In the novel Saturday by Ian McEwan, Henry Perowne, is a neurosurgeon and also the main character of the. He lives a very comfortable lifestyle and has a loving wife Rosalind and two adult children. He and his wife are very much in love. He focuses much of his time on his work however. The setting is a Saturday in London, England in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks (2003). One specific incident in the novel is when Henry sees the burning plane falling from the sky and automatically goes into terror attack defense mode. He begins to think about what the passengers must be going through. Like it I discussed in the review “A Day in the Life” by W.R. Greer the UK is an ally of the United States so it would make sense that their country might be the target of another terrorist attack. Henry develops so many feelings about insecurities and not feeling safe. He is skeptical about his safety because of the vulnerability that the Unites States experienced during the 9/11 terror attacks. He lives in fear of
In another incident Henry gets into a minor car accident while trying to make it to a squash game with a fellow surgeon. On the route to the game there are protesters who are gathering in an anti-war effort. He is able to escape the man he got into an accident with, Baxter. He does this by diagnosing Baxter with Huntington’s disease. Even thought he was punched in the chest before. Greer writes, “It’s this random event that will haunt Perowne, eventually threatening everything he hold dear in his life.” In a way Baxter also infiltrates Henry’s sense of security like the 9/11 did. Because Baxter threatened Henry’s wife and degraded his daughter among other incidents Henry’s safety is again invaded. Henry loses his sense of security and like his country at the time awaits anticipated attacks. His future mindset relates exactly to these things and his lack of protection.
3 comments:
The incidents you discuss are important, but you need more analysis of the subtleties of the way in which Perowne's confidence is undermined. What about the opening scene?
You mentioned Perowne being skeptical about his safety and I would to if I had just witnessed a burning plane shooting across the sky. His mind was probably all over place and confused. During the course of that Saturday, he experienced quite a lot and it caused him to question his safety in this world. He was assaulted over a minor automobile collision that he was lucky enough to walk away from with only a single punch to his chest. However, he had to talk his way out of the altercation by recognizing the onset of Hutchinson disease in Baxter. What is the world coming to? There are people wanting to fight and be violent over simple things that can be solved by swapping insurance information and or taking a few pictures for proof. To make his day go even worse than what it was, he was threatened in his own place of residence along with his family. It had to be a horrible experience to watch his father-in-law assaulted and his own daughter humiliated by being force to take off all of her clothes. I don’t know about others, but I find my home to be a place where I feel secure and comfortable. Your home is one of your most private possessions and to have it violated is not good at all. Perowne now has all the right to question his safety in this world.
I think that Henry Perowne sets himself up for his paranoia – both his personal insecurities and his secular worries. You mention that Perowne’s lifestyle is very “comfortable.” The guy has the perfect family, and he has always had a structured life. As a neurosurgeon, he went through extensive schooling (structure), and he has scheduled surgeries (structure) throughout his work life. At the end of his work day, he comes home to a clean house, and a hot, home-cooked family dinner – even his squash games are scheduled with his friend. The events that occur during the day are so erratic and out-of-place that Perowne literally begins to question everything about himself as a person and his safety in the world.
It isn’t every day that a person sees a burning airplane, but it also isn’t normal for that person to begin to question everything around him. The same idea applies to the car accident that you mention – a double dosage of sorts because he fears for his physical well-being, and he also questions the morality of his self-defense tactic. Perowne was just trying to protect himself by acknowledging Baxter’s Huntington’s disease, and he should feel no shame for defending himself. Instead, he questions the morality of what he did, which I don’t think he would have done normally. To me, the shock of the sharp transition between being in complete control of his “perfect” surroundings to immediately losing power over the situations is the cause for his “insanity.”
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