The Literary Style of Ian McEwan
British bestselling author Ian McEwan supports his works of fiction with his richly detailed and descriptive literary style; every page in a McEwan novel is brimming with colorful imagery, which instantly captures attention and leaves the reader yearning for more. Three of McEwan’s novels, Atonement, On Chesil Beach, and Saturday, all share characteristics of McEwan’s unique style, and despite their differences in storylines, themes, and symbols, all three novels share elements of McEwan’s brilliant literary voice.
Although, McEwan’s novels include highly developed characters, McEwan almost always writes in the third person form most commonly from an omniscient point of view. Therefore, since the characters are not directly telling their stories, McEwan creates extensive and complex character descriptions to illustrate their personalities. These descriptions enable the reader to feel as if he or she has a connection with each and every character, even though the characters do not talk directly to the reader, a quality that McEwan successfully instills in his writing. The novel Atonement centers on the perspectives of three characters, Briony Tallis, Cecilia Tallis, and Robbie Turner, whose lives are all intertwined by a life-changing event. In order to further allow the reader to understand the personalities of the characters, McEwan shifts from one character’s viewpoint to another sometimes within the same paragraph, a clever way illustrate not just one, but three sides to a story: “Now there was nothing left…beyond what survived in memory, in three separate and overlapping memories” (39). On Chesil Beach tells the story of just two people, Florence and Edward, newly weds whose marriage takes a turn for the worst when their honeymoon night goes terribly wrong. Part of the lack of success in the marriage is a result of the couple’s different expectations for one another in the marriage; Edward values intimacy, while Florence loves Edward more as a sister than as a lover: “And she loved Edward, not with the hot, moist passion she had read about, but warmly, deeply, sometimes like a daughter, sometimes almost maternally” (11). McEwan’s character development not only adds to the plot of the story, but also provides an image for the reader to comprehend, which further helps the reader to empathize with the characters as they confront struggles in their everyday lives, such as Florence and Edward in their relationship.
McEwan’s descriptions add depth and credibility to his characters, but they also play an important role in setting up scenes through elaborate sensual description. In Atonement, McEwan describes an atmosphere that transitions from bright to dark, signaling to the reader that something bad is going to occur in the near future. Similar to foreshadow, the description sets the tone and mood for the coming events: “In the early evening, high-altitude clouds in the western sky formed a thin yellow wash, which became richer over the hour…sky and ground took on a reddish bloom and the swollen trunks of elderly oaks became so black they began to look blue…now the air was still and heavy” (73). On the very first page of On Chesil Beach, McEwan also sets up his scene by alluding to the future. As Florence and Edward arrive at their hotel where they will spend their honeymoon, they immediately notice a clean, white bed in the next room. The bed represents the purity and innocence of the couple’s relationship up to Edward and Florence’s honeymoon. At the same time, by acknowledging the bed so soon in the novel, the author is clearly alluding to events later on in the night, which are on the minds of the young lovers: “In the next room, visible through the open door, was a four-poster bed, rather narrow, whose bedcover was pure white and stretched startlingly smooth, as though by no human hand” (3).
In addition to the foreshadow that McEwan indicates through his scenes’ settings, which use elements of sensual description to refer to the events of the future, McEwan also uses foreshadow simply as a means of holding onto the reader’s interest in the story. By using foreshadow, the author can hint to the reader of what is to come without giving too much away, too soon. Saturday, centers on twenty-four hours in the life of a successful neurosurgeon, Henry Perowne. After Perowne gets in a car accident with a dangerous street thug with poor self-control named Baxter, his life is drastically affected as a result. At first, the accident appears to be a simple confrontation between two characters, but the reader soon realizes that Baxter will play a far greater role in Perowne’s life. Throughout Perowne’s day he feels a nagging sense of unease, an indication that crossing paths with Baxter, as well as the other events in his life going amiss that day, will come back to haunt him: “Saturday’s he’s accustomed to being thoughtlessly content, and here he is for the second time this morning sifting the elements of a darker mood. What’s giving him the shivers? Not the lost game, or the scrape with Baxter, or even a broken night, though they all must have some effect” (125). In Atonement, a young and ignorant girl named Briony wrongly accuses Robbie Turner of committing a crime he did not commit. Briony witnesses Robbie flirting with her sister Cecilia, but instead of understanding it as a simple flirtation, she mistakes it for a violent confrontation by assuming Robbie assaulted her sister. However, instead of asking her sister about the situation she witnesses, she turns Robbie in to the police, all the while lying about his intentions. Earlier that day, before Briony falsely accuses Robbie, Robbie contemplates his love for Cecilia and the freedom she makes him feel: “One word contained everything he felt, and explained why he was to dwell on this moment later. Freedom” (85). McEwan is clearly foreshadowing the loss of freedom that Robbie will experience as a result of Briony’s misjudgment: he will be torn apart from Cecilia, sent to prison, and forced to fight in World War II.
In On Chesil Beach, McEwan uses various examples of foreshadow, alluding to a couple’s lack of success in its marriage. Not only does the author illustrate all the ways in which the lovers’, Edward and Florence, honeymoon could possible go wrong, but he also implies that the lovers have had trouble in their relationship from the start. Somewhat different from his more subtle foreshadow in Saturday and Atonement, the author shows the reader quite early in On Chesil Beach the lack of chemistry that Edward and Florence share in their marriage. As Florence looks back on the first time she met Edward, she realizes that she was so moved by Edward’s presence that she neglected to notice that they’d had little connection between them: “All these years she had lived in isolation within herself and, strangely, from herself, never wanting or daring to look back. In the stone-floored echoing hall…her problems with Edward were already present in those first few seconds, in their first exchange of looks” (76). McEwan once again uses foreshadow in order to alert the reader of the events to come and to allude to the conflicts the characters will have to face in the future.
McEwan further develops his characters by including elements of contrast to his writing. Although, examples of contrast are not as direct in his novels compared with his use of detailed description, contrast still plays an important role in demonstrating McEwan’s literary style. Contrast adds depth to the author’s characters in a subtle way by illustrating the internal struggles that all the characters must deal with. In Atonement, the author focuses on Briony Tallis’s own personal dilemma as she jumps to conclusions and accuses Robbie Turner of a crime he did not commit. Subconsciously, Briony is aware of the fact that Robbie would never chose to hurt her sister, but by enabling herself to believe a lie it is easier for her to access the situation as if Robbie did assault her sister: “what she saw must have been shaped in part by what she already knew, or believed she knew” (115). Here, McEwan shows the reader how Briony is caught between the world of truth and the world of lies. Either way, she will have to face consequences for her actions, but it appears simpler to herself to believe her own assumptions rather than acknowledge the fact that she actually misinterpreted what she saw. McEwan uses his contrast to draw the line between reality and what his characters want to believe. This quality in his writing is further demonstrated by the identifiable contrast he created between his characters, Edward and Florence, in his novel On Chesil Beach. The lovers have very different expectations for their marriage, and as a result of the lack of similarity in their hopes for their relationship, the two struggle to connect to one another. Edward views intimacy as an essential part of his relationship with Florence, while Florence values her friendship with Edward far more than intimacy. McEwan’s contrast between Edward and Florence is a clear indication to the reader that the couple’s marriage cannot survive unless the two are able to reach each other on a relatable level. The author therefore focuses primarily on Florence’s personal concerns about having a sexual relationship with Edward to further emphasize the distance dividing her and her husband. She does not look forward to sharing this experience with Edward, but rather cannot think of the act without a sense of disgust: “her whole being was in revolt against a prospect of entanglement and flesh; her composure and essential happiness were about to be violated…sex with Edward could not be the summation of her joy, but was the price she must pay for it” (10). By using contrast in his stories, McEwan shows to the reader the internal battles that every character attempts to resolve, offering a deeper glimpse into the lives of his characters.
In three of his novels, Atonement, On Chesil Beach, and Saturday, Ian McEwan’s eloquent literary voice provides the foundation for the compelling stories of his characters’ lives. With powerful description, vivid imagery, and extensive character development, all supported by elements of foreshadow and contrast, Ian McEwan cleverly lures the reader into his intriguing works of literature.
All pictures courtesy of google.com
Leave a comment