Concrete Island by JG Ballard - Essay Example

? In J. G. Ballard’s Concrete Island, the main character Maitland is strangely reluctant to join the real world, seemingly preferring to stay on in the island. There are several reasons that made him wish to continue to stay on the island such as discovery of self, connection with the island, pleasure in exploitation and so on and since he has no one to miss him he can continue to stay a while longer and enjoy his new found identity. Page 1 J G Ballard is a writing genius who creates situations of high definition modern life crisis and puts some humans to deal with them in the best possible manner. Concrete Island forms the second book in the JG Ballard’s thematic trilogy novels based on urban disaster in England. This novel is followed by “High-Rise” and preceded by “Crash”. As the name implies, the book is about a Concrete island that is not a natural island but a manmade one formed by the intersection of three speeding motorways. This manmade island is a triangular section of land and is as isolated as a geographical island. The concrete island virtually traps the protagonist, the wealthy architect Maitland and stops every means of escape. The island is compared to a living thing that changes it form like a chameleon. It first gets hold of his car wrecking it up so that his one escape means gets destroyed and later grasps him, claws at him and forbids him to leave it until he himself have an upper hand on the island and thaw all its moves with the help of his intelligence and instinct. Maitland finds himself trapped in this triangular piece of land while life goes on as usual in that metro city. People even see him from their passing cars but mistake him for a bummer and refuses to stop. But, as the protagonist become more and more acquainted with the forgotten piece of landscape, he feels more comfortable living there, until he finds that the island is the mirror image of his self, “I am the island” (pg. 10-11) and he decides to continue to stay. There are various factors that made Maitland stay on in the concrete island. Let’s explore some of them. Page 2 Entry into Island- Accident or Work of Fate? Maitland is a thirty plus modern day Robinson Crusoe who is stuck in an island of concrete with no means of escape. He is a rich architect living a fast and furious life who has a wife along with a mistress, a high profile job and all the luxuries that life can give him but no time for himself. He is basically running off from one appointment to the other with little time for a break, speeding up his vehicle, until destiny puts a comma on his life and he gets a chance to evaluate his inner self and take destiny in his own hands by deciding to stay on in the void created by humans even when the chance to escape is presented to him. Thus, it could be fate itself that directed him to the island and urged him to stay on. Nobody to Miss Him Maitland crashes into the concrete island at a crucial time in his life when nobody was expecting him. Hence, this is the time when people would not miss him and his absence would not be questioned. Thus, Maitland has to restore to his resources to be able to stay alive. Maitland is a very impulse individual who rushes into things without waiting to think of their consequences. He is afraid of fate and of unknown and does all that he could to escape as fast as he could from the disaster that he finds himself surrounded in. But, however much he runs from the island, he finds himself back in it and worse for trying it out. It is like the island is surrounded by invisible Page 3 walls and he only hurts himself while trying an escape route. Like Robinson Crusoe he has to live on the meager ration of his car. Slowly, Maitland starts acquainting him in this new landscape and in the process discovers that he is not alone in this rough piece of land. He has two more neighbors in the form of Jane, a prostitute and Proctor, an acrobat. Thus, Maitland may decide to stay on for some more time until his appearance becomes necessary and people would start looking for him. Till that time he may like his anonymity and continue to live a rustic life. Also, he may have a Freudian desire to be missed by people he cares about. This could make him decide to stay on in the concrete island. Discovery of Self After being marooned on the island, Maitland decides that he needs to explore the island fully to know about the escape routes that would help him to get out of this physical bondage and get back to his normal life. Life on the island is tough and time is on hold. In this deep isolation and solitude a man gets a lot of opportunities for his musings and starts discovering new aspects of his self. Thus, while exploring and identifying the unknown rough terrain, Maitland also gets the opportunity to know more about himself and hence his decisions to stay overrides his need to get out of this concrete isolated patch of land. This makes the protagonist continue to want to stay on the island. Page 4 King of Terrain The escape route from the island is a tricky one. Therefore, the island needs to be mastered before it allows its inhabitants to escape from it. The people have to make a geographical map in their heads and explore all the avenues of exit. Hence, it took quite some while before Maitland could find how easy it was actually to get out of the island. But, once, Maitland had known and mastered the concrete island then his need to escape from it vanishes. Now he is the king of this uninhabited place and knows every part of it; yet as a king he would wish to remain forever here and be a master of the terrain and his self. Concrete Island Symbolic of Self The concrete island where Maitland is thrown along with his car is actually a symbol of his own self. First the island is treated as the extension of his broken vehicle. Next it takes the form of the protagonist’s thoughts. And lastly, the “places of pain and ordeal” on the island are actually compared with the physical pains and agonies that Maitland is experiencing due to his various injuries. Hence, at each level this isolated architect is feeling an imminent connection with the concrete island be it his body or his soul. And by connecting his physical inflictions to the places of pain and ordeal found in the island, Maitland is able to separate his physical self from his spiritual being. He is like a saint who evolves from his physical sufferings and gain spiritual Page 5 strength from it and ultimately gaining the highest level of wisdom in the knowledge of self. To know one completely is the enlightenment of truth and more satisfying than all the luxuries of the world put together. But, that does not mean that Maitland is saintly. On the contrary, the protagonist has some strong negative elements in his personality that make him closer to a devil. Pleasure in Exploitation In his new found identity amidst the concrete emptiness, Maitland finds him the power to inflict calculated violence on other people (Proctor and Jane) and the pleasure that the abused derives from these activities. Here we see traces of Prospero in Maitland who uses his power to overcome and rule the other people marooned in the island. Maitland turns Proctor into his virtual slave with the help of bribery and wit. The acrobat is converted into a mule by the enterprising architect who carries him around in his destination. And finally he also dies serving his “master” which seemed the highest act of servitude. Thus, we see that Maitland is conniving and cunning who derives pleasure in hurting the under privileged. He would not be able to experience the same pleasures that emerge from cruelty in the sane and civilized world. Even though the prostitute leaves the island and the acrobat dies still the architect may hope that he would get other neighbors from the lower segment of the society with whom he could witness the same game of servitude and cruelty. Page 6 Island Named After Maitland The illiterate acrobat is also taught to write “Maitland Help” in a bid to save himself. But, fascinated by the letters Proctor fills up the whole concrete island with these words, thus, literally naming the architect as its new master and ruler. Secret Source of Food Unveiled Maitland also discovers the secret source of food (the garbage dump) with the help of Proctor. This solves one of his worries for survival and he feels more contended and satisfied by his life. To leave this place would mean joining back the same rat race with the same rush for power and money. He will again lose his identity in the growing noise and traffic of the world and be one in a crowd. He will no longer have time for himself and his musings. Hence, due to a number of combinations of reasons, Maitland felt perfectly happy to stay on in the concrete island and decided to postpone getting back to normal life. References: Ballard, J. G., Concrete Island. Read More