Editing The English Patient (section)

===Hana===
Hana is a twenty-year-old Canadian Army nurse torn between her youth and her maturity. Being a good nurse, she quickly learns that she cannot become emotionally attached to her patients. She calls them all "buddy,"{{sfn|Ondaatje|1993|p=51}} and forgets them immediately once they die. Her lover, a Canadian officer, is killed and because of this, Hana comes to believe that she is cursed and that all those around her are doomed to die.

In contrast, upon hearing of her father's death Hana has an emotional breakdown. She then puts all of her energy into caring for the English Patient. She washes his wounds, reads to him and provides him with morphine. When the hospital is abandoned, Hana refuses to leave, staying with her patient. She sees Almásy as saint-like and falls in love with his pure nature.{{sfn|Ondaatje|1993|p=45}}

In addition to her relationship with Almásy, Hana also forms a strong relationship with Kip during his stay at the villa.

Hana seems to not be able to acknowledge or even come to terms with her father's death. As she almost sees no reason in returning home and her excuse to stay in the now abandoned hospital is to take proper care of the English patient, due to Almasy not being able to move because of how severe his burns are externally and internally as well. On top of this Hana fails to reply or write back her step-mother, whom she loves and is the only living family she has left. Clara writes to Hana for a year whilst she is in Italy; Hana keeps every letter, but fails to write back even with such woe and guilt filling her heart.

Hana seems to be putting off her life as a young adult and at times shows her immaturity throughout the novel in ignoring Caravaggio's advice or suggestions or simply not facing the reality that awaits her back home. She seems as if escaping reality and being completely isolated from the rest of society is better than growing up. Hana escapes reality simply by stalling in taking care of the patient, rearranging her set up inside the deteriorating villa, listening to what Almásy has to say or the stories he tells, and by reading books to him over and over again.

Hana claims to have changed and grown up mentally throughout being a nurse during the war, as one would expect, but her "growing up" seems to be much more of building up a wall and being stuck in this continuous process of trying to heal an already dead body.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Adhikari |first1=Madhumalati |title=History and Story: Unconventional History in Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient and James A. Michener's Tales of the South Pacific |journal=History and Theory |date=December 2002 |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=43–55 |doi=10.1111/1468-2303.00219 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kyser |first1=Kristina |title=Seeing Everything in a Different Light: Vision and Revelation in Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient |journal=University of Toronto Quarterly |date=October 2001 |volume=70 |issue=4 |pages=889–901 |doi=10.3138/utq.70.4.889 |s2cid=162499349 }}</ref>