The two texts The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad challenge the ways of Western culture, their ways of thinking and their values. The English Patient brings together people of different cultural backgrounds who desire to evade the confinements of nationality and identity. Heart of Darkness enquires into the nature of colonialism, questioning the values of white civilisation, the wish for power, wealth and status which bring the innate human darkness to life.

The English Patient set during World War II brings the lives of the four protagonists together. The Hungarian Almasy, the Canadians Hana and Caravaggio and the Sikh Kip, all from different cultures, "each of them entered the villa from a different doorway," in a metaphoric way, meeting at one central point. The four characters cope with the war in different ways but it is also this that brings them...