A comparative essay of the openings of 'Enduring Love' and 'Knowledge of Angels'.

Joanna Lowe Page English Literature

A comparative essay of the openings of ‘Enduring Love’ and ‘Knowledge of Angels’

Compare and contrast the openings of the novels ‘Enduring Love’ and ‘Knowledge of Angels’. Examine in detail both form and content, and assess the effectiveness of each as a beginning of a novel.

‘Enduring Love’ by Ian McEwan and ‘Knowledge of Angels’ by Jill Patton Walsh are two very different novels, concerning very different subject matters, yet both have managed to master capturing the reader’s avid attention and imagination in their enthralling openings. One about a catastrophe involving a hot air balloon, another set on a distant Mediterranean island, both novels have the essential components to a compelling introduction. They not only provide the reader with an insight into the novel, but when written in an original and intriguing style, as both these novels have been, the reader becomes drawn in, causing them to read on.

The first line of the two introductions are both equally fascinating. ‘Enduring Love’ begins with suspense, as the first line, “The beginning was simple to mark”, causes the reader to question the beginning of what, exactly? The fact that it is a short, sharp sentence, leaves the reader wanting to know more as it has been established that whatever has happened, will be told in retrospect. Not only is this intriguing, but it is a tool used by McEwan to cause the reader to continue reading, in order to find out what has happened. In comparison, the first line of ‘Knowledge of Angels’ is entirely different in its approach to the reader. ‘Enduring Love’ starts with a statement, whereas in ‘Knowledge of Angels’, the writer’s presence is immediately known, from the opening line “Suppose you are contemplating an island”, the writer directly addresses the reader. This is effective in inducing the reader into imagining an island, conjuring this image in their imagination – rather than stating that the story is set on an island, the author tells the reader to picture where it is set.

It is interesting that only the first few lines of the chapter of ‘Enduring Love’ have any link with the novel’s title. The book begins with a romantic love scene, where the narrator of the introduction is having a picnic with his partner, the setting being almost a cliché, when they hear a cry of help, and we are told nothing more of the narrator’s relationship with ‘Clarissa’. From this point onwards, there is no other reference or linkage to the title and the story moves as swiftly from here as the narrator of the story runs to the scene of despair. ‘Knowledge of Angels’ however, is quite abrupt in its broaching the topic of angels. After describing the setting for the novel on an island in the Mediterranean, Patton Walsh compares the readers view of the imaginary island to an angel’s perspective on the world below, “At this height, your (the reader’s) viewpoint is more like that of an angel than that of any islander.” It is from this introduction to angels and their place in society and the world, that it becomes quite apparent to the reader that the title will have a prominent theme throughout the rest of the book.

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Both introductions to the two novels have many literary devices, which cause the reader to find the book interesting. ‘Enduring Love’ uses the mechanism of changing point of view between the narrator and to him seeing through the eyes of the buzzard flying overhead, “I see us from three hundred feet up …five men running silently towards the centre of a hundred-acre field.” This is effective in its ability to provide the reader with different perspectives, for example, rather than just being told about the man narrating running towards the situation, the reader is given a view from above, looking ...

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Similarly, Patton Walsh also employs this device in ‘Knowledge of Angels’ as she changes the point of view several times throughout the introduction, providing the reader with different aspects of looking at the story. The novel opens with the description of a far off island and so the most obvious change of perspective is when in the second paragraph, the writer acknowledges the reader’s presence by claiming that their position when reading a novel is comparable to that of an angel’s position in the world. Patton Walsh goes on to say that the reader holds a superior stance on the goings-on within a novel, “Yours is, like theirs, a hovering, gravely attentive presence, observing everything, from whom nothing is concealed.” From here, the author goes on to discuss the time scale in which the novel is set, and again there is a shift of viewpoint when she refers to Hamlet, concluding that the novel is set “in the long slow centuries of the deep past.” This is an unusual approach to an introduction, however it is extraordinary in its ability to intrigue the reader.

McEwan on the other hand, manages to keep the reader’s attention throughout the opening, as the reader doesn’t find out what the actual problem is until the very last sentence of the first chapter, which in itself is interesting. This is effective in not only the way that it arouses the reader’s curiosity about what this man is running towards but also creates a tense atmosphere. A fast pace of writing is used so that the reader gets caught up in the action and feels a sense of urgency to finding out what the problem is. In addition to this, throughout the opening, a deliberate narrative technique used by McEwan is to apply questions to keep the reader’s interest, delaying the provision of information about what was wrong. The narrator asks himself “What was Clarissa doing?…What were we running towards?” , which slows the pace and changes to what the other characters were doing, for example, how his partner Clarissa and the other characters arrived at the scene of emergency. This almost acts as a freeze frame, causing further tension to build up, drawing the reader back into the novel. Not only does this encourage the reader to focus on what’s actually happening, but also at the same time, it provides an opportunity for the narrator to introduce a bigger picture of the characters.

In contrast, ‘Knowledge of Angels’ is unique in the way that the presence of the author is known throughout. The reader is immediately thrown into a very abrupt beginning, and put in a position to obey the writer. She does this by using extremely descriptive text rather than allowing the reader to imagine his or her own island as a setting for the novel. She bullies the reader into seeing what she wants them to see and for the reader, this is effective in that they feel as though they are looking through the eyes of the author. To begin with, there is a vast amount of description, in which the scene is set, rather than any story coming into play. However, although the portrayal of the story’s setting is very detailed, the description is detached.

The two novels oppose one another in their narrative, as ‘Enduring Love’ is told in retrospect whilst ‘Knowledge of Angels’ chops and changes between the past and present. McEwan uses the device of retrospect effectively as he gives the impression that you could be reading a police review, as the narrator recounts the story without emotion. It is very descriptive in terms of characters, where they came from and how the sequences happened, yet it does not mention any of the emotions that would have been running high during this time. The tone is calm however when it was taking place, there would have been an air of chaos and frenzy. In contrast, Patton Walsh uses a second person narrative in ‘Knowledge of Angels’, rather than first person as used by McEwan, with a notably commanding tone as the introduction is written instructively. The language used by both McEwan and Patton Walsh is interesting in its structure and form, but the most noticeable difference between the two is that all of the verbs in ‘Knowledge of Angels’ are in the present tense, which is unusual for a novel.

However, although the two openings contrast one another, both authors employ an extremely fast pace for their introductions, whether it is to create tension or to simply set the scene. Although for the first few sentences of ‘Enduring Love’ the pace is quite steady, once the second shout is heard, the pace quickens as the man embarks on his running toward the air balloon and remains this way throughout the first chapter. McEwan’s use of syntax also contributes to the fast pace of the opening as his use of short sentences creates both excitement and tension for the reader, ”I was running towards it. The transformation was absolute." The use of this device makes the opening an effective one as it comes across as a fast, pacey style of writing, making the reader want to read on. Similarly, Patton Walsh also writes with a fast pace in order to set the scene quickly, providing the essential information, so that the story can start.

The openings of both novels are effective as introductions, but in very different ways. McEwan’s sense of urgency and withholding of information makes the reader crave for hints as to what has gone wrong and what is happening. Therefore, this makes the introduction effective in its ability to draw in the reader and cause them to want to read on in order to find out the outcome of the catastrophe. Patton Walsh, on the other hand, although manages to capture the readers imagination, she does so in an entirely different way to McEwan. By using instructive text, creating an image for the reader, she sets the scene entirely in the first paragraph and once it has been established, so allows for development of the story. The way in which this introduction is phrased not only makes it interesting reading, but because it is phrased in such a way that demands a greater attention, the reader becomes more involved in the novel. Additionally, the attitude expressed towards the existence of angels in our world, adds further intrigue for the reader, therefore fulfilling the necessity of an effective opening to a novel.

I personally found the opening to ‘Enduring Love’ more compelling than that of ‘Knowledge of Angels’ simply because I felt that the text was easier to relate to and that the story was more readable. Although what I read of ‘Knowledge of Angels’ I found interesting, I felt that overall the text was too heavy, the way that the author addressed the reader was too personal and that it didn’t initially grasp me as a novel that I would want to continue reading. Despite ‘Knowledge of Angels’ being able to hold my attention, I found myself desperate to find out what happened in the rest of the book after reading the first chapter of ‘Enduring Love’. I think this was down to the fact that the narrator of the book withholds vital information from the reader in order to create anxiety from within, “I’m holding back the information”. Although the narrator builds up the tension that leads to this catastrophe, he doesn’t inform the reader of what is install for him and the other characters, but most importantly, doesn’t say what the actual emergency that caused five men to run to, was until the very last minute. I found that this caused me to quicken my pace of reading in order to find out what had happened, proving it to be more effective.

In conclusion, I think that the introductions to the novels ‘Enduring Love’ and ‘Knowledge of Angels’ proved to be effective in that they grasped the attention of and managed to maintain the interest of the reader. In both cases, I’m sure the majority of readers would want to read on after reading these first chapters. They were interesting as openings as both authors adopted several literary techniques, which only added to their ability to captivate the reader’s imagination, and overall they were definitely effective as the beginnings of novels.