The beginning paragraph symbolises to the reader that this event is meaningful and significant, “This was the moment”, “Touched my palm”, (in my opinion, this metaphorically means, touched my life), “This was the pin-prick on the time map”, and “This is the last time I understood anything at all”. There’s a sudden transformation in atmosphere between the characters. From a romantic scene a sudden disturbance created by a problematic obstacle changes everything, “…We heard a man shout”. “We turned to look across the field and saw the danger”. The pace quickens and the anxiety is built up. Ian McEwan shows recognition of this transformation and identifies it to the reader, to emphasise the panic and shock, “The transformation was absolute”.
Joe is constantly reflecting on the incident with precise detail, which represents him to the reader as being accurate and rational.
Another four characters are introduced into the novel, as the problematic obstacle does. Joe states two of their full names; this shows his formality and precision. This also tells the reader these two characters are going to be important in the novel. “…Was the motorist, John Logan”, “…Evoke the figure of Jed Parry…” McEwan then relieves the sense of urgency to give accurate details of his surroundings. He also uses passionate language in his description; this allows the reader to connect back to his romantic scene with Clarissa, “…rushing towards each other like lovers”.
After this, McEwan abandons telling the story in past tense and switches to present tense temporarily, “What was Clarissa doing?” He leaves the balloon scene and starts talking about Clarissa, this shows her significance in the novel, and Joe’s strong feelings towards her.
“I’m holding back, delaying the information”, here McEwan directly tells the reader he’s holding back, this builds suspense for the reader, encouraging them to read on. His language is regretful and scientific. ”I’m lingering in the prior moment because it was the time when other outcomes were still possible…” and “knowing what I know now…” We know Joe is technical, scientific and a deep thinker by his language and use of description, “The initial conditions, the force and the direction of the force, define all the consequent pathways, all the angles of collision and return…” making his character more complex so the reader becomes more intrigued in him. He describes the event with facts and rules extending this opinion, “I linger on our dispositions, the relative distances and the compass point”.
McEwan still doesn’t refer back to the balloon scene; instead he discusses the events before the picnic with Clarissa, “For this was a reunion after a separation of six weeks”. He talks about Clarissa’s beauty and this emphasizes his love for her. He uses imagery and emotive language to describe her, which is the opposite of how he describes everything else. He uses an oxymoron, “…world’s most complicated simpleton”. This shows how well Clarissa knows Joe. Joe also describes and analyses Clarissa’s passion for John Keats, a romantic poet, “Its easy to imagine him writing a letter he never intended to send”. He also uses facts and his opinions to describe all about him, showing his good knowledge of her passion. He lists lots of facts about John Keats, but says, “I knew little about Keats or his poetry”, this shows that he has no real shared interest in her passion and that he’s not easily satisfied, as he knows quite alot. The reader can gather that Joe is not a poetic person, as he finds it hard to express feelings. This is obvious through his language and descriptions, “...To do with our own situation, and with her conviction that love did not find its expression in a letter was not perfect”, “I had tried to match hers (her love letters), but all sincerity would permit me were the facts…”
McEwan finally breaks away from this subject of Clarissa to focus back onto the balloon. Suspense is running high in the novel now, yet he still continues to withhold information keeping the reader interested.
Throughout the story, McEwan changes the pace of the story. The pace quickens, suddenly slows down, and just as suddenly quickens again. This keeps the reader on edge to find out what is going to happen and continue to read on to find out.
The main confrontation with the balloon scene (Pg. 10) shows an insight to Joe’s character further. It shows his desire to be dominant and controlling. He dislikes the situation because there was no structure of control, which is a daily routine in his life, “But there was not time, no opportunity for force of character to show” and “I know that if I had been uncontested leader the tragedy would not have happened”. This also shows his self-assurance and confidence in his own abilities. Joe speaks very negatively about the pilot. Even though he is the professional, he had no control over the situation and its obvious Joe disliked this, he shows no respect for him, “the pilot had a fourth idea but no one knew or cared what it was”.
As the novel continues McEwan introduces more scientific language from Joe, this continues a character insight. McEwan gives all the other characters involved courageous jobs, like a doctor, mountain rescue worker, and involvement with a paratroops regiment. Joe is involved in science, and this makes his character seem the weakest, less physically experienced. Joe is working in a team on the spot, this seems out of character for him and should be natural for the others. He’s uncomfortable with the idea of no organisation and control in a situation.
McEwan finished the first chapter with a cliffhanger. After all his withholding information and delaying the story, he finally tells the reader the consequence of the event. Joe thinks tragedy was a product of his failure as he takes it personally and blames himself. He describes the falling of John Logan descriptively, “He fell as he had hung, a stiff little black stick”. In the final sentence he refers to John Logan as “That falling man”, not formally with his name. This is McEwan way of showing Joe deliberately blocks out any emotion by not naming him, by not giving him a life and a past. The language is emotive and creates sympathy for Joe. It raises further questions for the reader, like what happens next and what are the after effects of the tragedy? So, the reader continues to read on to discover these answers.
McEwan’s construction of layout, language and character introduction all play a major part in building this suspense and interest. They all come together perfectly to urge the reader to continue reading. Ian McEwan also said, “I want this book to be like an addictive drug for the reader” he achieved this with his fine description, creating imagery. The change of pace throughout the chapter, allows suspense to be created, and by Joe as the narrator withholding information it allows the reader to be curious, building suspense and raise questions in their mind, creating a successful opening chapter.
