Overcoming Emotional Barriers in Chris Cleave’s Incendiary

Overcoming Emotional Barriers in Cleave’s Incendiary
In Chris Cleave’s Incendiary, he explores the life of a middle aged working class woman whose life is blown apart by a terrorist attack. The unnamed narrator loses her husband and four and a half year old son in the attack. The narrator goes through a traumatic experience, the bombing, which makes her lose her sense of safety, her faith for the people around her, and all sense of hope is completely shattered. The narrator attempts to combat her emotional breakdown and acquires a job with the police in investigating the event. Her disparity for revenge and regaining her sense of hope leads her to unimaginable depths until she is finally relieved of her misery.
The narrator, who is unnamed throughout the entirety of the book, is stripped of her husband and four year old son when they are taken as victims of a terrorist attack at a football match. The narrator is a working class woman who lives in London, England. She deals and puts up with the stress and pressure of being in the lower-to-middle class of society. She always has to “make sure there is enough for the next day, and hope to have a time where [she] can get [her] mind off of it and relax” (Cleave 12). Her life is representative to that of the average citizen in London. On the day of the incident her husband, who works for a bomb squad, takes her son to watch an Arsenal game. Meanwhile, she goes to a pub to relieve her mind off the everyday pressure she is constantly under. After drinking in desperation, she meets a journalist by the name of Jasper Black. Later on, the narrator invites Jasper over to her house to spend some time with her. Oddly, their relationship grows intimately in quick succession of them meeting in ...

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...ride out of a human being. It is like a tube of toothpaste. You can twist it and you can crush it, but there is always a bit left isn’t there?”(Cleave 214). Finally, when the threats are cleared, the narrator lets go of all the traumatizing experiences she has gone through and strives to start a new, more improved life even with having her heart broken by the absence of her family.
In conclusion, the narrator finds her sense of hope, security and faith being shattered when she undergoes trauma after she loses her husband and four year old son in a terrorist attack. She has her emotions break her down; however, she stands against them only to have her faith in society shattered once more. Finally, she opens up her eyes to reality which in turn sets her free from her misery. Overall, sometimes the truth might be painful, but knowing can be beneficial in the long run.