The English Patient: Caravaggio In Michael Ondaatje's novel, The English Patient, Caravaggio remains an enigmatic character who greatly influences each of the other characters as well as their complex inter-relationships. His role as a Canadian-Italian thief has ultimately engulfed his life by lies: "He [has] lived through a time of war when everything [has] offered up to those around him [is] a lie. He [has] felt like a man in the darkness of a room imitating the calls of a bird … There was no defense by to look for the truth in others"(117). The existence of the anonymous English patient has therefore encouraged Caravaggio to seek of the truth of the burned man. As h