Later in chapter 18 Joe describes to the reader about the morning of Clarissa’s birthday. However we are again totally committed to believing what Joe says because we have no other point of view to compare it with. By now we are not sure whether or not to trust Joe or not because of the points made to us by Clarissa earlier on in the novel, for example how Jed’s and Joe’s handwriting seem to be the same; we are given the idea that Joe himself has created these letters himself and is telling us his own misguided recollection. The show of affection at the very beginning of chapter 18 shows that Joe is still very emotional and this shows that there is still a side of Joe that is still the same as at the very beginning of the novel; “When I gave her a card she kissed me full on the lips”. After the morning of Clarissa’s birthday Joe goes to talk to the police, and to create more suspicion for the reader they wont believe a word of what he is saying; “the harassment consists of…?”, this adds to the reader’s doubt about whether or not to believe Joe as if the police don’t believe him then we are given the hint by McEwan not to believe Joe yet again. At the end of Chapter 18 we see a memory of Clarissa’s last birthday from Joe’s perspective. This is a very detailed description of her last birthday, this gives the impression that Joe can remember very certain facts when they concern him directly and if it is something he really wants to remember, such as a happy day with his girlfriend.
In Chapter 19 Joe meets up with Clarissa and Jocelyn, her godparent, for her birthday meal. In this chapter Joe gives his present to Clarissa after listening to Jocelyn’s story of how DNA was discovered. In the first paragraph he is very factual about his surroundings but in the second paragraph Joe gives us his memory of what happened, which is not like the rest of the novel where he has been there describing events as they happen, this time he is taking a step back from the story and describing them as they had already happened. This is very different form the rest of the story; this could be seen as a change in style for Joe, as though he is becoming more and more irrational. In this second chapter he describes the food as “red” and tells us how the waiter brought out “the fat tongues of roasted peppers”, this refers back heavily to earlier on in the chapter where Clarissa and Joe kissed; “these days our tongues never touched, but this time they did”. This gives me, the reader, the impression that he is more involved in remembering his own emotional status rather than remembering details about what is happening within the restaurant. However he then goes on to describe someone that is behind him with his daughter and an elderly gentleman; he tells us how he later found of that his name was Colin Tapp; this shows us that Joe is becoming very irrational in telling us his story as he keeps jumping from one part in the story to one later on and then having to go back to fill in what he has missed.
About half way through this chapter Joe tells us that he is finding it very hard to remember certain facts about his own recollection of the course of events; “or were these details I observed later, in the chaos, or in the time after the chaos?” These words come from Joe’s own mouth and create even more doubt in the reader’s mind about whether or not to trust Joe seeing as he is starting to doubt himself. Another thing Joe says is that “a day or so later it became temptation to invent or elaborate details… to force memory to deliver what was never captured”, if this is true then how do we really know whether Joe is actually telling us what happened or just his own invented version? Joe then tells us that the next thing that he remembers is the arrival of the “waiter with our desserts in stainless steel bowls was temporarily soothing”. This gives us the thought of whether or not Joe is trustable as he can remember such great minute details like the stainless steel bowls. Joe tells us that his sorbet was lime flavoured and on the white side of green in colour. Next the hit men come in and shoot Colin Tapp and Joe is convinced that the bullet was meant for him.
In Chapter 20 Joe talks to the police about the shooting. The questioning of Joe by the police inspector gives the reader insight into the other people’s views that were at the restaurant and so gives us a chance to compare Joe’s version of events to other people’s. The inspector goes through all the events that Joe has said and what the other people in the restaurant have said and how they differ; “Mr Tapp went to the toilet, not his daughter”, “Number five is from all the witnesses except you: one of the men said something in a foreign language”. This makes us think that Joe is just imagining all these events to make his own story true and therefore we shouldn’t believe what Joe has told us throughout the whole novel. And to complete the reader’s disbelief in Joe’s own memory and how he is recalling the story is the fact that the sorbets were brought to the table during the shooting and were vanilla instead of Joe’s belief of “apple. If the guy says its anything else then we’re talking about two different waiters” – however earlier on in chapter 19 Joe tells us that his sorbet was lime flavoured not apple and therefore he is contradicting himself. This is enough for the reader to completely lose faith in Joe’s narration throughout the novel and we are left in a state of not knowing what to believe as the truth and what not to anymore.
Throughout the novel McEwan has created an element of distrust between the reader and the narrator, Joe, by creating ideas that make the reader reads into without even thinking about. McEwan has used memory and recall very subtlely so that the reader doesn’t read much into it at that point, but has used it enough to make the reader distrust Joe. McEwan has defiantly used the idea of memory and recall and how they can be corrupted very easily on what the individual actually wants to believe and what is actually true very well and has used it to his own advantage to create the atmosphere within the novel.
