Structure of the First Two Chapters of McEwan's Enduring Love

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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.

The time period; each individual chapter follows chronologically from

its previous, and within the chapter the events are logical and follow

a chronology to a certain degree. What complicates the chapters are

the digressions. Although each piece of narrative used to develop the

story as an account of the happenings, follow on from each other, they

are interrupted by digressions and threads of unnecessary thought for

the simple description of occurrences to progress. Digression,

philosophising and simple reflecting are common in most novels, they

are the corner stone of the novel in most cases. Enduring love is

different in two aspects. Firstly it overly digresses and secondly its

digressions are sporadic and rather erratic. With these digressions

McEwan is able to manipulate the reader. This is the key to tension.

'The beginning is simple to mark. We were in sunlight...'

To explicate my meaning we read the first paragraph of the novel and

are quite beautifully caught in the flow of language. Everything ...

... middle of paper ...

...and levels of tension at will. Diminishing the

tension is as difficult as building it up, this is a sure sign of

McEwan's elegant writing, proving the high level of tension already

built up.

So with these first two chapters, we can clearly see that, the

structure of language, the time period, the emotional manipulation,

and the structure of Joe's 'mind flow' McEwan uses influences the

reader, developing the tension from the first page. A tension so

vividly present in the event that it makes McEwan's job painless.

However, with his subtle pauses and reflections, diminishing the

tension frustrating the reader, he maintains this tension throughout;

from 'the sunlight...to the radiating power of Jed Parry's love and

pity'. We keenly await the conclusion of the events, and the

denouement of Joe and Jed's relationship.

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