Explore chapter 1 of Enduring Love and consider what it reveals
about Joe as a character and a narrator
From the very beginning of the novel of Enduring Love, the readers are guided by Joe, the narrator who is also the main character in the book. His character is revealed by the reader through the way he acts and speaks. Now we are going to explore chapter one in detail to see what features there are in Joe’s character.
Joe is a scientist who lives in London with his fiancée Clarissa. As they were having a picnic in Oxford, a cry came to their ears and there was a Hydrogen balloon going up and down the ground, a child was inside the balloon basket, Joe and other four men were trying to rescue this child but as the wind got stronger, it blew the balloon higher and further, suddenly one man amongst them gave the rope away, the balloon rose higher and John Logan, another man amongst them was still clinging to the rope. John Logan flew with the balloon and all the other men were shocked by this terrible sight.
First of all, Joe’s character is revealed by the way he tells us the story. It is obvious that Joe is a scientist as he uses some very professional and scientific words to describe things he sees. The way he thinks is very logical and analytical. For example, when Joe talks about the balloon that they were running toward as “filled with helium, the elemental gas formed from Hydrogen in the nuclear furnace if stars…” He also uses words such as “direction of the force”, “angles of collision”, “relative distances and compass point” these phrases all show that he can’t resist being related to science. Because of the fact that the narrator is a scientist, he must always find a reason or explanation of why things are like that. He is a rather cynical person and always analyse things from an outsider’s view. For example while he was at the airport waiting to meet Clarissa - his fiancée, he uses Darwin’s theory to conclude people’s feeling when they meet each other at the airport. He says, “If one ever wanted proof of Darwin’s contention that the many expressions of emotion in humans are universal, genetically inscribed, then a few minutes by the arrivals gate in Heathrow’s Terminal Four should suffice.” He then analyses that people usually use a down tone voice when they try to call out each other’s names, but when it comes to old people calling their long time no see grandchildren, it often becomes a rising note. He also says that as he sees more and more happy endings, he feels that “each one with the appearance of being slightly less well acted than the one before.” This shows that Joe often steps back from things and analyse it to make things understandable. He is not very comfortable with emotions. When people greet to each other, it seems to him that they are rather like acting than doing it from their hearts. This makes him feel that he has to act in the same way like other people around him. We can also see that Joe is good at analysing things from the way he tells us about the whole accident. Although he was totally involved in the accident but he was still able to stand back and being conscious enough to analyse during it. He seems to be very calm and can remember everything he observes in detail. He even described the accident from a bird sight’s respective. This can be shown as he writes, “” He also remembers clearly what each individual person who was running toward the balloon was doing during rescue as he says, “I got there before them. Jed Perry was on a rope seconds after me, two farm workers, caught hold just after him. The pilot was shouting instructions to us, and no one was listening.” Although the situation was nerve racking but he can still remember what everyone’s action was. In another paragraph he says, “Those one or two ungrounded seconds occupy as much space in memory as might a long journey up an uncharted river.” All these examples do not only show his logical side but also show how deep the accident has become in his memory.
