Celestine: Week 7, Saturday

In Saturday by Ian McEwan the main character Henry Perowne is a neurosurgeon who is very engulfed in his work and very prideful about his skills of performing brain surgery. Henry Perowne is a loving husband and father who enjoy spending time with his family though it can be difficult because of his job and the time commitment. He has two adult children a daughter, Daisy, who he has not seen in six months and a son, Theo, who lives with him and his wife, Rosalind. Henry is looking forward to spending Saturday with his family because Henry will unite them all along with his father in law John Grammaticus for supper cooked by him. Before this dinner can occur Henry is disturbed by two incidents that indicates he is neither as safe nor as secure as he like to be after 9/11. The first event that shows Henry’s lack of security is his stance on taking Saddam Hussein out of power in Iraq. Henry originally believes that the war is unnecessary because he does not think anything will be solved from it and he is a confrontational man. His opinion is swayed when as Zoe Heller writes in “ Saturday”: One Day in the Life, “ He cannot help seeing things from the viewpoints of others: his children, his mother and his Iraqi patient, whose stories of torture in one of Saddam’s prisons have persuaded him that the invasion of Iraq is a probably a good idea (3, 2005).” Henry begins to think that the war is necessary because Saddam mistreats his citizens and uses his power for evil. In an argument when Daisy first arrives home they argue about his stance because Daisy does not like that her father thinks the war is needed and that people will not be able to tell its success for another five years. This infuriates Daisy because she feels like her father is avoiding his real opinion based on the facts presented. The argument between Daisy and her father represent a lack of security for Henry because he does not have a solid opinion and it can be changed depending on whom he is speaking too.

Also in Saturday and incident that shows Henry’s lack of safety is when Baxter and Nigel enter his home with Rosalind. Henry had not seen Baxter and his sidekick since he fled the accident earlier that day. For them to enter his home-unannounced shows that the world is not as safe as people would like to think. Like Nan A. Talese says in A Day in the Life, “Ian McEwan, through Perowne, examines the randomness that makes up a life, and the random events that can undo one (2,2005).” She allows the reader to understand that events can occur without the prior knowledge or preparation of the victim. This relates to 9/11 because the American citizens who were harmed and killed when the twin towers collapsed were not aware that this event was in occurrence because of they were they would not have been at work and national security would have been tighter. Had Henry predicted Baxter figuring out where he and his family lived they could have been protected and on guard for his arrival; their Saturday family reunion would have turned out the way he had hoped it would.