Ian McEwan stated that in writing "Enduring Love" he wanted to create a novel of ideas. What are the most important concepts that he explores in chapters one to five of "Enduring Love"?

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Ian McEwan stated that in writing “Enduring Love” he wanted to create a novel of ideas. What are the most important concepts that he explores in chapters one to five of “Enduring Love”?

Enduring love is a novel, which explores many aspects of the human life and mind, some being: love, different perspectives, science and the human urge for story telling. These concepts are noticeably different and range for one extreme where feelings and emotions from the heart will take control to the other extreme where only facts and knowledge from the brain are used. This makes it an appealing novel to most audiences whether they are emotive or scientific.  However which one is the most important?

Firstly when exploring the theme of story telling it is noticeable that it is introduced to the reader right from the start. The ballooning accident is re-told to the reader by Joe Rose in a form of a flashback. The opening line, “The beginning is simple to mark,” prepares the reader for the story about to be retold. It also makes them completely aware of a narrator who holds complete control over the plot.

However this is simply the introduction to this theme as McEwan gently introduces it to the reader. Further on in the chapter three the deeper meaning of the story telling theme is portrayed.

Joe and Clarissa arrive home after the traumatic experience of the accident and they retell each other their own personal narratives, the main purpose of this being so that they can gain some sort of explanation as they are confused by the whole event- “…how do we make sense of this?” Clarissa asks Joe at one point.  All forms of narrative reach a point where issues are resolved and there is some form of closure achieved. This is what the couple are searching for.

   “There was so much repetition that evening of the incident.”

Clarissa and Joe are looking for the problem to be solved and the answers to their questions. However they struggle with this hence the need for the repetition. They keep going over the accident again and again in detail to try to search for the solution.

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The metaphor of the “craftsmen at work, grinding the jagged edge of memories, hammering the unspeakable into forms of words, threading single perceptions into narrative,” also shows how they are struggling with the physical effort of piecing the parts of the story together in order to gain sense of it just like how a craftsman would hammer the parts of a construction together. The words “grinding” and “hammering” shows how the couple are breaking the story up into manageable pieces the placing it back together in a different form. Craftsmen are very dedicated and pay good attention to detail ...

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