Certain structures give credit to the presence of national identity in the novels. Throughout In the Skin of a Lion, Ondaatje illustrates the construction of the Bloor Street Viaduct, a bridge connecting east and west Toronto. The midnight before its grand opening to the public, the workers, almost entirely immigrants, walk across the bridge, "their candles like a wave of civilization." (27) This incident gives rise to the presence of multiculturalism being the foundation in the construction of Toronto's new ethnically apt identity in the twenties and thirties. In seeming contrast to the idea of the Bloor Street Viaduct demonstrating importance on ethnic differentiation, the Italian villa of The English Patient exists. In Tuscany, two Canadians, an alleged Englishman and a Sikh take refuge in the abandoned building during World War II. In the beginning, the inhabitants seem to get along harmoniously. However, as the war comes to a close, large numbers of fatalities are reported from Hiroshima, Carravagio reveals the English patient's real identity as a Hungarian aid to spies and in turn Almasy (the "English" patient) decides that he would like to end his suffering as a result of the pain from being burned beyond recognition in a plane crash. Before she leaves for her native Canada, Hana gives Almasy an overdose of morphine. Kirpal and Carravagio also return to their respective nations out of disillusionment from each other and the war. This desire to return to their own ethnic backgrounds reveals the characters" revelations in their own perceived self-identification. Through recognition of structures as a powerful force in the realization of identity, Ondaatje places emphasis on ethnicity in context to the nature of identity. .
Characters in both novels dismiss their own national identity for a time while living in particular environments. Patrick Lewis, originally from Bellrock, Ontario, feels "new to himself" upon arriving in the turbulent new world of Toronto in the 1930s.
