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Foreshadowing
Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
The English Patient is a historical fiction novel. Inspired by the real life of László de Almásy, a Hungarian explorer and member of German intelligence during World War II, the novel uses real-life settings and historical events as a backdrop for its fictional narrative. The novel takes place in the past, beginning in the early 1930s and concluding at the end of World War II in 1945, after the United States dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Although László de Almásy is the inspiration for The English Patient—and indeed, the novel's main character shares his name—the surrounding figures are fictional, as are the narrative's events taking place at the abandoned villa San Girolamo. Additionally, the novel primarily uses an omniscient third-person narrator to shift between the perspectives of the English patient, Hana, Caravaggio, and Kip. The English Patient weaves together these four characters' narratives, glimpsing their past and present as they navigate tumultuous societal conditions in a war-torn Italy. The novel also introduces themes of love, death, colonialism, and mystery as the narrative progresses, establishing itself firmly as a multi-dimensional historical fiction novel. Additionally, it addresses contemporary questions of nationalism and the price of war through its exploration of historical trauma.
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