have covered in this class.
Probably my favorite aspect of the book is that which is also probably the most confusing. I really liked how the story line jumps from the different characters. I feel that this provides greater depth and personality to the characters and their backgrounds. I am conciously trying to compare the movie to the book at this point, since some of you have not seen it yet, so I will be omitting that from my response until next week!
I am not sure if I find the imagery so spectacular because i have seen the movie and already have images in my mind as I read the story, or if Ondaatje provided these images for me as i read. I am interested to watch the movie again and see how close the images in my mind came to the actually film.

As i read the book, I found myself curious about the way sexuality is brought up in the characters lives. The abrupt terminology used to describe either sexual body parts or sexual acts does not seem to fit with the rest of Ondaatje's writing. I am curiuos about why its portrayed in this way. For example, Hanna says "dont touch me if your going to try and fuck me," and the very first page of the book describes the naked English Patient's "penis sleeping like a seahorse." ok, so is there anyone else who LITERALLY laughed out loud when they read that? I did, and i will not forget it anytime soon. i think that Ondaatje's could have chosen to illuminate sex in the story because of the time period- but for me, it feels as if some other writer slipped sex into the story in order to make it more hollywood. There are times where the writing is smooth and well fitted with Ondaatje's writing style in the rest of the novel, so my question is, why so abrupt in other parts?

re: anne's response to english patient

hi - don't know what happened to the line spacing.  it looked all good on the preview and then i hit 'publish post' and it looks like it does - argh!  sorry that it's all shmushed together :-(