How Does McEwan Hook The Reader?

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How Does McEwan Hook The Reader?

“Beginnings matter. They always have. Middle’s have no limits- they can scrunch up or they can sprawl. Endings may be left open, ambiguous, and incomplete. Never has a novel not begun. And if it doesn’t begin right, the suspicion is that the rest of it won’t be right either”.

“In an age of multiple choice and short attention spans, beginnings are more crucial than ever. To prevent readers drifting off, an author has to hook them quickly”.

A prime example of a great beginning is the first chapter of ‘Enduring Love by Ian McEwan. Many regard this as the best introduction written for a modern novel.  "Enduring Love" opens with a chapter so masterfully written, that the rest of the novel must inevitably disappoint. The standard of the opening is so high that in theory no other chapter will be able to compete with such brilliance resulting in an anticlimax, this must follow some kind of thermodynamic law of literature. McEwan achieves this greatly deserved acknowledgement by the way he hooks the reader almost immediately. His use of various techniques allows him to place the reader in a situation created by him. By doing this he has you, the reader, in the position he wishes thus creating an opening chapter so good it would be impossible to put it down.

McEwan uses many different techniques to hook the reader and to try and create suspense. From the first line of the chapter, “the beginning is simple to mark”, he gives a clear explanation to the reader of the situation and that it isn’t very complicated. It suggests that something important is going to happen, encouraging the reader to continue with the story to discover exactly will happen. By changing the pace of the chapter, with the use of varied sentence lengths he is able to build tension. This attracts the reader because the speed is not the same and the change keeps the reader from losing interest. Short sentences are used for tension whilst longer sentences are used for description. When integrated together these create a great piece of suspense, enabling the reader to feel part of the action, and even feel the same emotion as the narrator. The main reason why the readers are hooked is due to the action taking place almost immediately. The ballooning incident is the main event in the book and it occurs in the first chapter. The great imagery, and the detailed description enable the danger, drama, anxiety and the action of this incident to become clear, thus creating a great start to the novel. McEwan uses a lot of emotive language to make us feel the emotions of the narrator; this is a key feature in making the reader feel part of the action. He plays on the idea of the unknown, where it says, “ I was running towards it” he does not describe what he sees, but leaves the reader in suspense anxious to read on to discover what he is running towards. He continues to describe the incident. However he does not just use the narrators view point, but also a birds eye view - in this case from the eyes of a buzzard. This enables the reader to become fully aware of the situation, creating a fuller picture thus placing the reader in the thick of the action. The way McEwan uses language and metaphors also increases the chance of hooking the reader. He mentions a buzzard’s view and buzzards are birds’ of prey that are associated with death. He plays on the idea of death when mentioning what Joe does when he goes to investigate the dead body of Logan. Once we get the buzzards’ view McEwan than focuses in-depth on the characters, almost creating a cinematic view of them, thus enabling the reader to grasp the character in full. This method of describing characters allows McEwan to not only describe the characters in detail but also in a method that will not bore the readers as the idea of presenting them in a cinematic view enables the reader to continued to be focussed.

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The opening chapter of the book has different genres; first it starts out as a romance, when the narrator and his wife are picnicking, but then gradually turns into a thriller, men trying to keep the balloon down. It is this merging genres which keep the readers intrigued, by changing the genre the writer changes the events which are going to happen, keeping the reader on his toes and therefore suspense is created as the reader does not know what is happening next. Throughout the opening chapter there are odd statements scattered around such as “rushing towards each other ...

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