How McEwan Presents Ideas about Memory and Recall in Enduring Love :: Enduring Love Ian McEwan Literature Essays

How McEwan Presents Ideas about Memory and Recall in Enduring Love In ‘Enduring Love† McEwan has created a storyline that refers to the 1st person narrator’s own perception of his own mind and memory. Because of this we do not know whether to trust Joe or not as he is extremely biased in his own opinion. At the very beginning of the novel we, as the reader, feel extremely safe being â€Å"in Joe’s hands† because we see the very scientific, rational mind; however as we go on through the story we see the loss of rationality and we are given hints not to trust Joe as much as we did; â€Å"His writing’s rather like yours† and â€Å"Mr Tapp went to the toilet, not his daughter†. Within the opening chapter we see as a very clear memory from Joe of the balloon accident. Within this chapter we see the very rational side of Joe where we see the view of the balloon accident from a â€Å"buzzards† point of view so that it looks like the people who are within the balloon accident are on a snooker table coming from all direction. Joe is able to stop time here and point out where absolutely everyone is in relation to himself and the actual balloon. The use of narrative and chronological time not being the same in the first chapter also gives the reader different views of Joe’s own memory and what kind of state he is in within the first chapter; the change from people running towards the balloon to then of Joe’s and Clarissa’s reunion to then being back at the balloon accident. From the very beginning of the novel we, as the reader, see that Joe is a very rational person who has to think about every single detail of his own life and other people’s lives around his own. However in Chapter 3 we see a very emotional part of Joe as he describes what both he and Clarissa are up to after the great tragedy of the balloon accident; â€Å"why didn’t I think of this?† and â€Å"she caressed my balls†. This defiantly shows another side of Joe that we hadn’t seen yet, this gives the reader the insight into Joe so that we know what different sides there are to him that can affects his own memory. This is extremely important for the reader as we must know whether the narrator is trustworthy or not. At his point we are given no reason to doubt Joe and what he is telling us. However at the end of chapter 3 we are given an inclination not to trust Joe as much as we do as Jed