Clarissa’s obsession is with John Keats, a poet, who is dead. In the novel it is Joe who discovers and at the same time assumes that Clarissa has this obsession with Keats. “I thought she had spent too much time lately in the company of John Keats” there could be a perfectly suitable explanation for Clarrisa’s in depth interest in Keats because she teaches literature at a university. The narrator does not provide us with enough evidence to investigate whether this obsessions exists or not.
Mc Ewan uses many techniques to present these characters obsessions. One of the ways he does this is by giving the characters a chance to narrate, this may be to show the reader how they cope with telling a story. It also suggests that one narrator of the book is not enough to tell the story. Joe, Clarissa and Parry are the characters who get the opportunity to narrate parts of the story. Through these characters narrations readers are able to distinguish their views and feelings toward each other obsessions. This helps readers to piece together missing parts of the jigsaw, giving them a full view of each of the characters obsessions.
Another familiar technique used to present characters is when he shows characters repeating or having flash backs on encountered events. “I recall me incoherent feelings the day before when I had run out into St. James square looking for Parry. Then he represented the unknown, into which I projected all kinds of inarticulate terrors. Now I consider him to be a confused and eccentric young man who couldn’t look me in the eye,” This technique is useful in showing readers how characters tend to play things back in their mind to try and make sense of them to perhaps set their mind at ease.
One other strategy Mc Ewan uses is leading the reader into a situation then when the reader becomes accustom and in a way trusts and believes the character, he gives them a reality check. This results in the reader questioning them self on how much they really believe the character. “His writing looks rather like yours” here we can see that Clarissa is not totally convinced that Parry is stalking Joe, she is implying that he may have written the letters himself. This then makes the reader realize that if Joe’s girlfriend cannot trust him then why should we.
The strongest obsession lies between Joe and Parry. The narrator has a greater interest in the relationship between the two. As the story processes we learn of different encounters of Parry with Joe and Joe with Parry. Most of these scenes when they meet up with each other nearly also ways have a violent atmosphere. This reflects on the mood of both characters. “Still trapped in the centre, his finger and his words obliterated at irregular intervals by the passing traffic, he raised his voice to such a hoarse screaming and I couldn’t look away.”
Joe and Clarissa are aware of each other’s obsessions but not of their own obsessions. While Parry is not aware of either, he concentrates on his own. However Clarissa is more aware of Joe’s obsession than he is of hers, this is because he tries to justify the fact that Parry is obsessed with him and that it is not the other way around.
I think that Mc Ewan’s techniques in trying to present obsession in the book are very effective. This is because he does not go into depth at the first minute he gets the chance to; he breaks the obsessions down a little for the readers. Also leaving clues. Giving us a chance to work out and debate whether we think a character is obsessed or not. In other words he lets us develop parts of the story in our own unique ways then lets us find out whether we were right or not. One example is when Parry first started harassing Joe with letters, he mixed religious with love. At first we thought that he had some kind of religious love for Joe but later on our minds changed to thinking he may be gay. “I praise God that he has sent me to you. I know there is difficulty and pain ahead of us, and in the long run it will bring us to even greater joy.” This is an example of an understandably religious love we thought Parry had for Joe in the early scenes f the story. As his love grew greater for Joe we had to reconsider whether this was true or not. “I closed my eyes and see you as you were last night, in the rain across from me, with the unspoken love between us as strong as a steel cable.”
I also think that Mc Ewan is successful in drawing the reader’s attention towards the obsessions in the book. He connects each part of the book with the use of words that equal similar meanings e.g.: crack and broken. This triggers recent scenes in the readers mind, reminding them of previous events. The reason why he may be doing this may be to help the reader remember important parts of the story which link up to obsessions between characters and may be also justifies certain parts of their personality.
