At the start of the novel the narrator is presented to the reader as a man who lives in a well ordered world. Examine the way in which your responses to the character are shaped up to and including chapter 15.

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At the start of the novel the narrator is presented to the reader as a man who lives in a well ordered world. Examine the way in which your responses to the character are shaped up to and including chapter 15.

At the beginning of the novel, the author goes to great lengths to show the narrator as an intellectual, upper-middle-class and logical person. During the first chapter, we are exposed to the fact that Joe clearly enjoys the finer things in life. For example, the food he buys for the picnic and the present he buys for his lover, Clarissa. These items are obviously not things a working class person would buy. The fact that Joe leads this kind of lifestyle makes his downward spiral later in the novel all the more dramatic.

We are also given our first glimpse into how Joe's mind works. At the airport, McEwan presents Joe as very analytical. This is a reflection of the work he does. He watches how people react with a cold detachedness.

"...I experienced more than fifty theatrical happy endings, each one with the

appearance of being slightly less well acted than the one before, until I began to feel emotionally exhausted."

This is a brief view into how Joe thinks. He is very pessimistic about human emotions and how they are portrayed. He seems to think that the feelings shown at the airport are acted out. This kind of reasoning is common throughout the beginning of the novel. Even when faced with the tragedy of the balloon crash his scientific mind comes through. McEwan is perhaps suggesting that rationalising things is Joe's way to cope with crisis.
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The first chapter also seems to contradict itself over Joe's character. At first glance, he seems to be very self-confident, almost pompous.

"I know if I had been uncontested leader the tragedy would not have

happened."

But if we look closer, we see this isn't the case at all. When describing himself, he says himself to be "balding" and "clumsy". This leads us to believe that his self-confidence is a type of mask to protect what seems to be a very vulnerable person. This idea is further reinforced by Joe's constant worries that Clarissa ...

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