The experience of war places stresses on the human spirit that can scarcely beimagined in peacetime. Dilemmas that can be largely avoided in time of peacemust be faced in a time of war.
Concern for one’s own physical safety is oftenat odds with concern for the wellbeing of one’s countrymen. The dictates ofthe mind often fight the dictates of the emotions. In such a tug of warsituation, where practical and moral factors align themselves in strange andironic patterns, it is hardly surprising that individuals respond in highlydivergent ways. In this paper, the dangers that war poses to the human psychewill be considered and an attempt will be made to account for the some of thevariability that can be seen in the way in which individuals respond to thesethreats.
An examination of two books suggests that certain character traits helpinoculate people in time of war, better enabling them to withstand the assaultsof war. It also suggests that the absence of certain traits makes peoplevulnerable when they are placed in threatening circumstances. In examining twoliterary works: The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis and The English Patient byMichael Ondaatje three character traits that were necessary in order to ensurespiritual survival were clearly shown.
These traits were faith, courage, andloyalty. In the course of this paper, special attention will be given to thecharacter traits described above. The significance of their presence or absencein the personalities of a number of literary characters will be considered. InThe Screwtape Letters, Lewis’ portrays an anonymous English protagoniststruggling to maintain his spiritual integrity against the assaults oftemptations of Hell during World War Two. In The English Patient, Ondaatjeportrays a group of characters, brought together by their circumstances,reacting to what the author portrays as the tidal wave of war. The importance offaith, courage and loyalty enable Lewis’ character to spiritually survive allthe assaults of wartime.
The absence of these characteristics cause Ondaatje’scharacters to flounder. Faith, courage and loyalty provide a necessary frameworkfor moral thought and action, enabling the soul to survive even under theadverse conditions presented by war. C. S. Lewis deals extensively with thedangers that war poses to the human psyche. In his wartime work entitled TheScrewtape Letters, he presents an essentially hopeful view concerning theability of the soul to survive the assaults of war.
He proposes that having theright perspective is the key to the soul’s survival. Lewis deals with a widevariety of temptations that serve to undermine the integrity of man in hisjourney through life. All of these temptations assert their power to some degreein peacetime. Yet, their power is often strengthened by the pressures of war.
InThe English Patient, Michael Ondaatje presents an entirely different perspectiveconcerning the effects of war on the human psyche. Although he never spells itout, Ondaatje seems to take a fairly deterministic view. The fate of hischaracters often seems to lie beyond their control. It is almost as if hischaracters have been struck by a giant tidal wave and are helpless to resist asthey are carried away. The reader seldom gets the impression that Ondaatje’scharacters have alternatives other than to think and act the way they do. Theyare presented as victims of circumstances who warrant our compassion but not ourjudgment.
Each leaves the war deeply scarred in the spiritual sense. In the workof C. S. Lewis, faithfulness to God is the factor that ensures the soul’ssurvival.
Lewis describes the danger of being overwhelmed by “the stream ofimmediate sense experiences” (Lewis pg. 12). A man’s tendency to focus on theimmediate and the personal at the expense of the universal threatens his abilityto survive in any spiritual sense. When focusing on his own inconvenience,hunger and pain, a man tends to lose sight of broader concerns, such as hisspiritual wellbeing and the common good.
Faith enables a man to focus on thespiritual and the eternal, to face each day’s trials with commitment anddetermination and to survive war with his psyche intact. Lewis grapples with theparadox of war. Lewis argues convincingly that, while some may be destroyed bywar, others may actually experience spiritual growth through adversity. Alertedto the finite nature of life and made more conscious of the needs of others, aman’s faith and strength may flourish in ways that he never dreamed possible.
Lewis dispels the belief that a long, relatively peaceful or painless life isany guarantee of spiritual survival. He expresses fear for the souls of thosewho die “in costly nursing homes amid doctors who lie, nurses who lie, friendswho lie. . . promising life to the dying, encouraging the belief that sicknessexcuses every indulgence, and even . .
. withholding a priest lest is should betrayto the sick man his true condition. ” (Lewis pg. 32).
During wartime, the needfor courage cannot be ignored. Lewis sees courage as “not simply one of thevirtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means thepoint of highest reality. A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields todanger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate wasmerciful till it became risky” (Lewis pg. 148).
Yet, courage must be groundedin faith and resignation to God’s will. Lewis explains how worrying about thefuture and taking precautions against the dangers of war tend to underminecourage. When a man begins to obsess about all the things he can do to increasehis chances of survival, his commitment to doing his duty becomes “honeycombedall through with little unconscious reservations. ” In a moment of terror,these reservations will assert themselves and his overriding concern will bephysical self-preservation. (Lewis p150). Only by putting his full trust in Godcan a man avoid the threats to the spirit that uncertainty brings and actcourageously under all conditions.
Key characters in The English Patient eachpossess some of the traits that Lewis deems to be important: Yet each ofOndaatje’s characters displays certain frailties that weaken his chances ofspiritual survival. Each of the characters is profoundly influenced by the?stream of immediate sense experiences’ that Lewis analyses so vividly inthe Screwtape Letters. Each allows the pain and suffering that he has witnessedto destroy any faith he had in God, country or the war effort. Caravaggio is aman who possesses tremendous courage. In his role as a spy for the Allies, herisks death and torture on a daily basis throughout the war.
After beingcaptured by the Germans and having his thumbs cut off by them, he finds his wayto a villa in Florence where Hana, a Canadian nurse and daughter of an oldfriend is caring for a burned and dying patient. There, he devotes his days toconvincing Hana and Kip, the sapper whom Hana loves, to abandon theirresponsibilities. He urges Hana to leave her dying patient even though there isno one left to care for him. Referring to the Bedoin tribesmen who rescued theburning man, he says, “Those men in the desert were smarter than you. Theyassumed that he could be useful.
So they saved him, but when he was no longeruseful, they left him. “(Ondaatje pg. 45) Confiding to Kip, he blames the waron the rich who ” have to follow the rules of their. . . civilized world.
Theydeclare war, they have honour and they can’t leave. But you two. We three. We’re free. How many sappers die? Why aren’t you dead yet? Be irresponsible. Luck runs out.
” (Ondaatje p. 123) Caravaggio is portrayed as warm, human andvery likable. Yet, he is a man who has lost his faith, his loyalty and hisconfidence. The English Patient is portrayed as a man of great intellect. He is?the wise man’ who sees ?the greater picture’.
Yet, at critical times,he reacts in a manner that is narrow and self-serving. He has an affair with thewife of friend and colleague, a man whom he claims to love. This is portrayed asa natural response of one caught up in a tidal wave of emotion. He blames ?thewar’ for destroying his research, his adopted homeland, and his friendships;yet he makes no credible attempt to come to terms with the terrible events thatmade war inevitable.
He collaborates with the Germans, dooming thousands in thedesert to torture and death. He rationalizes his behaviour and abdicatesresponsibility for his actions by blaming the war on international financial andmilitary interests rather than on Nazi aggression. Yet the English Patient isportrayed as a thoroughly likable victim. Never is it suggested that he is theproduct of the choices that he himself has made.
Kipp, the Sikh sapper, is a manof tremendous discipline. Charged with the unenviable task of diffusing bombs,he survives against all odds through a combination of resourcefulness and agreat ability to concentrate. He possesses many admirable qualities, traits thatshould have enabled him to withstand the assaults of war with integrity. Yet,Kip never seems to reflect upon the issue of why he is at war until the end whenhe falls apart . Kip’s wartime relationships with the English arecharacterised by mutual respect, acceptance and, in several instances, love.
Throughout the story, Kip is glued to his radio where he would, no doubt, haveheard of the German and Japanese atrocities that were being revealed on a dailybasis in 1945. Yet, suddenly, he is swept away with revulsion at the news of thedropping of The Bomb on Hiroshima. He literally blames the English for all ofthe evils of the world, including the dropping of the bomb. In response to anact that he sees as racist and imperialistic, he abandons his post and allloyalty to the war effort. Hana, the heroine of the novel, is, in many respects,the noblest of Ondaaje’s characters.
After months of sustained and intensiveexposure to the pain and suffering of others, she refuses to move on with theAllied troops as they travel north in their occupation of Italy. Instead, shechooses to remain with one horribly burned patient who is too ill to move. Hana’s psyche is deeply damaged by the pain that she has witnessed. She istotally caught up in what Lewis would term ?the stream of immediate senseexperience. ‘ She is portrayed as half-mad, prone to mania and depression.
Attimes she is completely overwhelmed with her sorrow and sense of helplessness. At other times, she rejoices as the rain drenches her through the gutted roof ofthe villa that she calls home. She seems to be lacking in religious faith andfeels nothing but scorn for the leaders of the Allied war effort. Still, sheremains loyal to a cause that goes beyond her own wellbeing. She risks death ona daily basis as she fulfils her duties in a villa that the Germans left full ofmines and booby traps.
Her devotion to the English Patient and her stubbornrefusal to abandon him redeem her. They help compensate for her frailties,giving her something greater than her self to live for during the dreary springof 1945. Faith, courage, discipline and loyalty preserve the soul, though notthe body of Lewis’ anonymous hero. The absence of one or more of these traitsweakens the spiritual immune system of each of Ondaatje’s leading EnglishPatient characters. Carvaggio faces post-war life lacking confidence and faith. Kip returns to India hating the system that he has given his heart and soul for.
At best, he can see himself as a helpless pawn, a victim or a fool. At worst, hecan see himself as a willing agent of death and destruction. The EnglishPatient, presumably, dies muddled as much by his own rationalisations as by hismorphine. He clings to a love that he uses to excuse acts of personal andcollective treachery. Hana finds herself in an extremely vulnerable position asshe faces her post-war future. She has abandoned any faith that she ever had inGod, her country and her civilisation.
She has placed all of her faith, trustand loyalty in the hands of her patient and her lover. This has given hersomething to live for as the war winds to an end. But when these two abandonher, she has no faith in anything but herself to fall back on. She returns toCanada, completely distrustful of human relationships. Many who have endured thehorrors of war may relate to the disillusionment portrayed by Ondaatje’scharacters.
Many who would never claim to possess the virtues promoted by C. S. Lewis clearly reflect them in the way in which they live their lives. These arethe wartime survivors who continue to inspire those who have never endured thehorrors of war. These are the survivors who show what it means to live a goodlife, even under the most adverse conditions. BibliographyLewis, C.
S. The Screwtape Letters. Great Britain: Fontana Books, 1942Ondaatje, Michael. The Engish Patient.
Toronto: Vintage Canada, 1996
