Indentity Loss Essay -- essays research papers

In The Odyssey and The English Patient the main character, Odysseus and Almasy, suffer from a form of identity loss and try to regain it. They both regain their identity through the help of other people. Every person that stumbles across a piece of their past helps them regain a piece of their identity. Because he cannot remember Almasy must get help remembering his past from the people around him. One of his first memories came from the book â€Å"he brought with him through the fire- a copy of the Histories by Herodotus† (Ondaatje pg 16). Hana reads some of the notes that he had written in the book; she reads of the different winds â€Å"the ---, the secret wind of the desert, whose name was erased by a king after his son died within it. And the nafhat—a blast out of Arabia† (Ondaatje pg16-17). Before Hana had read this passage Almasy couldn’t tell her the name of the tribe that had helped him after his plane crashed. â€Å"The Bedouin were keeping me alive for a reason†(Ondaatje pg 18); Almasy was able to recall what had happened to him and who had helped him. Hana had stumbled on a passage that helped Almasy remember what had happened. Odysseus comes across a piece of his identity in a different way. He goes to the island of Kalypso and she promises him that she will make him a god. The challenge that she put on Odysseus was to go to the island of the dead. Once he was at the island of the dead Odysseus realized that he did was not dead and he wasn’t a god, this meant he was somewhere ...