Ian McEwan's Enduring Love
Evident throughout the entire plot of ‘Enduring Love’, Ian McEwan
fuses three different genres: love story, detective story and
thriller. Each genre I believe has a set of expectations that captures
the reader urging them to read on, for example a thriller genre would
stereotypically be led by a fast, tense pace with characters easily
identifiable as ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’. Different, fresh and ‘novel’
McEwan establishes his break up of typical genres as he mixes the
elements of the three main genres and purposely doesn’t stick to their
rigid framework that many authors swear by. It is however important to
assess to what extent that McEwan successfully combines these genres
and how effective his method is.
During the exposition of ‘Enduring Love’, McEwan attempts to “entice
the reader into making that commitment” creating an “addictive
quality” which I believe he does so by incorporating several stylistic
devices, flowing from one to the other throughout the entire of the
first chapter. Focusing particularly on the action of the event Joe is
describing, McEwan incorporates parts of the romance genre and the
detective story, switching from one to the other frequently. “We set
off down our path arm in arm…the warmth and tranquillity in her
voice”, Concentrating on the ‘romance’ genre, McEwan allows the reader
to feel a connection with Joe as we are made aware of his emotions for
Clarissa. Exploring different themes of love, we become acquainted
with Clarissa’s love of Keats poetry, “Clarissa’s interest in these
hypothetical letters had something to do with our own situation” and
the love for others surrounding Joe at the station “it was smiles and
hugs, and in thirty-five m...
... middle of paper ...
...he is telling her. “Don’t get angry
with me, Joe. You didn’t see his face, and he wasn’t in the square”.
To conclude, I believe that it is correct to state that “Enduring Love
gracefully bridges genres”, as McEwan intervenes from one genre to
another successfully without a break up in the plot. The only
exception of this is, I believe is the chapter in which the ‘thriller’
genre is introduced as I believe that it is out of character for Joe
to go such an extreme and this is the only part of the book that I
felt I was not a part of, as McEwan failed to engage me fully with the
lack of realism. It could however be argued that this was McEwan’s
intention to alienate this chapter to depict the message that it is
possible for anyone, however radical and intelligent to take such
extreme actions under the ‘given circumstances’ and the pressures that
Joe faced.
within the fact that this book has no immediate plot. It is more of a
connection that most people have, and that is because he is relishing the power of
Structure of the First Two Chapters of McEwan's Enduring Love My primary thoughts concerning Enduring love and specifically its structure were not complimentary. It seemed to me that McEwan had destroyed any imaginative or creative matter that was present with his overly analytical and sometimes sporadic thought processes. However, after due consideration I believe that quite the opposite is true. In writing Joe's cogitations he creates a very real atmosphere and also provides a stable base from which to consider human nature, and manipulate the reader, allowing him to build an ambience of tension as he humanises the narrative.
Typically, a novel contains four basic parts: a beginning, middle, climax, and the end. The beginning sets the tone for the book and introduces the reader to the characters and the setting. The majority of the novel comes from middle where the plot takes place. The plot is what usually captures the reader’s attention and allows the reader to become mentally involved. Next, is the climax of the story. This is the point in the book where everything comes together and the reader’s attention is at the fullest. Finally, there is the end. In the end of a book, the reader is typically left asking no questions, and satisfied with the outcome of the previous events. However, in the novel The Things They Carried the setup of the book is quite different. This book is written in a genre of literature called “metafiction.” “Metafiction” is a term given to fictional story in which the author makes the reader question what is fiction and what is reality. This is very important in the setup of the Tim’s writing because it forces the reader to draw his or her own conclusion about the story. However, this is not one story at all; instead, O’Brien writes the book as if each chapter were its own short story. Although all the chapters have relation to one another, when reading the book, the reader is compelled to keep reading. It is almost as if the reader is listening to a “soldier storyteller” over a long period of time.
it being for a few fleeting words. It may not be much, but in the final words of the book,
In this way the novel ends on the course of despair that it began in
Imagine a time where every detail about your life (credit score, personality ranking, “hotness” ranking, etc.) was available to anybody around you through something similar to the present-day iPhone. Now imagine this world being reality. In Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story, this idea is reality. Everybody in the world has an äppäräti, and everybody knows everything about one another. But is knowing everything about your friends and neighbors really a good thing, especially when the world around you is crumbling because of this knowledge? Perhaps it isn’t. As Bertrand Russell, a British philosopher, once said, “In all affairs, love, religion, politics, or business, it’s a healthy idea, now and then, to hang a question mark on things you have long taken for granted.” The relationship between Lenny Abramov and Eunice Park, the main characters of Super Sad True Love Story, could have used a question mark on how culture, media, business, and technology impacted their personal relationships throughout the book.
don't know why he goes to see him, which adds to the suspense of the
The Lais of Marie de France is a compilation of short stories that delineate situations where love is just. Love is presented as a complex emotion and is portrayed as positive, while at other times, it is portrayed as negative. The author varies on whether or not love is favorable as is expressed by the outcomes of the characters in the story, such as lovers dying or being banished from the city. To demonstrate, the author weaves stories that exhibit binaries of love. Two distinct types of love are described: selfish and selfless. Love is selfish when a person leaves their current partner for another due to covetous reasons. Contrarily, selfless love occurs when a lover leaves to be in a superior relationship. The stark contrast between the types of love can be analyzed to derive a universal truth about love.
see how an author could write a book with such a short and sudden ending. The last
The Progress of Love by Alice Munro Plot: Woman gets a call at work from her father, telling her that her mother is dead. Father never got used to living alone and went into retirement home. Mother is described as very religious, Anglican, who had been saved at the age of 14. Father was also religious and had waited for the mother since he first met her. They did not have sex until marriage and the father was mildly disappointed that the mother did not have money.
Pure Love in Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood Margaret Atwood, through a series of different situations, depicts the lives of typical people facing various obstacles in her short story “Happy Endings”. Despite their individual differences, the stories of each of the characters ultimately end in the same way. In her writing she clearly makes a point of commenting on how everybody dies in the same manner, regardless of their life experiences. Behind the obvious meaning of these seemingly pointless stories lies a deeper and more profound meaning. Love plays a central role in each story, and thus it seems that love is the ultimate goal in life.
"Through love, through hope, and faith's transcendent dower, we feel that we are greater than we know."- William Wordsworth. As stated in this quote, when we have something to hope for, and someone showing us love, we are capable of many things. In the movie Life is Beautiful and the book Night love and hope are the only things that keep the characters alive. This is shown through Elie and his father's relationship when his father reminds him of his fundamental feelings of love, compassion, and devotion to his family. Then Elie and his father look out for each other in hope to make it out the concentration camp alive. Love and hope are also shown in the movie Life is Beautiful when Guido and his son were taken to the concentration camp. Here, Guido's love for his son Josh, kept him alive. Dora, Guido's wife, shows persistent hope which ultimately leads to being reunited with Joshua. In both stories the hope that of rescue and the love that for each other gets the main characters through terrible times.
It is easier to grasp a meaning of this line further along in the book.
On that fall day in 2009, Kirsten did not know that someone as intelligent and articulate as Jack might be unable to read the feelings of others, or gauge the impact of his words. [...] But she found comfort in Jack’s forthrightness. If he did not always say what she wanted to hear, she knew that whatever he did say, he meant. (Harmon 1-2)