Henry Perowne Saturday

Saturday, a novel by Ian McEwan, was written in 2005 in response to McEwan’s interest in the interplay between the social and professional worlds. McEwan’s novel follows top English neurosurgeon, Henry Perowne, through a typical Saturday disrupted by various intense events. Perowne takes many of these events in stride, allowing his logical nature to carry him through the process of action and reaction, each step proceeding rationally from the next. Perowne’s logical views of the world and the people within it are born from his education and work as a neurosurgeon. Within the novel, these views progress into every part of Perowne’s life from his relationships with his friends and family to his hobbies to his opinions, mainly his opinions regarding

He came “straight from school to medical school to the slavish hours of a junior doctor, then the total absorption of neurosurgery training spliced with committed fatherhood—for fifteen years he barely touched a non-medical book at all” (McEwan 4). For the last fifteen years, Henry Perowne has not had time for art and literature, because he has been working. Once Perowne has entered the mindset of his work, the mindset of a neurosurgeon, he finds himself “enmeshed in the direct and personal relations of ruler and ruled” (Weeks 2). However, instead of a physical person being placed over Perowne in order to govern his work, Perowne is ruled over by the logical mindset instilled within him by his chosen profession. It guides all of his actions inside and outside of work. After years of extensive medical schooling and work, Perowne understands the need to see the world in the most efficient light. Each time that Perowne works, he takes the value of a life in his hands. One wrong step means huge consequences for both Perowne’s patient and Perowne himself, forcing Perowne to think logically at all times. In his life, this logical mindset makes it so there not time be for outside pleasures of literature and art, because it does not feed into a logical life path. Perowne’s work has consumed his life so thoroughly that it affects his everyday thoughts and reactions to the events around

Perowne notes that during his surgery’s he enjoys playing classical music. At one point, “Perowne gets Gita to put on Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings.’ It’s been played to death on the radio these past years, but Henry sometimes likes it in the final states of an operation. The languorous, meditative music suggests a long labor completing to an end at last” (McEwan 264). Perowne has a love for classical music, even to the point where he allows it to overlap with his work. It calms his mind and allows him to focus on the task at hand. However, even though the music is used to enhance the logical nature of Perowne’s work, at its core the music is still a piece of art. The fact that it can cause Perowne to feel a certain way makes it an artistic piece. The music has completed its goal and has provided not just a positive feeling to Perowne, but also by extension his patient who receives the value of positively motivated work Perowne’s work. Perowne’s logical work is made better by having art affect it. By having an interest that is so firmly entrenched in the artistic, Perowne contradicts the idea that his logical nature cannot support the artistic. The arts can support the working work that Perowne comes from, even though Perowne himself cannot see