The Child in Time by Ian McEwan - Essay Example

The Child In Time by Ian McEwan described the trauma of a parent in losing a child. The protagonist’s experience of losing a child in the supermarketand his response to this kind of stressful event in his life was the main storyline. At one part of the novel, he was taken back to a time of the conversation of his parents whether or not to abort him. McEwan used the concept of a non-linear time and temporal displacement to show that time is a dynamic social construct and not an obstinate reality. This was a primary sign of its postmodernism wherein non-linear time and temporal displacement are important to the thematic structure and content of a writing. This was called the postmodern chronotype. “They are designed to problematize scientific, social and cultural constructions of time…associated with western concepts of reality” (Smethurst, 2000). McEwan used this style to show that time is a persuasive social construction rather an unquestionable reality. It showed that time is non-linear in the situation wherein his mother has perceived his presence during the time of the discussion of his abortion. This perceived presence actually influenced his mother’s decision. And this style became a tool for the thematic structure of the novel wherein time is proven to be an undefined progression. The past, the same as the future and present, did not provide a stable predetermined course of events. The past was unpredictable as the future holds. Time’s unpredictability and its indefinite nature is the main theme of the novel. Time could be too slow or too fast depending on one’s perception of it. And in this novel of time, time-hopping, or going back and forth from the past to the present and from the present to the past is a common style of showing the non-linear concept of time. The novel reveals how time can be variable. And no one can escape the existence of time. Going back in time, in the form of memories, is an attempt of recapturing the goodness of a childhood life. However, in the same way, it can be used to mask the sadness in time. Time is used also in the novel to show the importance of another theme in the story, a spiritual (and social) rebirth in the form of a birth of another child (Segal, 1992). As time became the vehicle of sadness and frustration, time also became his vehicle of hope and healing. The birth in McEwan’s novel represents not just a new life but also a new idea of fatherhood. Not only does fatherhood means providing financial assistance and protection to his family, it is also about caring and doing his share of childcare. The birth represents the birth of a modern father which realizes his part in the domestic responsibilities at home. Jackie Kay’s Trumpet, on the other hand, uses the postmodern concept of selfhood. It delves deep into the discontinuities of dominant sex-gender systems. “Ordinariness…is the source of the threat…to dominant sex-gender systems…(and) anatomically differentiated bodies need not…be the guarantee of heterosexuality. Neither, of course, need their cultural assumption of masculinity and femininity mask the(ir) homoerotic desire” (Hargreaves, 2003). The story revolves around Joss, a woman married to the same gender, who was discovered to be female only at the time of her death. In this alone, death is seen as a birth of the truth and understanding of homosexuality. One hides her homosexual nature because of the ridicule of the heterosexual society. Only in death can they reveal their true forms and only in death can they be released from the pretensions of their lives. They might not be pretending with themselves and their partners but they are hiding from the world their true form and nature. Birth and death here, then, represents the continuous birth and death of the nature of the homosexual everytime he takes of his bandages that binds his breasts. This is then a confirmation and a reconfirmation of his self and how he can be a woman and a man at the same time however he wants to and whenever he wants to. Cultural norms insist of a correlation between the biological sex and the cultural gender. However, there are instances where in a person there is a disconnect. In homosexuals, they have become a man and a woman at certain points of their lives. Much like in Kay’s story where Joss was given the chance to become a girl and a man all within his lifetime. Within the story were several voices narrated of Joss’ life. Here were her friends, family, wife, colleagues and even other people who are strangers to her during her living days. The narration of each one of them tells a cultural norm that Joss has or has not lived by. Each one of them preserved and constructed Joss through cultural norms and the boundaries of the social history, of transgender, of homosexuality and heterosexuality. The authenticity and deception, represented by the life and death of Joss, are the main themes of the story. Ambivalence prevents the truth to come out. And this concept of ambivalent and authenticity is being balanced in the story by the way how Kay relates the Joss’ lives through the voices of the people around her. In relation to the social construct of gender, this enlightens people how one can be deceptive and truthful at the same time. One can accept himself despite the differences it has with the norms of the society but this acceptance can only be for himself because the society has prejudice towards the abnormal, in this case, transgender and homosexuality. Joss was created by Kay to show that ambivalence is clear and present in the society, that it happens. Both Kay’s and McEwan’s works centered on the traumatic recollection and through this, the stories became more real and vivid to the reader’s imagination because they were able to see past the thoughts of the protagonist and the voices in the texts. There is the sense of disintegration in the life of each of the protagonists of the stories. But in the birth and death of each of them, they were reborn and freed from their traumatic experiences of their lives. Through the birth of another child, McEwan’s protagonist gained birth in a new fatherhood, destroying the norm of the responsibilities of parents, the father to protect and finance, the mother to nurture and care. Through the death of Joss, he was freed from the seemingly pretentious life he was living as a man when in fact his biological sex was a woman. This technique “enabled the characters to tell and retell their stories…and transform traumatic memory into narrative memory.” (Whitehead, 2004). Both presented new concepts and ideas that opposes the traditional belief and thinking of the traditional world, with McEwan, of a father, and with Kay, of a homosexual. Both works used postmodern styles and themes to create a realization for the society that what we have is a changing world and there are concepts that dies and ideas that rises from the death of traditional concepts and norms. Birth is the start of life. Death is the ultimate end. But in the works of McEwan and Kay, birth symbolizes the death of a traumatic memory and of fallacy and pretense. And death symbolizes the birth of a new concept, an opposition to the traditional, an opposition to the norms set by culture. And with these new concepts, there is a restructuring of the beliefs and perceptions of the people. References Hargreaves, Tracy. (2003). The Power of the Ordinary Subversive in Jackie Kay’s Trumpet. Feminist Review 74, 2-16. Kay, Jackie. (2000). Trumpet. Knopf Publishing Group. McEwan, Ian. (1992). The Child in Time. London:Vintage Books. Smethurst, Paul. (2000). The Postmodern Chronotype. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Segal, Lynne. (1990). Slow Motion. Rutgers University Press. Whitehead, Anne. (2004). Trauma Fiction. Edinburgh University Press. Read More